Botany~ Leaf Week

This has been a rather interesting week full of fun and friends, but not as much work. However, we did get some fun botany in this week (along with some other things)! We were talking about the parts of a leaf, what a leaf does for the plant, and about a few of the different types of leaves. We didnt get everything in that I wanted to, but we did do some of it! Bunny told me that she thinks she is learning to love school work again, so we must have done something right! ;) Here is some of the things we did in Botany.

We explored the parts of a leaf by using a real plant! Since spring had decided to hide again and there is not much growing, I was very thankful for the plants that I did have in my house! It turned out perfect for looking at the parts of a leaf!

Pup and I did the parts of the leaf with the Montessori Botany Puzzle and with the traditional 3 part cards. She was mildly interested, but had other work that she needed to get back to.

Bunny and I went deeper. She found the parts on the plant. We then talked about how the plant makes its own food. I used a combination of presentations. I like how my albums talked about it simply with the chart. However, the Waseca Biome Study really described the way the molecules work together and how the leaf puts out oxygen. The Waseca Study explains how to demonstrate this using a group of kids, I used buttons instead. When I explained it that way, Bunny had an Aha moment! We used the buttons on a leaf and moved them around showing how the leaf takes in carbon dioxide and water. Then we see how the sunlight breaks the water molecule apart and and the hydrogen molecules hook up to the carbon dioxide! Then it is easy to see how the oxygen is free to go out into the air. The Botany chart I made illustrated that and Bunny loved it!

 

We also talked about the stomata that allow the gases to come in and out of the leaf. We were not able to see them on out plants without a microscope. However, we did an experiment where we put some fresh leaves in water and left it in the sun for a couple of hours. The time allowed the oxygen in the leaves to come out and form bubbles on and around the leaves! Bunny was amazed! I had forgotten about it and Bunny ran it to me and was SO excited to show me the bubbles!

 

Finally, we also finished up some of our other experiments from last week. Our seed experiment about the needs of plants work out pretty well (i may have accidentally let then dry out over the weekend). We did see that they all sprouted except the one with no water. Then we noticed that only the one with everything started to grow a little bit. It had the small leaves starting.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Bunny's report on the experiment!

 

We also measured the seedlings again! They are exploding! I really dont know what I am going to do with them! I am defiantly going to need to transplant them. Unfortunately it will at least be a few more weeks before I can plant them outside. By then I will have zucchini all over the house! We will see what happens! They grew about an inch in a week!

 

Another thing that Bunny is doing alot of is copy work! I have taken the three part cards  from Karen Tyler's Course and photo copied then next to line paper. I then wrote out definitions for each part of the leaf, plant, flower, root, and stem. Bunny then takes blank one and copies the words and colors the picture. Pretty simple, but she is really loving it! It is a really great way for her to start practicing her handwriting and getting those letter going the right way!

Here is Bunny's

Here is Mine. She did a pretty good job didnt she!

Hers above, mine below!

 

She has done a couple of the parts of a leaf. I included the ones she hasnt done yet too so you can see the definitions in case you want them!

 

So there you have our Botany for the week! I didnt get time to go into different shapes of leaves yet, but we will soon. Plus I wanted to take a leaf walk, but the rain and cold has made it really hard to get out. Maybe tomorrow! I hope you have had a good school week too! If you have a favorite botany idea, share it in the comments! Happy Schooling everyone!