Planting, Venn Diagrams, and Leaves

The beginning of the week was not the best due to the horrible flu going on around campus. I was determined to be better by the time Friday came. I was so excited to be able to go to Camden on Friday. I kept thinking that the morning was going to be cold and miserable, but once I walked into the greenhouse I felt really happy and warm. Going around in the large circle and saying our names and doing a dance move was a lot of fun and a great way to break the ice between us and the 5th graders. I was paired with two fifth graders and a volunteer student (I won’t be using their names in this post). The four of us were a speed team as we were planting. As we planted I kept asking the fifth graders if they had planted seeds before or the types of vegetables they liked to eat. The two of them kept telling me how much they hated eggplant and I just kept thinking how much I wanted to cook them eggplant the way I make it and have them try it.

After lunch my group from the morning came together to head over to the school. There was another boy who didn’t have a partner so he joined our group to head over. In the classroom I was so excited to start the lesson plan that Simona, smilewithsh, and I put together. Our group was very talkative and they seemed to enjoy the activities we put together. I was really impressed by them when we started our Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting humans and plants. The discussion was great and then all of a sudden an ant was crawling in the center of our circle. Michael at the CfET joined our circle and decided to create a third category/circle on the Venn Diagram labeled Ant. He then helped us start a discussion of how all three of them were connected or how two of them were connected. The final activity where we handed out leaves to all the students was the best. Some of them were really excited to write on the leaves and personally paste them onto the tree.

I really enjoyed going to Camden and working with the students. I hope I can do more of this in the future.