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Hera · 09-09-2012, 01:13 AM

Herbology Lesson One

Another term and another lot of new faces and names to memorise. Then again, with such a good memory and the opportunity to watch the sorting, life was a lot easier.

Seren stood, arms by her side, rocking back and forth on her heels and toes. The first lesson would be... different to what she would usually do. Better in some ways, but not so much in others. Feeling all 'mixed emotions' about the task she had in mind, she waited for them to arrive.

Hopefully the students would be in a right enough state of mind to gather in front of her and not cause too much trouble. Despite her lack of instruction to do so.

Lesson Progression:

Define a Herb
Activity One: Herb Table
Activity One Continued
What is involved in general care, or maintenance?
Team Care/Maintenance
Q&A and you may be DISMISSED!.. When you're finished!

OOC: The lesson will officially begin in approximately 12 hours. If you haven't done so already then please read through the Herbology Rules and Expectations and the SS Site Rules. All SS Board Rules apply. IC rule breaking will result in IC punishment, OOC rule breaking will result in OOC punishment. Please behave appropriately and most importantly... have fun. If you have any questions don't hesitate to send me a PM.

itsjustjesse · 09-10-2012, 05:28 AM

Mika had been a little distracted today as she stared off around the room glancing at all the different plants. They were just so pretty - and some flesh-eating ones now had clean teeth because of their hard work the year before. SHE was an EXPERT tooth scrubber.

She hadn't heard the exact question Professor Bently had asked and just furrowed her brow for a moment as she tried to decipher what she had heard from her memories. Refine an herb did not sound right to her. THAT sounded more poition-y to her than you know, Herb-y.

Listening to the answers coming in she couldn't help but smile. Right. It wasn't REFINE it was DEFINE. Now she felt both silly and smart at the same time.

From what she remembered from One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi - which she always carried around with her this summer...those answers weren't all the way right.

"Professor from what I remember from doing a little lite reading... NO she was LYING to herself. And her sore arm. It wasn't lite at all. It was HEAVY. Lugging around book was like lugging around a full grown Labrador retriever in your arms every day and everywhere. ...an herb is any plant with seeds, leaves, or flowers that can be used in potions, perfumes, cooking and flavoring, and for healing purposes" there she felt she'd aced that answer. Mhm.

DancingwithRainbows · 09-10-2012, 07:01 AM

Angel was already excited, this was probably the first class she'd been in in which she was able to answer the first question that was posed... but that might have been due to the fact that her Aunt loved gardening... and that her husband was a chef and let's face it, with a family like that you tended to go over for dinner a lot more than one might usually!

So she raised her hand, before she quietly answered. "Um... Professor a herb is basically any plant that has some part of it that's used for things like seasoning in cooking, food in general I guess and for it's sent... they're also sometimes used for things like medicine though" she added on as an after thought feeling rather proud of herself. Annie was quite confident she'd covered everything with that!

Hera · 09-10-2012, 08:56 AM

Right. Wow. So the kids had a fair grasp of 'herbs' that was for certain. Seren was super impressed, though Elijah earned a funny look from her. Pizza. Seriously boy? Was that all you beautiful brain could come up with?... shame.

Her eyebrows piqued a little at a new Lion's response. Alexa Cambridge... would prove to be an interesting student no doubt. But perhaps her 'reliable sources' shouldn't come from muggle films or whatever it is she was referring to. Odd.

SPOILER!!: Minerva

Oh and would you look at that. The return of a familiar Puff. Shame she was late. "Hello Minerva, minus five points for being late..... welcome back." ... that wasn't awkward.

It was particularly pleasing to see that Spike and that Branxton girl were up to speed on professional definitions and debates. Good higher order thinking there.
"Yes, good good. Now there are differing views within the herbological field as to what constitutes a 'herb'. Whether it be a non-woody plant or whether it be more broadly defined." Personally she thought the whole thing was a load of hogwash.
"As many of you have mentioned, herbs have numerous uses. From food to medicine, potions and even rituals and divination."

Now. "As an introductory lesson, I'd like you all to wander around the greenhouse and select five plants you consider to be herbs. Using your textbook, I want you to construct a table identifying what the plant is, what it looks like, what parts are used and what they are often used for...."
Summoning over the black board from the side of the greenhouse, Seren pointed to the layout she wanted the students to use.
"I'll give you about twenty minutes to get this done before we move on."

