Every Morning Needs Some Glory!

One of my favorite things to do with my class is growing morning glories in our classroom.  I can start them early, when it is still winter outside.  They grow so quickly.  They bloom for so long, because new flowers are always opening.  They have always been a no-fail plant to grow.  They make me HAPPY!  How can I NOT grow them?  I wanted to share the idea with you early in case you wanted to grow some in your classroom.

I fill one or two plastic window boxes with potting soil. Obviously you could do one, three, five, seven...  You could even just do one pot of them in the window.

Each child pokes a hole in the soil and plants a seed.  I plant a few extra if there are any left.
That's it!

  

I have never soaked, nicked, or prepared the seeds- and they grow beautifully.  Now, maybe if you did do this prep work, they would be even better- but mine always do great right out of the seed packet.

I tie some string around the top of my window or tape it up there, and tape it down underneath the window box, so the morning glories can climb the string.  You could also put a mini trellis in the window box if you didn't want the string.  The string is so much fun because you can just see those little plants climbing up a little more each day.  Sometimes I sort of help the shoots wrap around the string.  They reach right out for that sunlight.

The little window box and sting look so empty and sad at first, but just wait!



We started the seeds last Wednesday because 1. I am SICK of winter and grayness.  2.  Open house is in March this year, and I want to have the morning glories at least climbing that string when the parents come to visit the room.

Here they are already!  This is one week's growth, just so you can see.

We also have Grandparents' Day in April, so they should be in bloom by then. Here are my morning glories from last year- as they start to climb:

THEN...

Everybody comments on them and comes to check on them as they walk past our room.  They look really pretty from the outside of the school, too.

We have lots of fun with our morning glories.  We keep track how many blooms we have with tally marks.  This year, we may use ten frames.  We compare how many blue flowers vs. purple flowers grow.  Blue always seem to win.  I am partial to the blue ones. I just love them. (Maybe they secretly know that and bloom better for me- and the purple ones feel left out and sad and don't bloom. Oh dear.)

We did an interactive writing lesson when I was explaining our activity to the children.  We discovered that morning glories are great for teaching that "or" sound.

We also talk about what plants need to grow.

Here is my morning glory shirt I wear when we plant, because most of the children don't know what they are going to look like when we first plant the seeds.

This is one way to bring some spring into the classroom!
Thank you for stopping by!