Yup. That’s precisely what awaited us upon our return from the Maritimes, nearly 3 years ago.
Sure, our (now deceased) cats were always terrible roommates. Well… mostly Phoebe was a terrible roommate. Unfortunately, she was also our eldest daughter’s favorite and we were obviously stuck with her; an until-death-do-us-part sort of thing.
My husband was adamant that cats can be left to fend for themselves, for days, weeks even, so long as they have enough food and water to stay alive.
As for the house plants, my neighbor and friend had offered to drop by and water them once during our 2-week adventure.
But alas, upon our return, we were greeted with the most grisly sights and smells as we unlocked the front door.
All my house plants had helplessly chard in the sunlight next to our southern-facing window. Lesson-learned. Thinking back, I really should have placed them all outdoors for my friend to water along with our other larger plants and veggie garden.
And, well, as for the rancid odor that hit our nostrils as we stepped into our house after our 12-hour drive… the smell alone would have turned first responders away.
Yep, that’s right. Our neurotic cat, Phebes, had peed and pooed all over the basement. Needless to say, our floor rug was beyond repair.
My precious plant babies, sadly they were goners too.
Now you’re probably wondering what this all has to do with teaching, am I right?!
Well, my friend, this story is just one example of why I’m notorious for being a terrible plant person.
My green thumb for the longest time was more of a “black thumb”, because no matter how hard I tried to care for my plant babies, I’d always manage to rot their roots or make their leaves crumble into sawdust.
That is until the day I discovered our local garden center and committed myself to learn as much as I could about plants and plant care.
Ironically enough, I never bothered to put the same amount of effort into becoming a “cat person”.
So that brings me to 2022, where I can say with confidence that I have come a long way when it comes to growing and caring for plants. I still have my share of plant fails, however, I’m happy to say it’s not the norm.
With that said, last week in Science class I got my Grade 3s started on a really awesome seed experiment!
And as I was putting together a quick boring worksheet for them to record their purpose, hypothesis, data, observations, results… I realized: this would be an awesome idea for a brochure!
In fact, I thought it was such a great idea that I’ve decided to share it with you for FREE!
Click here to download it.
As you can gather from my crispy plants and cat poop story, I may no longer be a cat lady but I am most definitely a rehabilitated green thumb!
Also, I am proud to say that I can now successfully teach my students how to plant and care for their own seeds, that may or may not sprout. 😉
Check out my selection of brochures
My project brochures are by far my best sellers and for good reason!
As you know too well, worksheets can boring and redundant. Unlike those worksheets, my smART brochures seek to engage students and inspire them to think outside of the box.
With the help of this FREE brochure, pamphlet, or tri-fold (whatever you call it!)—a graphic organizer of sorts–you’ll be encouraging your students to demonstrate and showcase their learning in creative visual ways, just as I intended them to!
Moreover, they’re easy to print, distribute and explain.
➡ One Way Ticket Brochure/Pamphlet
➡ Extreme Weather & Natural Disasters Brochure