SPOILER!!: black board

OOC: You have 48 hours to complete this task. To be eligible for full marks you're required to post a minimum of 5 times (small paragraph posts, not one liners). If you require Bentley's assistance, say so in the title. Thanks!

sweetpinkpixie · 09-10-2012, 09:08 AM

Hand flying over her parchment again, Kurumi was back to taking all sorts of notes based on what her classmates had said and, finally, what Professor Bentley said. She didn't squish things in the margins this time, so that was good.

And now they needed to go wandering around identifying plants. EEK. Kurumi had never been the best at this, but maybe if she stuck with plants that she knew and had used in her own baking she would feel a little more confident. She was pretty sure she had seen lavender in here at one point...so maybe she would start there.

Drawing the diagram on her parchment, Kurumi took her textbook from her bag and placed her parchment over it so that she would have a hard writing surface and began to head towards an area of the greenhouse that had more flowery plants. Lavender...where are you....you are here, right?!

RachieRu · 09-10-2012, 09:32 AM

Ooh. They had to identify herbs. That was fun. Indy used herbs a little. She used to cook at home with her mother, so she did know a bit. She wasn't too sure if she'd be able to identify them all. They grew a few, but mostly brought the ones they used in cooking. This was good though, maybe she'd learn to identify more. Looking up at the black board, Indy pulled her parchment closer to herself, and copied down the chart they would be using. Carefully she wrote the titles into the top few boxes, trying to be careful with her writing. If she wanted to use the chart again, she wanted to make sure that she could read it. Spike might also want to use her notes too later, he wasn't the best at keeping notes neat, not if you looked at his old text books, most of which she used. They were just a little bit messy.

Sorted. Now she needed to look for a herb. Hmm. Maybe she'd start with dill. Hmm. If there was any. Picking her parchment up, Indy stood up, and began wandering around the greenhousee looking for her first herb.

DancingwithRainbows · 09-10-2012, 09:38 AM

Looking at the Professor she smiled at the fact that she'd gotten it right, listening to what she was told to do. As soon as it was said, she began quickly drawing the table that she was told to, copying it off the blackboard to make sure she'd set it out properly before she stood up and began walking about the Green house like she was instructed to looking for something, anything that could be possibly classified.

Finally she saw something she liked, Rosemary. Angel definitely counted Rosemary as a type of herb, after all they did get used for a couple of different purposes, so kneeling down beside it she looked at it for a moment, grabbing a muggle pencil from behind her ear where she often kept one and started drawing a section before she just sighed, although it looked good she was more than unhappy, so rubbing it out she quickly wrote words to describe what it looked like before she started with information.

Quickly, she furiously wrote all the things she could think about for Rosemary, like how the leaves were used for cooking, and how the oil was used for perfume. Finally she sighed, moving on to the next thing...

sweetpinkpixie · 09-10-2012, 09:56 AM

Parchment and textbook clutched to her chest, Kurumi made her way around the greenhouse looking at the various plants. Yes, she had passed a few that she was already pretty sure were herbs, but one thing at a time. She first wanted to find the lavender and then she could go back to wandering aimlessly and poking at other plants. After a bit, Kurumi happened upon the purple flowers and her focused smile relaxed a little. There it was! She knew she had seen the flowers here before ~~maybe even picked a few for cookies~~.

Crouching down beside the flowerbed where the lavender was growing, Kurumi began to fill out her chart and thought about drawing a quick sketch of the plant...but that would most likely take her far too long to finish and she certainly would not get all of her chart filled out. So, basic description it was.

SPOILER!!: zee piece of paper

Once she had finished, Kurumi ventured a small moment to simply sit there and smell the lavender. Perhaps take in some of the relaxing properties the plant provided...and it made her want to drink tea...or take a nap. Probably best that she get moving again.

Without waiting another moment, Kurumi was back on her feet and wandering to another part of the greenhouse.

Tazzie · 09-10-2012, 10:00 AM

Quickly scribbling down some of her classmates answers on her parchment, Beezus listened intently as Professor Bentley gave her own say on the matter, and this too, came noted down.

So their task was to identify at least five herbs, and fill out the table with its corresponding name, appearance, usable parts and usage. She took out another fresh parchment and carefully copied the table. Once she was done, she began to roam the Greenhouse for any plants that appeared familiar to her.

Hmmm..

