Green Urban Lunchbox

Almost a month ago, we had the opportunity to have the Green Urban Lunchbox come to our school. Basically it is a former school bus that has been transformed into a greenhouse. They travel to schools teaching kids about plants and about where our food comes from. To read more about the Green Urban lunchbox and to see photos, check out this article. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera the day they were coming, so I don't have photos.

Before they came, we talked about where our food comes from...and that ultimately it all goes back to soil... either it is a plant that grows in the soil or it is an animal that eats plants grown in the soil or so on. Each child got a sticker to wear home that said, "I eat dirt." We also painted little plant pot with the parts of a plant and labeled the parts of a plant.

Then the bus came. They'd converted the hood of the bus into a chalkboard and they had the students draw and label the parts of a plant and what a plant needs to survive. Then we got to go into the bus and see the greenhouse and even sample edible leaves including mint, basil, lemon basil and a few others. Then we played a game that demonstrated how important roots are. First, they sprinkled colored chips on the grass around us and asked us to pick up a red. Then a blue. Then two whites. And so on. Each chip represented a nutrient the plant needs. We could not move our feet. Soon many plants couldn't reach the chips they needed and they died. Only a few plants were able to get what they needed. But then they explained that with roots, the roots spread out and reach into many directions so the plant can get nutrients that are farther away. So they repeated the activity but we were able to move and get nutrients. We, the plants, lived a much longer time.

Then each child got to plant swiss chard in their plant pot.

The next day, we did a follow up activity. First, we wrote thank you letters to the bus to tell them how much we learned. Then each child got a baggy of seeds. They were to try to match their seeds with some samples glued onto cards in the middle of their tables.

Then they sorted their seeds. Some kids sorted by size. Some by color. Some by shape. Some by type of seed, separating each kind. They examined the seeds using magnifying glasses. They shared how they had sorted their seeds with other students.

Then each child selected one type of seed, wrote down their name and the type of seed on an index card, and added a wet paper towel, the index card and the seed to a ziplock bag. We observed these over several days to see them begin to sprout.

They loved these activities and learned a lot about plants as well. It was a great series of lessons.

Writing Ideas

I recently read a great book entitled Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye. She has some great ideas to make writing fun and engaging for children. I've tried a few in my classroom and hope to try out a few more.

Here are a few that I liked:
1. Family Journal: Once a week or once a day or once a month, have the whole family sit down and write a journal entry to add to a family journal. Little kids can draw a picture and parents can scribe what they wrote. Put the date at the top and be sure to go back and reread the entries from time to time. One family I know does this yearly as an extended family at Christmas time...grandpa and grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins all write about the highlights of that year and add it to an annual book.

2. Write comic books.

3. Create your own board game.

4. Write a menu for a monster cafe. (Or a cafe for bugs or dinosaurs or whatever your child is interested in.)

5. Write letters and mail them.

6. Angry Alphabet book...this is an ABC book (so that encourages lots of writing) but all the characters in the book are angry, grumpy and unpleasant. Like A is for Angry, Annoying Adam the Ape. B is for boisterous, box-shaped bugs.

7. Silly Sentences (my students and my children love this.) First, divide a paper into 4 columns with 6 rows. In the first column, write down WHO..and be creative. Write down 6 different characters... perhaps, a buffalo, a teacher, a praying mantis, my dad, the alien, and the fire fighter. In the second column write down what each of them did (again, be creative). In the third column, write down where they did whatever they did. In the fourth column write down when each of them did whatever they did. Now grab a die and roll it. Let's say you get a four...so on a new sheet of paper, you write down the 4th character...my dad. Roll again...what did he do? If you get a 3, then it says he ate a leaf. Roll again...where...in a spaceship... Roll again...when... ten years ago. So here's your silly sentence...My dad ate a leaf in a spaceship ten years ago. They can then illustrate it or you can have them turn that one sentence into a whole story. Why was my dad in a spaceship eating a leaf? That could turn out to be one interesting story!

8. Make books in the shape of whatever your kid is interested in.

9.To teach summarizing and including important details, try "The 3 sentence challenge." Have students pick an object from a list of 4 related objects. Then in exactly 3 sentences they have to describe the object without using any of the words on the list. IF they describe it well enough that you know what they are describing, they get 5 points. Then switch roles.

10. She is so mean...this is a story with the meanest, nastiest person you can imagine. Take turns writing...each time adding something else to show mean and terrible your character is.

11. That's Good/That's Bad...need a spinner marked with "That's Good"..."That's bad"..."Lose a turn" and "That's Good That's Bad". Spin and if you land on that's good, you write a sentence where something good happens to your character and then end with "That's good." Then it is your child's turn and they spin...if they land on "That's Good. That's Bad." then they write first something good that happens to the character, followed by something bad happening to the character. (YOu might want to read Fortunately, Unfortunately to your child as well.)

12. Acrostic Poems

13. Is it true? Have your child write 3 statements...2 are true and 1 is not. can you guess which is true and which isn't. Now you do the same. Can they guess?

14. Bragging Contests... each person takes turns writing as many brags about a subject as they can...for example..how strong they are... I'm so strong I can lift you with 1 finger. 2nd person: I'm so strong I can pick up an elephant and toss it over my shoulder. And so on. Could also try I'm so rich... I'm so sneaky... I"m so smart... I'm so silly... I'm so happy

15. Make lists...real ones or fun ones (for example, what would you take on a rocket ship through the galaxy)...(What rides do you want to go on at Lagoon?)
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Bravo to Peggy Kaye for all of her wonderful ideas...and there are many more in her book! Thank you!!!

One of my favorite writing projects that my second graders always love is to do How To books. They pick something they know how to do and write all the steps down. They might write how to brush your teeth or how to ride a bike. The love writing the steps and illustrating it. They especially love it if I encourage them to pick a "fun" topic like "How to Make the Teacher (or mom) Mad" or "How to Be Gross in the Cafeteria" and they can write about all the things they aren't supposed to do... They also like "How to be Teacher's Pet" or "How to Make Mom Happy". Giving them permission to write about being naughty brings many of them great pleasure...and gets them anxiously engaged in writing...often a LOT more than is typical on other projects.