My second graders learned about plant dormancy right before the winter break, so I brought this hyacinth bulb into my classroom. Every week we are measuring it and then drawing and labeling diagrams of it. Eventually I'll have them look through some plant books to find out what it is. This week we worked on describing it. One of my level 1 ESL boys thought the buds looked like corn and another said little rocks. My level 3 students used antonyms to compare the bulb (rough) with the table (smooth). "Rough" is a particularly tough concept for them.
