Plants in out Midst #3 - Dandelion Jelly

"It 's a pretty flower," said one.
"But it is a weed!" said another.

What is a weed? Are weeds flowers? Water group children looked up the meaning of a weed and it says that a weed is a plant that grows where it is unwanted. It competes with other plants and the lawn for water and nutrients. However, people have different opinions about dandelions and there are many who love dandelions and do not consider them as weeds. The children were surprised to hear that some people use it in their cooking. Lucas said matter of factly: "Yes, I drink dandelion tea."  We searched on the internet for dandelion recipes and found that there were recipes for Batter Fried Dandelion Blossoms, Dandelion Green Salad, Dandelion Jelly and many more. The children were very curious as to what dandelion jelly is and what it would taste like. To find out we had to make it. The children rushed to the playground enthusiastically to pick the dandelions for our recipe. Even though it took a long time to  make the jelly, the children patiently waited for the jelly to set. When the jelly was ready the children couldn't wait to slurp the jelly into their mouths. They were amazed with how good the jelly tasted. It was worth all the wait!

Plants in our Midst #2: Parts of a Plant

A few days after our collage was finished, Allye noticed something different in the area that she worked on. There were dandelion seeds! The children put their brains together to try and solve this mystery. First, Allye remembered that she glued a closed flower and not dandelion seeds. The children started to ask many questions. How could that happen? Did the bud grow? Theo noticed that there is dirt where the dandelion seeds are and he said the dirt helped it grow. From our discussion, I decided to start talking about the parts of a plant and their jobs. The children got their shovels and buckets ready and we went outside to dig for some wild flowers. We kept in mind that we need the whole plant so that means we have to dig up the roots too. 

We brought the flowers back to school and identified the roots, stem, leaves and flower. When the children were familiar with each part, we dissected it. Below are their observations about a dandelion:

Alfie: There's no pollen.

Molly: The stem is really sticky.

Allye: Inside the root, it's white.

Theo: The root is very hard.

Plants in our Midst #1: Walk in the Forest

As one of our provocation activities for the children to our new unit of inquiry - Plants in our Midst, I took the Water group on a walk in the forest. As we walked, the children collected things from the trail that seemed interesting to them and many questions came up.

How can we tell when a fruit is ripe?
Alfie initiated the interest of eating the huckleberries; however, some children noticed that they were green and felt the berries are not edible when they are green. Then Alfie shared his knowledge with us by telling us when a fruit is green it means it isn't ripe and when it is red, it is ripe. When the fruit turns brown, it is rotten! We wonder if this applies to all fruit.

How do animals use plants and what are the animals living in Pacific Spirit Park?
We found an empty acorn on the path and wondered what happened to it. Theo thought maybe a squirrel ate it. Angela thought maybe it's a bug's home.

How do animals use plants to camouflage themselves in the forest?
As we were walking Molly heard some sounds and wondered what is making that sound. It sounded like a bird but what kind of bird is it and where is it?

Are weeds flowers? 
Allye noticed and showed the other children the different wild flowers in the forest. When Alfie saw the dandelions, he said: "Dandelions are not flowers, they are weeds." Some of the children asked what are weeds and some of them insisted that dandelions are flowers.

The children created a forest collage with the things they picked from the forest.

Building Together #8: Community Scenario

Molly the firefighter

Being a good audience

The police with the robbers

Nurse Angela and Doctor Allye

We ended our Building Together unit by putting on a community scenario for the other 3 groups. The Water group children worked together to create a scene in the community and decided on a problem that happened at the scene. They decided who in the community can help and how they solved the problem. They made a list of people involved in the scenario and the props/costumes needed for the people and places. The children were all great actors/actresses playing their role!

Building Together #7: A Visit from Constable Steve Hanuse

The children were extremely excited with Constable Steve Hanuse's visit to Creative Minds. They had tons of questions and stories to share with the Constable but first he told us a little about himself.

Constable Steve Hanuse has been serving at the Vancouver Police Department for the past 23 years and his job responsibilities included: general patrol, making sure everyone is safe;  answered phone calls at the 911 call centre and for 7 and a half years worked as a police dog handler. He is currently a liaison officer on the Musqueam reserve.

Below are some of the children's questions and comments:
Roy: Hey, where is your badge?
Maddi: My uncle is a police officer.
Sofia: Do you have a police cat?
Allye: Do you put people in jail?
Trystan: What do you do?
Deb: Did you always want to be a police officer?

Showing his badge

Grace: Someone stole my dad's bike!
Paxton: Why do you need a gun?
Constable Steve: That's an interesting question, Paxton. It is part of my uniform and it's there just in case anything happens. During the 23 years I have been a police officer, I have never had to use my gun. My most useful tool is my mouth. I'm able to tell other people what to do with my words. 

The children showed their appreciation and respect by giving Constable Steve a round of applause before he left!

Building Together #6 - It Takes a Community!

Firefighter puppet

Police officers

After our visit to the ice cream shop, Alfie had some concerns for the safety of the ice cream shop and it caused the other children to start pondering too. Below are their questions:

What happens if the ice cream machine is broken?
What if the wires of the ice cream machine catch fire?
What if a robber come and takes the machine?
What happens when the ice cream store runs out of the ingredients to make the ice cream?

We looked at each question and the children thought of solutions.
Alfie: A repair man can come fix the broken machines.
Molly: Firefighters can put out the fire.
Theo: Police will catch the bad guys who took the machines.
Allye: We can just go to the grocery store to buy more ingredients to make ice cream!

Fire safety

In the end, the children realized that it takes a community to help run and maintain an ice cream store!

Building Together #5 - Gardening

Sponge dabbing the foliage

Blowing through a straw to create
 tree trunks and branches

Adding the bushes

The children examined the Water community and noticed that it was missing trees and flowers. I asked the children who plants trees and flowers in the community? "A Gardener!" they all answered.

We read Mrs. Spitzer's Garden by Edith Pattou and learned that gardeners are responsible for growing and maintaing all types of plants. They also need to give the plants lots of love and care.

Making a garden

The children turned into gardeners by adding plants to our Water community. They added blackberry, raspberry and blueberry bushes. Using the blow paint technique, the children created grand, old trees. Some of them even made a garden for their house.