Mystery Plant

Earlier this year, when the 6th graders were studying plants, we received some plant donations that have since been basking in our classroom, blooming under the loving care of the 6th graders (they really like watering the plants).

One of these is a bigger bush-like plant.  I had no clue what kind of plant it was until about two days ago when I was preparing a science lesson for the 7th and 8th graders.  We were doing a whirlwind adventure tour of the plant section in their book; all in all about 30 pages in one day.  They'd just talked about this stuff last year and the year prior, so I thought we could do a skim of the information and call it good.

Sifting through the information, I came across a paragraph that was talking about a poinsettia plant.  It stays green until the nights get long and then some of the leaves turn a brilliant red.  Huh.  That weird bush thing in my classroom was starting to turn red in the centers of some of the leaf swirls.  The light bulb slowly flickered to life and DING!  We have a winner; the mystery plant is a mystery no longer! 

Yesterday, I gathered my 6th graders around and showed them my discovery.  They were very excited.  But probably not as excited as I was.  They did get excited about a different plant I brought with me to school today.

One reading group is reading a story about pomegranates and they had asked me to bring one in for the class.  Since I was at the store last night, I picked one up.  This was the first time I'd ever cut a whole pomegranate, so I looked up a YouTube video before school so I at least looked like I knew what I was doing.  It's actually not that difficult. 

You cut a circle around the top and bottom of the fruit, pull them out, cut down the sides of the fruit where the white peel bends into the center, pry the quarters apart and brush the seeds out.  If you do it in water, the white pulp will float away.  Pretty neat!  So the 6th graders got a kick out of seeing a pomegranate and eating it for the first time.  Only one of them had ever eaten it before. 

Now they all want to bring in exotic fruits on Mondays and have the Superstar Helper of the Day be in charge of bringing it in.  I told them they could if they wanted to, but they didn't have to.  So we'll see if any remember to bring something in.  Ah, the joys of learning!