..that one? Nope. It's leaves were shaped differently from the plant she knew. That other one perhaps? Nuh-uh. Not the same flowers..Oh! That one! That one looked common to her eyes.

Squinting, Beezus headed over to a plant that somewhat emitted flammable vapors.

tiffyteddy · 09-10-2012, 10:24 AM

Herbs.

Tiffany listened to every word that Professor Bentley had said just then as she jotted down notes and copied the table from the blackboard down and put it on her own parchment. It was not difficult to identify herbs, at least some simple one will do, some that she can always see them easily back in the muggle world. When she was small, her mother taught her how to recognize a little bit of them, flowers with beautiful little petals. The lioness loves collecting them and those may help with her work right now.

She started to look for herbs that she knew or could recognize, maybe she could start with mint. That would be quite easy for her and a good start actually. Now the point was...where was it?

FearlessLeader19 · 09-10-2012, 10:37 AM

Jory wrote down the instructions and then constructed the table from the black board. Grabbing his text and parchment, he went off to start the activity.

The first plant he found and knew it was a herb was Aloe. Standing above the plant, the boy began to fill up the table.

SPOILER!!: Table

*Lottiepot* · 09-10-2012, 10:42 AM

This sounded right up Terry's street. He grabbed his green parchment paper, the boy had chosen to colour co-ordinate his paper according to the lesson and set out to draw a table, landscape across the parchment. His tongue was practically sticking out in concentration as he drew the lines as straight as he could. Once he was satisfied with how he had drawn it, he put the quill down and wandered over to where all the plants were.

The greenhouse was full of interesting specimen that the second year couldn't help but stare at. Some were simply beautiful, others looked so threatening that they were utterly fascinating. He stepped away from them though, knowing that they were not relevant to the subject area and instead focused on trying to find a herb.

The first he came across was basil. He took it all in, studying the look of the plant and even taking a quick smell before heading back to his desk to fill out his table.

SPOILER!!: Terry's notes

His writing was larger than a lot of peoples and so he didn't write in perfect detail but instead in brief notes which he wouldn't mind looking over when he revisited the subject. It would intimidate him, if he had to look back over long intense notes and so this was the style that he tended to prefer.

hjhm · 09-10-2012, 11:06 AM

When Juliet heard that they will be listing down 5 herbs in 20 minutes, her heart skipped a beat. She liked Herbology but the thing is, she's not that good with the plant classification area. Classifying plants and knowing if it's a herb or not is just not easy... to her that is. She took out her quill and parchment and began making a table like the one on the board.

This should be easy, they have their book with them right? Yup. Juliet stood up and joined the other students with their quest to find 5 complete plants that they think is a herb. Juliet stared at some of the plants for awhile, she had no clue on what exactly their names are. She opened her book and thankfully some of them had pictures on it. Good. She can just find an exact pair.

Okay... Mint. Looks really easy. She can find a simple mint right? Juliet scouted her eyes with the same plant as the one in the book. Mint, where are yoooouuuuu...... OH! Juliet looked at it. Is this it? Juliet frowned. It kinda looks like it but somehow she's not 100% sure. Taking a deep breathe she just stared at the green leaves in front of her.

FearlessLeader19 · 09-10-2012, 11:08 AM

Finished with the first plant, Jory continued his walked around the Greenhouse, occasionally pausing to consult his text. After a few minutes he came across a familiar plant. It was Belladonna. It was Amaryllis Belladonna, to be exact.

Again the boy began to fill out the table.

SPOILER!!: Table

sweetpinkpixie · 09-10-2012, 11:21 AM

Lavender down, Kurumi really didn't have a plant destination in mind when it came to the remaining four she needed to find. Which was why the seventh year found herself sort of aimlessly wandering around the various flower beds and looking at all the plants. There were some magical ones, ones used in potions, and Kurumi was about to write up one of them when something yellow and sort of fluffy looking caught her eye. Heh...reminded her of a certain Hufflepuff and his incredible hair. Hehehehe.

Quickly identifying the plant as dandelion - a nice little connection to her own house now that she thought about it - Kurumi added it to her sheet.

SPOILER!!: zee paper again

Hmm...now where to next?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hjhm

Okay... Mint. Looks really easy. She can find a simple mint right? Juliet scouted her eyes with the same plant as the one in the book. Mint, where are yoooouuuuu...... OH! Juliet looked at it. Is this it? Juliet frowned. It kinda looks like it but somehow she's not 100% sure. Taking a deep breathe she just stared at the green leaves in front of her.

