Friday, March 26, 2010

CLaSSrOOm Spring Project ~ MiNi*TeRRaRiuMs

Today, was Classroom Project Day!!
PROJECT DAY!!!
You may have heard My rant before about not making time to volunteer at Your Child's school
I still feel that way.
Make An EfforT!
I digress.
The class just finished diorama's on Eco~systems. 
and its Spring.
I had found this project in a Yulemas book, looking for Holiday to~do's.
The project used clear glass Ornaments, 
but seeing as I'm dealing with 23 3rd graders,
delicate glass that needs to have dirt and plants
shoved into it.....not goOd.

Racking my noGGin, I trawled the aisles at Hobo Lobo.
What I really wanted was Small, Glass w/ Lid, Inexpensive.
I wanted to go with something natural as opposed to plastic,
but in the end, I did choose the plastic for the above reasons.
I LucKed up when I strolled onto the Jewelry aisle.
Right there before me hung these glorious tubes, Bead BoTTLes, 
with wide mouths and PoP off tops INCLUDING! 
a small loop perfect for a length of RiBBoN to hang it!
And! 
there were 4 tubes in one bag for a little over $2.

 

A potted Fern

A Bead BoTTLe

A bag of assorted decorative Beads

A bag of small SheLLs

A roLL of Wire, any color

A bag of Organic soil 
{that's what I chose, otherwise I would get fussed at by The Blu Man, 
my 9 year old who's going to save the World by grEEning it! 
and class attendee of said project}

A roLL of RiBBon 
{give at least 12" of ribbon for each bottle}

Wire cutters,
chop sticks or other wooden sticks



First: Separate the Fern into Individual pieces.
It helps if you do it soaking in water, or with running water from a hose.
It washes the dirt and exposes the roots.
I stored them in a lidded bowl.

 Take the bead and wrap it at the top of the wire,
leaving plenty of wire for the support.
{you can trim the wire when putting it in the terrarium}

 Fill the bottle a little less than half full with the soil.
 

Using the flat end of a wooden stick, I made a hole in the soil, and then used the stick to gently push the Fern root into the hole in the soil. Pack some of the surrounding soil on top of root.
 
Insert wire decoration into the soil, place sheLL in bottle, sprinkle a few drops of water, then replace lid.

Add riBBon 
Find a Sunny spot and hang.


This is the one for the Teacher.

I hung mine in my car!

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