The importance of flowers!

What we've learned so far during our Bulbs and Seeds Inquiry:

"Bulbs and seeds are different." A.M.

"A pit protects the seed." E.H.

"A pod protects the seed so animals don't eat them!" W.E.

"Bulbs and onions are from the same family because they are both white inside." W.E.

"Onions can grow from seeds or bulbs." E.S.

"Bulbs have food inside them that make them grow without soil." A.P.

"Some plants need soil, and some need just water to grow." I.R.

With all the knowledge we gained, we were still theorizing about how seeds are made. We decided to read a few books to help support our understanding further.

I then asked the students to use some of the knowledge we learned from the books we read and apply it to their own theories of how seeds are made.

"Plants make pollen, then the pollen turns into seeds and then the seeds fall to the ground and new plants are made." C.M.

"Pollen is dust and it flies onto the stigma of another flower and makes a seed." W.E.

"I think the plant flower makes the seed. Then the seed goes down through the stem, and then the roots, and makes more seeds." A.M.

"I think the flower makes seeds in the middle, then the bee collects the pollen and then weed pecker  put the seed in the ground and it starts all over again, it's a cycle!" M.P.

"I think that onions, carrots, and radishes grow flowers and then we get seeds." B.S.

"Seeds drop from the top of the plan." O.S.

"The important part of a flower is that it makes the plant grow." G.M.

"From the pollen in the flower, there's tiny seeds and the seeds fall from the flower." A.T.

"The seed from the pollen can go on to the stigma and then before it dies, the seeds go to the ground and it makes new plants beside it." G.B.

"The stigma is the sticky part in the middle of the flower. It sticks pollen and the seeds are made." E.E.

"Maybe the bees take the pollen from the flowers and then they bring it to another flower then it grows." K.W.

A few students had new wonder questions for the group:

"How does the pollen get made from the flower?" C.M.

"Why do bees come in the summertime and take pollen? Why does the book show bees? Maybe because they suck up nectar and the pollen is stuck on the body?" W.E.

"How do flowers get pollen?" I.P.

I can see a new theme of questions arising! How exciting!

As our indoor seeds continue to sprout and grow, B.S. came up to me one day and asked, "What are we going to do with our plants?". I thought this was a great question to discuss with the class so we can figure it out together.

"We can plant them outside, like where the dirt is. I can make an X of where we can plant them." E.S.

"Soil has food for plants to grow. Dirt doesn't. We can plant seeds outside and see if they'll grow?" E.H.

"We can find an area that has dirt and we can plant there." C.D.

"We can plant near the tree in Sydney's Playground?" A.M.

"We can go for a walk and get a decision of right near the window or near where we go home?" G.B.

"We should plant somewhere where we get sun!" A.M.

"We should plant them when it's warm." M.P.

"We should find an area where no one gets to wreck it." W.E.

What wonderful and exciting ideas! We are so excited to make plans for our outside garden! Stay tuned for new updates! We may need some help!!!

Make your thoughts and wonders heard!

Beside our bulb and seed inquiry documentation display, we have placed post-it-notes and pencils for family, staff, and students to write down any thoughts or wonders they may have about bulbs, seeds, plants, etc. We already had some parent and staff wonders!

We're excited to read them all and try our best to investigate them further!

Bulb and Seed Inquiry documentation board display!

Next time you are in the school, please stop by and take a look at our new documentation board display.  The students are so proud of their learning thus far! Amazingly, new explorations and investigations continue to immerse! 

"But how are seeds made?!"

The students have been observing, theorizing, and asking further questions about the seeds and bulbs currently planted in our classroom.  

They are on a planting frenzy!  Digging and extracting seeds from their snacks and lunches that they want to plant!  As well, they are bringing seeds from home in ziploc bags with the sole purpose to plant them!  O.S. gave us a planting kit which included soil and seeds to plant radishes, carrots, and onions.  We planted everything!

We decided to gather together and share our thoughts about all the things we had planted.

“What do you see, think, or wonder about the things we have planted?” Mrs. Ralph

“I think a pit doesn’t grow roots, but seeds do and bulbs do too!” E.S.

