Living Classroom's "Life Cycle of a Tomato" Lesson According to Second Grade Students

Today we will talk about what we have done in Living Classroom. First we will give you a brief history of tomatoes which were also our main topic for the first and second classes. We first talked about where tomatoes were first found. We learned that tomatoes were first found in Chile, South America. A while later they were transported to Mexico, then Southeast Asia , and finally England.

The first known tomato recipe was published in Naples, Italy. At this time eating tomatoes had caught on in France, Spain, and Italy. Thomas Jefferson wrote about people growing tomatoes in colonies, we know that some people were eating tomatoes in the U.S.A by then. Nowadays, tomatoes are a very popular fruit in the world.  1.5 billion tons of tomatoes are grown and sold in the world.  

The Most Popular States That Grow Tomatoes Are : 

1. China 
2. India
3. U.S.A
4. Turkey
5. Egypt
6. Iran
7. Italy
8. Brazil
9. Spain
   
10. Uzbekistan 

In the first lesson we had a map and a tomato journal. On the map, we drew tomatoes to show where they traveled.      
                                  
We also got to cut open a tomato and scooped out the seeds. In the tomato journal, we used words to describe how the seeds felt. We thought it was gooey, slimy, slippery, and lots more. The second lesson was after a few weeks. So we investigated the seeds week by week. Almost every cup had mold and yeast in it. We could  only see the mold, not the yeast.  We got into groups. If the cup had your name and your partner’s name on it . So, we got into groups of four and we first opened the cup and scooped all the mold out . Then, we gently drained the water from the cups. Next, after draining the water we rinsed the seeds three times . Finally, we gathered all the seeds and saved them to plant in the spring. So with all that work covered that is what we have been doing in our past 2 Living Classroom lessons.