BELGRADE — Cara Coro’s, Sarah Reynolds and Heather Holinger fifth-grade classes worked collaboratively.

In science, partners are growing plants in both the cafeteria and the classroom. The teams are working through the scientific process while results are recorded in a scientists notebook. Students are learning about variables, and they each have chosen something to change to see its effects on plant growth. Each group does not know what seed they were given, hence, secret garden.

All three fifth-grade classes are reading “The Secret Garden.”

We are all working on literary elements with our students as we read this book (character analysis, figurative language, plot, point of view, etc.) . My class will have a bulletin board on display showing what we have learned (in the form of a garden). Quotes are in the cloud, sun is the setting, character carrots, figurative language four-leaf clovers, etc. We are focusing on the reading skill of fluency for this unit, and all of our supplemental reading materials are plant/garden related.

Reynolds’ and Holinger’s classes choose and researched a plant to write an expository piece on. The students used the background knowledge to write a personal narrative about their plant. These will be on display on Holinger’s bulletin board.

Coro’s fifth-grade class design their own secret carden — ‘Budding Botanist.’ The hands-on experiment had students look at the plant world and create an understanding of plants, their structure and their role in our economy.

Lab teams will be established to conduct one of the following experiments: Germination study, exploring germination, comparing germination, a flower study, photosynthesis. Scientific process will be followed, lab report written, and a presentation to our Board of Botanists.

Copy the Story Link