“What makes you say that E?” Mrs. Ralph

“Because the avocado pit is not growing roots. The bulb here is, and the seeds here, have roots too. I don’t know if it’s true, but bulbs and seeds are maybe from the same family!” E.S.

“I think an olive is a fruit and has a pit because it grows on a tree, and vegetables have to grow on a vine or a bush and they have seeds.” A.M.

“Why is a seed small and a pit big?” C.M.

“I think that seeds grow under the ground and pits grow inside the fruits or vegetables.  The pit is so small when it begins and then it gets bigger inside them.” A.M.

“I think that the avocado was big, so the seed is big.” M.P.

“A pit is small and the avocado is bigger than the seed.” K.E.

“Maybe the seeds grow under the soil and there’s a pit inside the seed and it helps the seed grow bigger.” C.D.

“I think a seed and a bulb are different because a bulb grows much bigger and a seed grows much smaller because bugs like to eat seeds not bulbs.” B.S.

“How can we know if this (avocado) is a seed or a pit?” C.M.

“Does anyone have anything to add?” Mrs. Ralph

 “I think they’re not all growing because they’re not all the same shape and size.” P.I.

“They’re different plants, so they grow differently.” A.P.

We decided to plant the radishes, carrots, and onions, leaving a few seeds behind for us to remember what they looked like.

During lunch, B.S. had the following wonder question:

“How come I can’t see any seeds in my carrot?”

“I think the seeds pop out of the green part of the carrot.” O.S.

“I think the seeds are really small.” C.D.

“Yea, I think they’re so small you can’t see them.” G.M.

“What about the onion and radish?” A.M.

“How can we find out what’s inside?” Mrs. Ralph

“We can try to cut a carrot, or radish, or onion, and we can look carefully and see.” D.S.

The following day we had a radish, an onion, and many carrots ready to be dissected!

After the radish was cut, the students observed that it contained no seeds inside.

“I think the seeds come through the roots.” W.E.

“I think the stem holds the seeds inside.” E.S.

The students also didn’t see seeds inside the carrot.

“Why do you think you don’t see any seeds inside?” Mrs. Ralph

“Maybe when they grow, they cut the stem open, that’s where the seeds are.” M.P.

“Maybe it’s magic how we get seeds?” H.S.

“Maybe they are hiding and you can’t see them because they are so tiny.” D.C.

Lastly, we cut open the onion.

“It’s like the bulb plant inside!” M.P.

“There’s lines inside.” C.D.

“I think that onions are bulbs because it looks the same like the Amaryllis we cut open.” D.S.

“You can peel layers just like the bulb plants.” A.P.

“It looks the same as the bulb when we cut it open.” W.E.

“Where did the onion seeds that we planted come from?” Mrs. Ralph

“Maybe they make them in a factory by taking pieces and putting them under a machine.” A.M.

“Maybe we got the seeds form under the soil?” I.S.

“Maybe the worms made the seeds.” A.P.

Students' theories on how seeds are made.

To further support our growing wonder questions and theories, we read a few books including “A Seed Is Sleepy” by: Dianna Hutts Aston.  

“What do you think a seed is sleepy means?” Mrs. Ralph

“In the winter, the seeds go inside the tree and sleep.” D.S.

“In the winter, when the seed is crumbly, it is sleeping.” G.B.

“It sleeps before it sprouts.” M.P.

“When you get a seed it is inside a shell. When it is in the shell it is sleeping and waiting to grow.” B.S.

“They land on the ground and go deeper to sleep and wait for spring.” E.S.

As we read on, the students noticed all the different seeds and plants that were pictured in the book.

“The seeds are different because they grow all different things.” E.H.

“I think that seeds are on top of the flower (pointing to sunflower picture in book).” A.P.

“They need to take their time to sprout.” M.P.

“How do they grow?” K.W.

“They (seeds) tell us how beautiful they are going to look and how colourful they are going to be.” I.R.

“Some seeds are secretive and hide inside pods.” A.P.

