the Pony Reins are done!
we sit by the hawthorn tree and read the story of Teasel and Tweed from A Donsy of Gnomes... do gnomes use these thorns as their knitting needles?
unwinding a ball of yarn to make a magical path for a friend to follow,
with a surprise Nature Treasure at the end of it
harvesting microgreens
building with the amazing donation of bamboo we got! thank you!
collecting mulch to use as the floors for their forts
watching a pan of hot Homemade Chocolate Pudding cool so we can see firsthand how the cracks fomed in the skin of Early Earth
making instant chocolate pudding for sensory play
the horses love to roll in chocolate pudding "mud" and then get a bath with the hose!
observing the changes in the buckeye tree
after the flower withers comes the fruit
a review of Photosynthesis
hooray! the new Goobi kits are here!
an intense converation on where Fungi fall in the Tree of Life
writing in plan books at the end of each day
and color coding our work by subject area
elaborate plant maze designs continue
and I repurpose an old beat-up dresser into TMEPMOAT
The Most Epic Plant Maze Of All Time
we lay pieces of cardboard down on the drawer supports to make the partitions in the maze
and we close it up tightly
good luck, little plant!
Ms. Aimee brings us delicious candied mint and lemon balm leaves, a delicious introduction to our first plant family
collecting samples from the Mint Family for sketching in the MLB
drawing Woolly Lamb's Ear
some quiet work time in the Library
our adult ladybugs begin to hatch out and we feed them soft soaked raisins
did you know that newly hatched adults are yellow? this is the color of their blood
learning how to refill the table correctly is part of being certified to use the Water Pump
the Umbellifers!!!!
students always sketch before writing their rough draft of their summary (this is usually about how to identify plants in this family, along with a list of example plants)
this material is used for hands-on Long Multiplication problems (for a number up to the hundred millions place times up to a four digit multiplier)
I buy some new pepper plants and we add them to the garden
filling up watering cans from the pump
and the youngest children carefully collect the watering cans at the end of each day and make sure we have all three
experiments with celery
many children already know that the vascular bundles in celery will move red and blue food coloring up to its leaves...
but what about green food coloring?
we wonder if it will show up at all
and what about food items, like chocolate syrup?
would they travel up to the leaves? could you taste them?
we are grateful to have the canopies for playing board games outside
of course, it works well for card games too
within just a few hours, the colors are starting to show up
a list of our garden plants from this family
the colors just get stronger and stronger
it is so fun to watch
surprisingly, the olive oil completely kills the celery
yes, the green does show up!
we check the carrot seedlings and, sure enough, we find that the cotyledons do not but the true leaves DO show the pattern of the plant family
looking through seed packet photos, we are able by sight to identify Lovage as being in the Parsley family and Summer Savory as being in the Mints
happily rolling the water bottles up the driveway after the delivery service drops them off
the Tree of Life from Waseca Biomes
it is astonishing how strong these colors are
and our little plant in TMEPMOAT is stretching valiantly towards the light
testing a pack of watermelon seeds to see if they will still germinate
if seeds planted in a pot with soil don't seem to be coming up, we test them by taking a few and putting them in a wet folded paper towel in a ziploc bag
then we simply peel back the paper towel and keep tabs on their progress
success!!!!
our swarm trap catches the last swarm of the season
we decide to combine all the Goobit kits and keep them in the train table, so that enormous structures can be built and so that no pieces will be lost
each day a new pair of children gets to put Goobi in their plan
we can only keep the ladybugs for one week after the adults hatch (this is the day with the star by it), so soon it will be time to let them go
peeling back all of the layers of a Brussels sprout
the pattern of plants in the Mustard Family
the sunchokes are coming up nicely in their big pot
I love their beautiful fuzziness
carefully caring for the garden plants
thank you for the donation of the lovely mushroom compost!!!
we sprinkle it generously around each plant
happily, our lettuce is coming back after being nibbled all away
and our zucchini didn't make it but our summer squash is looking great
making patterns and designs with dried beans
today we let the ladybugs free in our vegetable garden, where we hope they will be very happy
everyone is excited to be able to see them close up
good luck, little ladybugs!
I suddenly realize that this tree in my yard is a legume!
it is so interesting -- and useful -- to study plants by their patterns
I am planning on having all the red bud trees cut down on Saturday, so it is really good timing that they are still here while we are doing this family!
I send the children out to walk through the yard... can you find a tree that's in the Pea Family?
fun with the Nitrogen Cycle Tapestry, which we wove together in class over the course of a year
the Pea Family feast was a great success, and may have been the favorite
pea shoots
green beans
sugar snap peas and snow peas
fresh tamarind pods
tamarind candy
the tamarind pods are so fascinating to explore, and yummy
here's a tamarind seed
trimmings from a neighbor's Japanese Maple tree
playing with the figures from the Ladybug Life Cycle
writing a rough draft and getting an edit
we go through this process every day for the MLB
a beautiful drawing of the flower pattern for the Pea Family
amazingly, every little piece of the clover blossom follows this pattern
Water Day every Wednesday!
instead of writing every child's initials on his/her pencils as a way of keeping track of whose are whose, I decide to try giving everyone a unique color of Dixon Ticonderoga pencil
it is a huge success, so I will definitely keep this routine going for next year
I give each child a holographic pencil to keep at home and we add the striped ones to the basket with the gratitude journals
talking about Medel's experiments within the context of the Pea Family leads us into dominant and recessive genes... and Punnett Squares with Legos!
here, red is dominant and blue is recessive
a dragon with two red genes will have red eyes
a dragon with one red and one blue will also have red eyes
and the lucky dragon with two recessive blue genes will have blue eyes!!!
our little plant in the gigantic plant maze is struggling, so we move it up a few shelves
Ms. Aimee explains the puzzle of seedless watermelon...
and, as it turns out, the Lego bricks have a lot to do with it!
our feast for the Gourd Family
our new cucumber seedlings
I love the beautiful spirals
children continue to adopt and plant seeds that they are interested in
one wants to try some more microgreens
the mung beans go in a pot on Thursday, June 10
one starts our Pumpkin Patch, planting several varieties of heirloom seeds within a protective cage to keep the tender plants away from curious deer
watering the seeds and staking down the cage
it is so fun to see how a bean plant comes from a bean
and you can still see the two halves of the bean!
Ms. Aimee brings the most beautiful books to show us
writing in the MLB in beautiful Chancery Script with a special green pen
green for Botany, of course!
a friend stops by, curious about the Fraction work
Guess Who!
on Saturday the men come and cut down all of the unwanted volunteer trees
now our garden beds will have so much more sunshine!
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Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
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