Mrs. Fein and Mr. Jacobs' Classes Learn about the Parts of a Plant

Today second graders in Mrs. Fein's class and Mr. Jacobs' class reviewed the parts of a plant.  I asked them what their favorite vegetable was. We then discussed which part that we eat of specific vegetables. We also identified some vegetables which the children later ate in a salad. I held up the vegetables and asked the children what they were. Thanks to Gelson's for donating all of the organic vegetables that we used for this lesson!!

The vegetables and the parts that we eat:
- lettuce--leaves (we used red leaf lettuce)
- beets--all but roots are eaten most often. Most children guessed that the plant was a radish.  This is a common reaction the first time most children see a beet. This isn't far off since they are both root vegetables and similar in color. This sample which was red.
-tomato--fruit
-carrot--root
-celery--stem (though we call it the stalk); people also put leaves in soups to add flavor
-corn--seeds
-broccoli--all but the flower is most commonly eaten

The children wrote in their garden journals.  Today's title was "The Parts of a Plant". All of them drew an illustration of a plant and labelled the parts. They also wrote one or two sentences.
Most children tried the salad with all of the ingredients and with the lemon vinaigrette dressing.

Several of the children visited the garden at recess to help water. Nice to have new volunteers!