Growing a lima bean is something that completely WOWS my students every single year!  They are completely fascinated by the process of seed growth, and it really is quite amazing.

Click here to check out this pack!

We use a sandwich size plastic bag, a wet paper towel, and 3-5 dry lima beans.

We leave our bags open just a little and hang them on a bulletin board inside the classroom.

My classroom has NO windows, but the artificial light is enough to get those beans sprouting in 5-7 days.

I spray some water into each bag after about 3-4 days.  They kids are always so surprised that a plant can out of a dry bean.

This is one of those "simple" experiments we used to do many years ago.  My kids today are so excited about doing this lab!

We opened our bags today and the kids chose their BEST sprout to plant into a small clear cup with potting soil.  If they had other good sprouts they could gift them to classmates who needed a better sprout, or they could take them home and plant them.

Here are some of our sprouts!  The lima beans will grow throughout the month.  Kids will either take them home at the end of the month or we will plant them in our school garden.

Why not try growing something in your classroom?

Have you ever tried to make a life-sized squirrel?  It is tougher than it looks!

While this is a January STEM challenge, we are reading Flora and Ulysses, so this one worked perfectly!

All you need is some white bulletin board paper and squirrel measurements.  You should have students look these different measurements up on-line.

There are lots of parts you can measure on a squirrel!

There are different types of squirrels you can use for this challenge!

Measurements are included in the file for each of these types of squirrels.  

 

Look at all of those squirrels in the picture above!

Kids had a great time with this one.  It was a lot harder than they thought it would be and they got to do some measurement!

You can check out this STEM challenge by clicking here!

Squirrels are EVERYWHERE around us right now.  Why not learn a little more about them?