Garden Creations

Our inquiry into Flowers began back in December when I brought in a mystery item. The bulb came in a glass jar and the students immediately began to ask questions about what it was.

Mystery Item!

As time went on, the students noticed that this mystery thing began to grow roots from the bottom down into the vase.


Several students drew pictures of what they saw and we began to read books about plants and flowers.


After the holiday break, we came into the classroom with a wonderful surprise awaiting us. Our bulb had sprouted flowers for us to see and smell! Oh what a wonderous addition to our classroom.

Draw pictures of what we see.

Watercolour paintings of "Looking Closely"

We have continued to watch and wonder throughout the various phases of our bulb's life cycle; documenting our learning along the way.

In March one of our kiddos decided she wanted to see what was inside the dead flower heads of our plant. So she began rubbing the dead flowers between her fingers and was surprised to find seeds coming out.

Opening up the dead flowers to see what's inside.

We soon began wondering about different kinds of plants and I brought in some other bulbs and rhizomes for the kiddos to look at and plant.

Reading Non-fiction books to learn about plants.

Looking Closely at different plants and their roots/bulbs/rhizomes

We spent a day moving our original bulb from its glass vase into a pot. We also planted several other plants we were beginning to accumulate.

Planting our bulb in soil to see what happens next.

Checking out the inside of a bulb.

Planting an orange seed from our snack.

Planting more bulbs.

Will they be the same type of flower?

As we continued to document our learning, a question came up about how some of the plants grow leaves fast than others. This lead into measuring the heights of the leaves. I set out several different manipulates for measuring. The kiddos immediately grabbed the rulers and looked at the heights. This lead to a quick mini lesson on how to put the "0" of the ruler at the base of what we want to measure. The kiddos also had experiences working with cuisenaire rods to measure the various plant heights.

Measuring with a ruler.

Learning to measure starting at the "0"

Measuring with cuisenaire rods.

We have now moved our Flower Inquiry into our sandbox in order to make room for watercolour paintings of what we would like a flower garden to look like.

New location for our plants!

Create a garden and paint it!

Stay tune for the next blog post on all the beautiful garden spaces are kiddos are creating.
Perhaps our next step will be to help clean up and plant in our own Eco Garden outside.