The Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program is a success yet again for two of Cardinal’s students.
Colossal Cabbage
The Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program is a success yet again for two of Cardinal’s students. The now fourth-graders received the cabbage plants at the end of their third-grade year, took them home and cared for them over the summer. As a result, Shirley Y. grew a 14.2-pound cabbage, and Grayson Y. grew a monster 44-pound cabbage plant.
Ms. Tropf plans to submit both to the Bonnie Plants contest.
Shirley commented to Ms. Tropf about the growing experience, “When I brought home my cabbage plant, I set it in our basement entryway because it has a lot of windows. I would water it occasionally. Sometimes it looked kind of sad. I thought it would die, but it didn’t. I kept it growing until my grandpa planted it in our garden. He gave it fertilizer a couple of times and I watched it grow slow at first and then all of a sudden it really grew to a whopping 14.2 pounds.”
Of his growing experience, Grayson says, “When my cabbage was little, we kept it in the house. I loved watering it. I named it. Its name was ‘Delicious.’ It grew fast. When it got too big for inside the house, we took it over to my aunt’s house because we don’t have a garden. When we planted it there, it was a healthy plant. However, there were bugs that ate some of it but there were not a lot of bugs. Sooner than I thought, it was almost too big for the garden. When it was done growing, we pulled it out of the ground carefully. Then we took a picture of it. I could barely hold it! Thank you for letting us have a cabbage. It was one of my favorite things to do in third grade. That was my fun experience of watching it grow.”
Way to go, Shirley and Grayson.
Water Wonders
Cardinal’s favorite science guy, Mr. Z, is at it again with his experiments. This week he visited first-graders in Mrs. Horvath’s room to conduct a science lab on water. Students first broke into several groups to create rain. To do so, Mr. Z poured hot water into the bottom of a container, students then placed ice cubes into a holder above the warm water and then watched as the ice cooled the warm water, creating condensation, melting the ice cubes, and thus causing “rain.”
Students then participated in an activity to demonstrate that about three-quarters of the world is covered in water. Mr. Z. had a blue ball with outlines of the continents drawn on it. He threw the ball twice to each student, and Mrs. Horvath recorded where their right thumb fell when they caught the ball – on land or on water. The experiment was a success as more thumbs fell on water than land.
Tree Detectives
Second-grade students became “tree detectives” at Holden Arboretum on Oct. 10. They looked for living and nonliving things. The students studied the bark and leaves of different kinds of trees and learned about how important trees are for humans. They learned to measure with rulers, thermometers, and even a tool they had never heard of, an anemometer, which measures wind speed. In true detective and scientist form, they recorded the results of their discoveries on clipboards. It was a beautiful day to be a tree detective.
Bear-Y Special Lunch Guests
Jordak Elementary School students had some special visitors during lunch on Sept. 26. Students were invited to bring in their stuffed bears to join them during their meal. Because it was also National Pancake Day, the cafeteria served up a special pancake and sausage lunch for everyone to enjoy. District administrators and some board members took turns serving, eating and talking with the students while they ate. Everyone had a fantastic time. Thank you to the cafeteria staff for putting together such a fun event.
