Transcript

I like to make as many cross-curricular connections as possible. Its really great when you are studying something, to be able to tie in art, math, language, because then students really start to see how things are connected to one another. 

As part of the Habitats and Communities unit, students learned how to grow a bean. We talked about this and we read a story on how one bean can actually feed a family. As a class, we had a discussion around how plants grow best. We talked about water and light, and the majority of the students decided that those were two essential things to have in order for their seed to grow. They were then asked to change one variable. That meant that they were taking their second plant and putting it somewhere else in the classroom where it would not receive natural light or water. 

Once the plant started to grow, of course, the one that was receiving light and water, students were asked to create a sketch. This was a difficult task for some because for the first time, they were being asked to sketch something that was in front of them. Something that was alive and something that would require them to think about all of the different angles. They also were asked to draw the roots, the soil, the glass - everything that was involved. 

As you can see, they did a great job at completing this task. Once our plants started to grow, I read the students Jack and the Beanstalk. It was a great opportunity to engage students in the learning and for them to understand this story, one which many of them had never heard. It was a way to get them to laugh and make those connections, and build that sense of fantasy in the classroom. 

Students started to make connections even after we were finished the science unit. During Social Studies, we learned about early societies where a lot of people would grow various vegetables and plants in their gardens. Here students really started to understand how communities lived off the things that they grew.

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