Corn and Hockey

This week we are finishing our third reading unit. It involved reading informational texts on corn. Students worked whole-group, with partners, and individually to identify a variety of aspects in the reading, including: subjective vs. objective point of view, finding main details to support a main idea, and analyzing graphs which accompanied the text to see how they relate and add to the reading. In hockey, we play our first hockey game, rotating students into the game every 5 minutes.
 

The Wheat is Growing....Interestingly

 After seven days of having half our wheat seeds in total darkness and half in light, we observed them for the first time. Interestingly, all grew, even those in total darkness.  Students learned today that the seeds have a stored energy as carbohydrates. This allows the seeds to sprout and grow for a certain time before photosynthesis is needed to produce their sugar (food).  It was suggested by a student that we switch them to see what happens. So, we created a control and have 3 plants continuing in their normal fashion, but have switch 3 from light to total darkness and 3 from total darkness to light.  Students will learn that, in this stage, they can begin to produce chlorophyll and start turning from their yellow color to green when presented with light. We will see the results in a few days.