Project Update

Our project has been an interesting one so far! A few weeks ago we planted our beans in CD cases so that we could watch the seed grow from top to bottom. A week later, we realized that this planting method was not going to work. A lot of our seeds were not growing and began to turn white and fuzzy. We discussed what the white fuzzy stuff could be and how it got there. It was tough to come up with factual reasoning because we gave our plants everything that it needed to grow: peat, water, seed and light! After further discussion, we decided to seek out information by looking on the internet.  A website we found told us that the white fuzzy growth was fungus and that it was caused from a combination of too much water and not enough air. Considering the fungus was not allowing our beans to grow, the Kinders came up with a solution to replant our seeds into small pots. The pots would allow the seed and peat to breath and we could adjust our problem of over watering. This however, was a valuable experience because we learned that our actions can effect other living things such as plants!

Over the weekend, some of our plants began to grow and some of them did not! The Kinders gained the responsibility of watering their own plant with a spray bottle during explore time. Yesterday, however, we ran into yet again, another problem. Every morning/ afternoon, we noticed that the soil was very dry . Our experts next door, Ms. Leach's grade two horticulturist, told us that they only need to water their plants twice a week. If we only watered our plants twice a week, there would be no way that our bean would grow. We were finding that we needed to water our plants once, if not twice everyday! We needed to figure out how we could trap the right amount of moisture into our pots. Some of the Kinders had excellent ideas as to how we could accomplish a moisture trap, however, we concluded it may be best if we look in a book to find an idea. Our classroom library has many books on gardening projects and one of the Kinders found a project where someone was growing a seed and trapped the moisture by putting a glass over top of their pot. We discussed what condensation was and how the cup would work because it acts as a trap to keep the water into our pots after watering it. At explore time the Kinders watered their plants and trapped the moisture by adding a cup over top. Next week will be interesting to reveal if our traps worked or not!

Here are some pictures of the progression of our project:

CD cases

Replanted into pots

Trapping the moisture in

A.M

P.M

- Ms.K