Signs of Spring: Mr. Robert’s 1st Grade

I visited Mr. Robert’s first grade class at Ida Elementary School again today. We talked about signs of Spring.

I first came into the classroom wearing my winter coat, hat and gloves and asked the students if they were ready to measure the snow. That really got a rise out of the students and was a lot of fun. I had the kids break up into teams of three. One student was to write down what the group observed outside. A second student was suppose to make sure the observations were good and the third student was to present back in the classroom what the group found. It was a lot of fun. There were flowers and buds on trees, etc. I posted some pictures below of what we saw as well as the students’ worksheets. I stressed to them that they needed to use descriptive words with their observations such as the color or size.

Spring Seems to Have Sprung

Hi All,
Wow, spring has sprung in Toledo and much of the eastern US. The snow has melted and temps have gotten in the the 60′s. What is going on? Well, there is a high pressure system to our east and low pressure center to our west. This causes the wind to come from the south bringing warmer temperatures. This has been a persistent situation. The low to the west has been out there for at least four days and it will slowly move over Toledo. The high has been in the 50′s to 60′s for all four days. This nice weather will end so we should all take advantage of it. I plan to plant my snap peas in the garden today when I get home from work. It is sad that I have to work today…

After winter, vegetation in this area starts coming out of its dormancy. I took some pictures of the vegetation starting to come to life.

Flowers on a maple tree. These are flowers on the tree not the bud bursting. The buds will burst in 3 or more weeks from now.

Magnolia bud.

Daffodils coming up at the University of Toledo

Daffodils are one of the first things that comes up in the spring.

GLOBE has some great information about bud burst and plant phenology. http://www.globe.gov

http://www.globe.gov/fsl/html/templ.cgi?phenology_budburst