Down 'n' Dirty

New bulletin boards went up today.  We decided to display our combination of Science and Writing.  In Science we have been doing a unit on "What Plants Need to Survive."  As part of our on-going gardening project we are planting potatoes.  I posted earlier about how we planted the potato eyes and then came in and wrote instructions for other classes. 

For our bulletin board border we had our children first draw themselves planting the potatoes on an index card and then had them draw what they thought the potatoes would look like when they were ready to harvest.  The picture to the left is one of my favorites!  I guess we forgot to discuss that the potatoes actually grow as part of the roots under the ground!  The children are going to be quite surprised that they don't see the potatoes growing as leaves and flowers!  Can't wait til harvest time!

We decided to use our potato planting papers for our bulletin board.  It was especially difficult to choose just four pieces of work, because there were so many that we really adored.  Below is Hailey's instructions with her thoughtful and heartfelt opening and closing!  Following that is the teacher commentary.

Hailey’s Commentary

Opening	You have to adore Hailey’s introduction - an original.
Steps	She has several steps in her process and uses the transition words first, next and finally.
Closing	Hailey ties her closing into her introduction by suggesting that some of the potatoes might go to Second Harvest.  She goes on to explain that Second Harvest is a truck that brings food to people who are hungry.  Love how she’s thinking!
Drawings	Hailey’s pictures reinforce each step of her procedure .
Capitals	After an editing conference, Hailey added capitals at the beginning of each sentence.
Punctuation	She also added some of the missing punctuation.
Sight words	Hailey spells most sight words correctly without consulting her word wall.