A Plant's Needs

Today was our first day back from Spring Break. Last week, I only went in to my classroom once, to find our garden dead, of course. I decided not to discard the sad garden. Before break, the children and I talked about what a plant needs to grow and since our garden had no sunlight nor any water, I took this as a learning opportunity for the classes. We talked about why the plants died, what we could have done to prevent this, and the importance of sunlight and water. I gave the students a chance to feel the crunchy, shriveled up plants and we compared them to the soft, perky alive sprouts we once had. During recess, I wheeled the garden to our grassy area and dumped the plants out, where we touched the roots and discussed their job. Luckily, there were no tears over our "loss." (Sigh of relief.)