“What are pods?” Mrs. Ralph

“A pod is what protects the seed.” O.S.

“They have pods because they need protection.” A.P.

“If there are different amount of seeds, they are held in different parts of a plant.” E.H.

As we continued reading, A.P. noticed something in the book and shouted “We have this!” He ran to the light table shelf and grabbed a pod from the basket!  “This is the same one like in the book (pointing to the Indian Almond pod and seed picture)!” “The pod is split in half and it holds three seeds on each side which means it holds six seeds altogether!” A.P.

Investigating different seeds using clay.

What perfect timing! During one of our discussions, Mr. Miller came into our class holding something very interesting.  He told us he found it in the playground but had no idea what it was?  He then left it with us to investigate.

“I think we should go on a trip and find the tree in the spring when it’s green!” A.P.

Lots of excitement filled the air as observations and theories were made:

“The seeds are long so it needs to have a long pod for protection!” W.E.

“The pod protects the seed from the animals who want to eat them.” O.S.

This was a good time to introduce an iPad application called Leafsnap.  This free app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves.  Leafsnap contains beautiful high-resolution images of leaves, flowers, fruit, petiole, seeds, and bark created by the conservation organization Finding Species (http://leafsnap.com/)

We used the map function on the app to locate our school and it generated all the surrounding trees close by. One by one we viewed each type of tree seed in hopes of discovering what Mr. Miller gave us.  As soon as we came to a tree called Catawaba and viewed its seeds, we knew we had found our match!

“We were right, the seeds are in the long pods!” E.S.

“Trees make seeds.” N.S.

“There is a seed inside a pit!” E.H.

“A pod is like a shell!” E.E.

“But how are seeds made? When the earth was first made and there were no seeds, how were they made? How did they get there? Seeds don’t magically appear! Who made the seeds first?” A.P.

Stay tuned as our wonderings grow and our knowledge blossoms!

Seeds, Pits, and Bulbs...I wonder what we'll see?

We obtained another Amaryllis bulb and cut the bulb in half to find out if the bulb contained seeds.  The following dialogue stemmed from this experience:

“I wonder why the flowers that grow in your house they have seeds and Amaryllises have bulbs?” G.B.

“Maybe to make smaller plants you use seeds and to make taller plants you use bulbs.” E.H.

“That is a great hypothesis!  Is there any way we can find out if E.H. is correct?” Mrs. Ralph

“The Amaryllis white didn’t make a tall flower at all, it just made a tiny flower.” B.S.

“I think to make it grow bigger is to give it more water everyday.” E.H.

“Veins hold water and then it goes into the bulb and then it takes it all the way up to the top of the flower and then at the top the flower blooms!” E.S.

“Also, I think the instruction meant that if we put the Amaryllis in water they don’t grow that tall, I think that that’s what the instructions meant that if you put an Amaryllis in water it won’t grow that high because they didn’t get a lot of energy in water like from the soil.” B.S.

“I think it’s skin, it has little tiny bumps on it.” N.S.

“Why do you think they have bumps?” Mrs. Ralph

“Cause there’s little tiny seeds inside the skin part.” N.S.

“I am wondering what makes the seed grow?” A.P.

“I am wondering if inside the seed, how does the seed make different kinds of flowers or fruits?” A.P.

“I think cause maybe the roots maybe help make it grow.” E.E.

“Maybe when the bulb sucks water up, the lines are the strainers so all the water would go through but stuff like if there’s dirty stuff in the water the dirty stuff would get stuck.” B.S.

“So like a purifier you mean?  Can you tell me which lines you’re talking about? Mrs. Ralph

“The lines, like those lines across.  The water goes down the lines and all the yucky parts stay right above the lines, it’s like a strainer.” B.S.

“I think those skinny lines make the plant help grow.” I.R.

“I think these are skin and they have little bumps.” O.S.

“I think when you put the dirt already the seeds go away.” W.E. (referring to the dirt that was in with the Amaryllis bulb)

“Maybe the green part is maybe the skin.” E.E.