Wandering a bit more, Kurumi spotted a rather confused - but very familiar - looking Slytherin hovering around the mint. Kurumi didn't think much of her gazing at the plant...until she heard the deep breath escape the girl and then Kurumi's violet eyes were on her. "Mint has a lovely smell, doesn't it?" Kurumi asked, playing off the girl's heavy breathing as her simply breathing in the plant's scent rather than being one of probable frustration and confusion. "It's nice that there is a herb that can smell nice and ease and unblock respiratory passages and airways."

Hmm...actually...maybe Kurumi should add mint to her chart as well. "Do you mind if I use mint as well? You found it first."

Steelsheen · 09-10-2012, 11:26 AM

With a quick nod of his head towards the Professor's instructions he glanced at the Ravvie girls (Vivi, Beezus, Kendall) and angled his head further into the Greenhouse "Time to look around huh?". He may have had some practice picking out herbs during his long walks back home but he wasnt taking any chances today of picking out the wrong one today, so he brings out his textbook to use as a guide as he explored the Greenhouse.

He nears the flowerbed and referring several times on his textbook, he nods his head silently at one of the medicinal plants he was familiar with....

SPOILER!!: Vickers parchment

Kimothy · 09-10-2012, 11:31 AM

Activity time in each lesson was Kat's favorite part. Not only was it for interacting, it was also for Kat to wander around. Sometimes, being alone was helpful and now's the perfect time since there were so many plants in the Greenhouses. She liked staying here ~~just not with the Flesh-eating plants. Ek.~~

While going around, she saw a bright green colored plant. It looked familiar to her. Like those plants her grandmother from Canada used to pick from her backyard garden. Oh... what was the word...

Parsley!

SPOILER!!: behold...

FearlessLeader19 · 09-10-2012, 11:35 AM

''Two down three to go,'' Jory thought as he moved on. Students were all bustling around him, some mumbling to themselves. He took a while longer this time to come across another plant he think might be a herb. It was taraxacum, more commonly called dandelion.
And so, the next row of the table he began to fill.

SPOILER!!: Table

Weasley174 · 09-10-2012, 12:17 PM

Laura has just remembered why she didn't do much when it comes to Herbology and that was because she wasn't very good at it. "Professor is this right?" Laura asked as she looked over at her parchment, she wasn't very good at identifying what a plant looks like.

SPOILER!!: Laura's parchment

hjhm · 09-10-2012, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"Mint has a lovely smell, doesn't it?" Kurumi asked, playing off the girl's heavy breathing as her simply breathing in the plant's scent rather than being one of probable frustration and confusion. "It's nice that there is a herb that can smell nice and ease and unblock respiratory passages and airways."

Hmm...actually...maybe Kurumi should add mint to her chart as well. "Do you mind if I use mint as well? You found it first."

Juliet stared at the book and back at the plant. It must be mint right? it has that minty smell. One that smelled like Christmas... oh wait, that's pine. Juliet scratched her head with her free arm and a voice from behind startled her. She was explaining about the mint stuff.... OH! "it's mint?" her head snapped over to the girl. Familiar but she couldn't put her finger to who she is... Isn't she.... no... She has a Gryffindor uniform, Juliet's sure what house she belongs to.

Anyways, now she finally know it's mint. FINALLY! She just needed that, a sort of confirmation to her confusion. She looked at the Gryffindor and nodded when she wanted to use mint "Sure" she may saw it first but she didn't know it was until she confirmed it. She took out her quill and the parchment with the herb table on it. MINT.

SPOILER!!: 1st herb

She stood up and turned to the gryffindor girl. "Thank you" she's a higher year, Juliet knows for a certain. Juliet saw her passing around cookies from the feast. Juliet then snapped her fingers when she finally knew her... "You're the Gryffindor prefect" or.... er well, her title. "Nice to finally meet you" waving her hand and smiling at her "Uhmmmm... Kurumi." Did she get her name right?

Cocking her head to the side, she saw a very familiar herb. One that she sees most of the time and especially in her mother's garden. Nettle. Why didn't she see it a bit earlier?

DuckyLinJi · 09-10-2012, 12:30 PM

It seemed like that most of the students knew what a herb was as he listened to his classmates answers. He listened with half an ear though for his mind was still grumbling about the missing duck pond on the grounds. But when the Professor started the lesson he tried to listen carefully to the instructions.

