Some Room 3 children asked if we could plant our garden. We decided to plant sunflowers and have a little competition.
First, our garden had to be weeded, and then each group could plant their seeds. It was important to read the instructions on the packet carefully to make sure we planted them correctly. We were excited to read that this species of sunflower, King Kong, could grow to 5 metres tall! All of us wanted our group’s sunflower to be the biggest, so we researched ways to make our seeds grow fast and tall.
Weeding the garden
Lachie brought in coffee grinds, Brooke brought horse manure, Poppy brought sheep manure, Ashtin brought seaweed fertiliser and worm tea, and Emily brought blood and bone fertiliser. We watered the seeds and watched them over the next few weeks as they began to sprout and grow.
Fertiliser and stakes to help our sunflowers
Manure for our sunflowers
As they grew, we read about sunflowers, learned about their life cycle, did sunflower research projects, and completed beautiful sunflower pastel art.
We measured the sunflowers every 2-3 days and collected the data on their heights. It was amazing how fast they grew. We had to decide how to measure them accurately so that we were all measuring the same way. This led to some great measurement discussions.
Measuring our sunflowers
We collected the data and wrote it in a table and then discussed what kind of graph would be the best to display it. We wanted to show the growth of 6 sunflowers over a term. We decided that pie charts and bar graphs would not work. Ava had a great idea. She brought her baby book in to show us her height and weight charts. We decided that using a line graph, like she had in there, was perfect.
Ava's baby book
Next, we graphed the data and wrote statements about it. We had to make a new graph when they grew too tall to fit on our original one. Then they grew too tall for that one too! This led to good discussions about setting up graphs. We have learnt a lot about the parts of a graph, types of graphs, measurement, appropriate units and scales through this activity. It was a fantastic integrated unit including maths, science, reading and writing.
Graphing our sunflowers
At the end of the year, we even had a sunflower themed class celebration and Mrs Thompson wrote a sunflower poem for us. She gave us each two seeds to take home to plant too. We have grown and bloomed this year in Room 3, and now we are waiting for our sunflowers to do the same!