First Years, Lesson Two

After reading carefully through the introductory quiz he gave his students on the first day, Professor Landon Carter was feeling very confident that he would have a good year this year. Many of the students seemed eager to learn which lifted Landon's spirits up. The man was at the front of his classroom lining up each and every tool that they would be using throughout their time in the course on the table at the front of the room. He knew that going through each and every tool individually would be boring and time consuming and so he wanted to make it fun. To do this, Landon had set up a game for the students to play. A great section of the Greenhouse had been cleared of plant rows in favour of wooden pallets that were filled with many different kind of dirt and sand. There were six in all, each measuring two by two meters. If the children did not find this fun, he would not know what else to do.

When everyone started filing in group by group, Landon greeted them all with a smile. "Please stand next to a pallet each." he told them as they made their way inside. Once he was sure that everyone was there, he began his lesson. "Today we are going to be learning about each and every tool in Herbology. With me here I have a spade, a mattock, a spading fork, a draw hoe, a rake, pruning shears and a few little wheelbarrows." Landon pointed to each one as he said them, making sure that the students knew which ones were which. "In each pallet in front of you there are different kinds of dirt. Every different kind of soil has nutrients and densities perfect for the plants that grow native in them. Sandy soil is better for shrivelfigs, heavy and clay-like for Mandrakes, light and dry for bouncing bulbs and so on. We're going to get to know the soil and the tools we use for Herbology by going on a little treasure hunt." Looking around the room, the man could see some of the student's faces light up, and he just smiled at them all, glad that they were already liking the sound of the day's lesson.

There were no rules as such, but there were some interesting prizes and results. Buried beneath the pallets were a mixture of knuts and sickles, the latter being further down in the piles and harder to reach. Also in the soil, however, were twelve raw eggs spread between the six pallets. Professor Carter instructed the students to attempt to retrieve as many knuts and sickles as they pleased using the tools. Successfully rescuing an egg from the dirt and returning it to him would grant the lucky student/s one galleon. There was a catch; each witch and wizard could only touch the dirt with the tools. By experimenting with each set with each soil and finding out which worked best, everyone had a chance of winning the knuts, sickles and perhaps a galleon or two. Landon encouraged the students to rotate around the pallets to work with different tools and soils. By the end of the lesson there were many grubby, sweaty and happy students.

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Assignment: Roleplay the lesson, and have fun! The first five people who take the time to have their character find an egg will receive extra points in lieu of actual money.
 
Lewis grinned when he looked at the set up, entering the greenhouses. The wooden pallets made Lewis think they would be doing some digging or something perhaps. He quickly moved to find a spot that he thought would be the most profitable in terms of what they were looking for. He rolled the sleeves of his robes up and stuck them to the button his dad had sewn into the top so that he didn't have to hold them. The professor explained the activity and Lewis went ahead and started digging through the clay soil. He started the the spading fork and just kept going, prodding sometimes to see what happened. "One egg safe and whole professor!"
 
Nik wasn't a massive fan of the fact that it appeared they would be playing in dirt once again today. That was never fun for her, but she supposed it could have been worse. She takes a deep breath and heads into the dirt packed pallet, listening to the professor as he tells them the important stuff. She knew he was the head of house for Eury, she'd heard about him often enough over dinner in the holidays, but she didn't know much about him outside of that. She finds a finds some of the knuts in the dirt but focuses on finding an egg, which she eventually does, pulling it out of the dirt and showing it to the professor.​
 
Taylor was pretty happy to be heading into the greenhouse and even happier when she realised that they would be hunting for a prize, a bit of a treasure hunt she supposed. She grabbed her spading fork and started digging liking that they were able to use the tools when honestly she would have just done it with her hands, she was a good digger honestly and she was good at finding things. She managed to unearth a couple of knuts and then laughed at how sweaty she was getting. She kept digging finding everything she needed to until the class was over.​
 

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