Search five herbs in 20 minutes.... that could be done~ The Slytherin jumped up from his chair and began to walk around. Herbs...herbs...hey wait a second! Herbology had Herb in it as well! he's a genius, right? right?

Shaking his head, Daichi walked over to a green plant with small white flowers. He remembered that this plant was called Catnip and that it was mostly used to attract cats because they thought the smell from the herb was nice.

Daichi looked around if anyone saw and he quickly smelled a leave. It smelled like mint and he thought that it was actually not that bad. He grabbed his quill and paper and began to write his answer.

SPOILER!!: parchment

on to the next one~

FireboltAvis88 · 09-10-2012, 12:30 PM

Alyssa listened as the Professor gave them instructions on what she wanted them to do. They were supposed to go around the greenhouse and identify 5 different herbs, write down their names, what they looked like, what their usable parts were and their uses.

Alyssa decided that she would first go around and identify the herbs, research what their information and then when she was done she would insert the information into the table layout that the Professor wanted them to place the information in.

So off she went looking for her first herbs. She first looked among the potted plants trying to identify by sight and by smell, some of the more familiar ones.

She came across the first one just by its smell and the leave structure. Her mother used a lot of Basil in her cooking. Alyssa quickly studied the plant.

Text Cut: Alyssa's Herbology Journal

*Lottiepot* · 09-10-2012, 12:40 PM

Once he had completed his first row in his table, the twelve year old moved on to find a different herb this time. It would be good if he could find a herb with a different use or at least one where a different part of the plant was used.

He came across a Cuminum cyminum, a plant who's seeds produced the popular Cumin flavouring that was used in cooking. He knew that the plant itself was considered a 'herb' in botanical means and so decided that as it was the seeds and not the leaves that produced the flavouring in this instance, it would be this plant he chose to focus on.

SPOILER!!: Terry's Notes

He sat back and looked down at his table, glad that he had two out of the way now when others hadn't even completed their first. This time he had written a little more detail, noticing that others had specifics within their answers and he had only written short brief notes that made sense to him.

What onto next then?

Tazzie · 09-10-2012, 01:01 PM

...and that plant that had been emitting tiny flares is no other than the famous Burning Bush. Beezus grinned as she crouched down to get a closer look at the said herb. Then she filled up the table on her parchment, making sure her penmanship wasn't going messy. She needed to have a clean parchment by the end of that task. Yuuup.

SPOILER!!: Castell's parchment

Good. Dittany, her first entry, done! She needed to find four more. Beezus stood up and surveyed the plants around her. Ooooh! She spotted another familiar one yet. An aconite. Hurriedly, the Ravenclaw scurried over to where it was situated.

Magical Soul · 09-10-2012, 01:48 PM

The Ravenclaw turned her attention back to the professor who was now telling them to wander around the greenhouses and conduct an identify table. Oh, wow. This was free activity kind of thing. She took her textbook out from her bag and started flipping through the pages to where Herbs were mentioned.

It wasn't her strongest subject, but the Head Girl knew a little something something about plants. She had her ~~huge~~ textbook open in her arms as she walked sloooooowly around the greenhouse, her eyes squinting, spying and scanning all the plants in the beds. The ones she knew were already claimed by other students, and because she didn't want to be considered a copycat, Louisa skipped those and looked for new plants that matched any of the pictures in the textbook... she didn't have to have firsthand experience with them, right? Because that means she had to pick mint, parsley, and pepper leaves.

Three minutes into staring and comparing plants, one that was in the book came to sight.

SPOILER!!: Parchment

the fastest seeker · 09-10-2012, 02:02 PM

Listening to what Professor Bentley told them about herbs, Cassia was nodding weakly scribbling down what she understood.[/i] the information seemed to be pretty simple but it was Cassia's poor knowledge that was the problem.

They had to take a tour around the greenhouse? Cassia almost opened her mouth to tell the professor that she was fine in her chair it felt comfy and nice. But Professor Bentley wasn't asking for their opinion really so she had no choice.
Letting out a sigh, Cassia reached for her bag and retrieved a parchment and a quill. She drew a chart as instructed. She rose to her feet and started to look around her. Where to start?
She was no expert in plants or herbs or whatever was in this place so might as well she sticks to what she knows.

She started walking around looking for one of the herbs her grandmother tends to mention. Mmm..where are you herb? Could you please be near me?

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