“Can you show me which green part you mean?  You think it’s the skin?  And what do you think is does for the bulb plant?” Mrs. Ralph

“Maybe it helps is grow.” E.E.

“Maybe the little tiny white things in the dirt there’s seeds, there’s little tiny ones.” M.P.

“Where do you think the seeds are?” Mrs. Ralph

“In the dirt.” M.P.

“So does that mean that the seeds would be in the bulb plant or appear outside the bulb plant?” Mrs. Ralph

“Outside.” M.P.

“How do you think they got there?” Mrs. Ralph

“Because when you took it out you shaked it and some seeds fell out.” M.P.

“We can make people out of bulb plants.” W.E.

“We can try that!” Mrs. Ralph

In the days that followed, students started to give us seeds from the fruits and vegetables in their lunches, as well as bringing more seeds and pits from home, all in the hopes of planting them to see what would happen. 

Today, we had our planting extravaganza!  We planted seeds, pits, and parts of the Amaryllis bulb we dissected to see if it too would grow!

I wonder what we’ll see in the next little while…

Join us on our current inquiry as we continue to explore what seeds are?  Where do seeds come from?  Is a bulb a seed?  What about a pit?  How do plants grow?

Investigating Bulb Plants

We purchased three Amaryllis bulbs as well as two Hyacinth bulbs to plant with the class.  We showed the students all five boxes that contained the bulbs and they immediately were excited to plant all of them!  One by one, we followed the instructions and created labels to stick on each container noting the difference in colour and type of bulb we were planting.  We planted a white, red and white swirl, and red Amaryllis, as well as a pink and purple Hyacinth.  

During this process, the students formulated many observations, hypotheses, and wonder questions:

“They’re all bulbs but they use different materials to grow.” A.P. (referring to the Amaryllis bulbs placed in soil and the Hyacinth bulbs placed in water.)

“When I was looking at the white and the red and white swirl Amaryllis, I noticed both had red dots on their bulbs.  I wonder why?  All the other ones don’t.” B.S.

“One Hyacinth is already starting to sprout!  I think it’s the pink one!” G.B.

“The pink Hyacinth roots has started and the purple one has not.” D.S.

“Why is the purple bulb round and we can see it, and the Amaryllis bulbs we can’t see the bulbs?” M.P.

“Why are the Hyacinth bulbs in water and glass and the Amaryllis bulbs are in soil?” E.S.

The students continued to observe the bulb plants daily noting their quick changes from day to day:

“The white Amaryllis used to be leaning and now it rised up.” A.M.

“I think the white Amaryllis was scared and that’s why it was tipped over. R.W.

“I saw that the white Amaryllis was growing.” E.E.

“I don’t know why the white Amaryllis has a brown thing around it on the bottom?” C.M.

“Why is there something squishy pushing up from the Amaryllis?” W.E.

“The white Amaryllis is sprouting!” D.S.

“The squishy part is popping up!” W.E.

“The pink Hyacinth has longer roots.” E.H.

“I see a purple stripe on top of the white Amaryllis.” A.P.

“The Hyacinths have the same roots because they’re the same colour.” R.H.

“The Amaryllis white is the biggest, the other two are small.” K.E.

“Why does the pink Hyacinth have more roots than the purple one when they’re the same?” O.S.

“Why is the white Amaryllis bigger than the red one?” K.W.

“Why is the white Amaryllis the bigger than the other ones?” C.M.

“Because we planted the white one first.” E.S.

“The pink Hyacinth is sprouting and going green.” A.M.

“Why is the red, and the red and white swirl Amaryllis the same height and not growing?” H.S.

“I see that the pink Hyacinth is growing more roots, they are longer than the other one.” P.I.

“Why is the pink Hyacinth sprouting and the purple one not?” O.S.

“The pink in is growing faster because it’s taller.” A.T.

“The pink Hyacinth is growing faster because it has a green point.” K.W.

“The red Amaryllis is the tallest.” B.K.

“Why do the Hyacinths both have roots but only one is sprouting?” A.M.

