Harvesting Aloe

This lesson in the gardening folder is a good one for learning about plant adaptation. As a desert plant, Aloe has to store water in its leaves as a special gel. The kids loved harvesting the aloe. They were mesmerized! Some could have done it the whole class period. 

Items Needed:

Aloe leaves- about 3 per student. We have bags and bags of aloe leaves behind Ms Brown's class by the worm bin. You can get a few aloe leaves from the aloe plants we have growing on campus. Or they grow wild around Los Angeles in yards and off the freeway.

Glass jars or Ziplock bags- I recommend having students share jars. Aloe gel can be sent home in plastic ziplock bags.

15 Plastic knives- for each student

15 Paper plates

Paper towels for cleanup

Bowls of Water

Library book- "Deserts" by Gail Gibbons in Overland Library (Call# 551.4 Gib)

Magnifying Glass from Gardening Drawers

Setup:
We setup on tables by the greenhouse. I put a knife on each plate and a glass jar in between two plates or on a plate to create stations. I filled two bowls with water and put several aloe leaves in there to get the dust and dirt off them so the gel would be clean and keeps the kids hands clean too.

Lesson:
Introduction in class:
Hold up the aloe leaf. Who knows what this kind of leaf is called? Where does it grow? Is there a lot of water in the desert? (No) But we all know that plants need water, so how has this plant adapted to grow in the desert? When it rains it stores all the water inside its leaves. It makes a special food that's like gel out of the water. It looks like this (hold open cross section of leaf). The gel is inside the leaf and makes it thick. The aloe has a serrated edge to protect the water inside of its leaf, and if it gets cut it can heal itself. This gel is used to help heal sunburns, cuts, and scrapes and has been used for thousands of years, they used it in ancient Egypt. It's antibacterial so it helps to keep things clean from germs. Today we are going to harvest the aloe gel from the aloe leaves.

Split into Groups:
We split into three 10 minute rotations. This was helpful because it's chaotic and overwhelming to start all the kids harvesting the aloe at once as it's very hands. Starting with a smaller group kept the activity calm throughout. Another group joined them after 10 minutes. The new group observed- which helped make the transition smoother and the 1st group stayed longer. I wouldn't recommend having everyone at the tables at once. Not every group did every rotation, but every group harvested aloe. Most kids were done after about 20 minutes and then needed a change. 

Rotation 1- Aloe Scavenger Hunt around the school. Working off the leaf you give them from the in-class discussion have kids find all the Aloe plants growing in the school. There are two large aloe plants in the primary beds in front of the 1st grade classes and two small ones in the planter bed right outside the main auditorium entrance. Point out other succulents. Look at class garden bed as well to observe what's going on with the plants and name each plant. Write in nature journals.

Rotation 2- Read Book "Deserts" by Gail Gibbons in class (Overland library Call# 551.4 Gib), or other desert book in that section. Focus on pages about succulent plants.

Rotation 3- Harvest Aloe. Have each student hold up an aloe leaf. Use the plastic knife to cut the flat bottom off the aloe (the first time they do this need lots of help) and this reveals the gel. 

Observe the gel with the magnifying glass. What do you notice about it visually? How does it feel? Scrape the gel into the glass jars. 

Schedule

1:30-1:40 Set up

1:40-1:45 Introduce Lesson

1:45-1:50 Split into 3 groups

1:50-2:05 Rotation 1

2:02-2:12 Rotation 2

2:14-2:24 Rotation 3 (we didn't follow those times exactly)