CitySprouts!
Outdoor Learning
JOIN THE CITYSPROUTS SPRING STUNNER CHALLENGE!
On each week in May, CitySprouts will announce a new SPRING STUNNER challenge to get outside (safely) and explore the natural world!
Each completed project will earn you one raffle entry for handmade prizes from CitySprouts - so the more that you build, the more likely you are to win!! All projects need to be documented with a photo and emailed (by you or a parent) by June 5th. But don't wait until then - SEND COMPLETED PROJECTS AS SOON AS YOU HAVE THEM!
We look forward to seeing what you create!!
Email Ms. Stephanie with questions or concerns at sbudd@citysprouts.org!
SPRING STUNNER Challenge Materials HERE!
Challenge 3 - SPRING SENSE-MAKING: TREE MAP grades 2-5 TREE MAP grades 5-8
Challenge 2 - SPRING SENSE-MAKING : Hand Drawn Map Activity! Virtual Map Activity!
Interested in Engineering... Try some of the April MAKER Challenges!
The challenge may be complete, but you can still enjoy and learn by building these fun challenges on your own! Find all the details below!
Challenge 1 Trash Flower, Challenge 2 Self Watering Planter , Challenge 3 Innovative Garden Tool! and Challenge 4 - Moving Wind Sculpture
CitySprouts wishes the Haggerty Community a very happy (and belated) Earth Day!
We miss you all!
CitySprouts wants to share some warm (and belated) Earth Day greetings with the entire Haggerty Community! Even as this year looks different than any of us would have ever dreamed, CitySprouts remains committed to fostering students' (and the community's) love and appreciation of all the wonder that the Earth has to offer! We are looking forward to coming back to school and back to the gardens with you all as soon as we are allowed!
START A SCIENCE NOTEBOOK!
This is a notebook where you can collect all your scientific thoughts about all the nature around you! In my science notebook, I always put the date at the top along with a description of the weather. Then I take my time to draw what I see with notes written nearby to help me remember any important details! I also make a list of all the things that I am wondering about as I continue to observe.
Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci was a great inventor as well as artist? Here is a page out of one of his notebooks!
BUILD IT FROM SCRATCH!
If you don't have a store-bought notebook to use for your Science observations, why not make your own notebook from materials found in your house?
There are MANY different ways that you can keep track of your science thoughts and wonderings! Maybe your notebook looks more like a map... or is full of descriptive language and no drawings... or maybe each page is filled with drawings. There is no right or wrong way to make a notebook!
You get to choose the best way to organize your science thoughts!
A page from my notebook where I was looking for signs of spring. I like to add drawings, descriptions, and some questions that I still have into my notebook. I also add the date!
What should I put in my science notebook?
When you are just getting started, deciding what to study or observe and then what to write in your science notebook might be the hardest part! There are a few questions that you might ask yourself as you get your notebook out for the first time:
What changes am I noticing in the plants, animals, and weather patterns that are happening near my house? - Use descriptive language or colorful pencils and markers to describe and draw these changes!
What have we been learning in Science class? Are there any examples of something from class that I can observe near my house? - perhaps this would be inside your house, in your backyard, or along your street somewhere close
What am I curious about that I can see around me? Are you curious about how something works? Or why somethings works some times but not others? Are you curious about how something came to be like it is? - Try drawing it, looking at its different parts, and tracing one part to the next... Write down any questions you have about it!
EXPLORE FURTHER!
Set up SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS to learn more!
You can also record how you set a science experiment and the results you find in your science notebook! You might find that one of the questions above leads you to set up a good experiment... You might also find ideas in your science books from school or other science magazines and books at home... You might come up with your experiment on your own too! Here are some other ideas that you might find interesting:
WHICH WILL GROW FASTER? See if you have any dried beans or plain popcorn in your house. Get potting soil or soil from outside and plant 1-2 of each in small containers (keeping beans in one and corn in the other). Keep track of how tall the plants are each day!
Perhaps you can find other seeds in your house and plant those as well! You might try looking at the fresh produce from the grocery!
WHICH IS BETTER FOR PLANTS? Perhaps you have noticed that soil from different places has different qualities - make detailed observations and drawings about the soils. Then plant 1-2 of the same seeds in small containers with different soils! Keep track of how the seeds are growing each day!
WHAT DOES A SEED REALLY NEED TO GROW? Most of you have learned that plants need water, sunlight, and soil to grow, but what really happens when the seed doesn't have one of those? Can you grow some of the same seeds where one gets more water than another one? Or where one has soil from the start and the other has a wet/moist paper towel? Or where one is in darkness and the other in light?
Observe and record what you find!
CHECK OUT THE SIGNS OF SPRING I FOUND IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!
What can you find in your neighborhood?
The Spring Equinox!
The Spring Equinox, otherwise known as the first day of Spring, happened on March 19th this year! Most years it happens on March 20th or 21st, but because this year was a leap year, Spring came a day (at least on the calendar) early!
On the Spring Equinox, we experienced an equal number of hour of day time as we did night time. The word EQUINOX stems from Latin
"equi" meaning equal
"nox" meaning night
So the word equinox literally translates to "equal night"!
How does the Earth respond to the start of spring?
If you can, take a walk along your street or perhaps explore your back yard to find all the signs of spring that you can find!