The students loved using their “measuring sticks” to track the growth of each bulb, documenting their daily tracking on our bulb plant chart.

“Today I measured the Amaryllis white and it was really high.  I remember last week it was a little shorter, but when we came back on Monday it was a little taller.” B.S.

"Do all bulb plants require the same things to grow?" Mrs. Ralph

“The Hyacinth grows in a jar of water and the Amaryllis grows in soil.” D.S.

“Why do you think that is?” Mrs. Ralph

“I think it will grow because it has a lot of water.” I.R.

“I think it’s going to grow because it has a lot of water.” H.S.

“Maybe it will grow faster than both the small Amaryllis.” R.W.

“Why don’t we take one of the hyacinths out and put it in dirt?” C.M.

“Yea!  We can get another Hyacinth and try and see if it grows in soil or not?” A.M.

Taking C.M. and A.M’s suggestion, we decided to create an experiment and place another Amaryllis bulb in water, and place the pink Hyacinth bulb in soil to see what would happen.  The students continued to observe the bulb plants daily, and document their observations through various mediums (e.g., drawing, writing, sketching, painting, and conversing).

“The white Amaryllis has more flowers.  They have six petals.” A.T.

“The Amaryllis in the water is getting softer because the roots look puffy.” N.S.

“The red Amaryllis is getting taller than the stick.” E.E.

“Why is the red Amaryllis tallest now if the white Amaryllis was tallest first?” O.S.

“Why is the water not clear?” G.M.  (referring to the Amaryllis in water)

“The Amaryllis in water looks the same as before.  It hasn’t grown and it’s more green.” A.P.

“Why is this one opening (pointing to the red Amaryllis), and this one dying (pointing to the white Amaryllis), and this one is still closed?" C.D. (pointing to the red and white swirl Amaryllis) 

“I think the red and white swirl Amaryllis is growing like grass.  It has six leaves.” H.S.

“I see the roots are falling in the water.” E.H. (referring to the Amaryllis in water)      

“It’s not growing, it’s the same size as when we took it out of the box.  I think it has too much water.” O.S. (referring to the Amaryllis in water)

“I smelled it and it didn’t smell very good.  Maybe because it’s not growing?” E.H. (referring to the Amaryllis in water)

“The water is dirty.  Maybe we need to put in some new water?” N.S. (referring to the Amaryllis in water)

“The bulb is getting bumpy because it’s drinking water.” (referring to the Amaryllis in water)

“Why is the water dirty in the Amaryllis jar and the Hyacinth has clear water?” D.S.

“I think the Amaryllis in water has dirty roots and made the water dirty.” B.S.

One morning, as the students walked into class, they noticed a big change in the white Amaryllis in soil.

“I think we touched it too much and it’s dying!” G.B.

“I think so too!” D.S.

“I don’t think we gave it enough water.” A.P.

“We kept turning the pot to look at it and it’s not facing the light!” E.H.

“When we put it on the shelf at night it doesn’t get enough light from the Atrium like it does on the table where it has more life.” E.S.

“Why is the white Amaryllis starting to crumble?” G.B.

“I think we touched the petals too much.” M.P.

“Maybe it’s too hot in the room because of the lights and it started to wilt.” B.S.

“I don’t think that the white Amaryllis likes the lights because it’s not the sun.” W.E.

During one of our knowledge building circles, E.S. stated: “There’s no seeds inside the bulb.  It’s actually like a bulb within a bulb!”

“Yes there is!  There’s seeds inside the bulb!” G.B.

“This is like an argument.” E.S.

"It’s actually a debate.  A debate means that there are two different opinions being stated."  Mrs. Ralph

"Maybe we can buy another bulb and we don’t plant it, instead we can cut it and we can see what’s inside!” E.H.

“Maybe there’s seeds in one compartment and non in the other.” A.P.

“I think the bulb has seeds inside it too.” K.W.

"What is a seed? What is a bulb? Are they the same thing?" Mrs. Ralph

“Seeds are tiny.  Bulbs are big.” E.H.

More exciting investigations and revelations to come!