Plants: Birds Nests

How Animals and People Use Plants

The children have explored the idea that people and animals use plants for food, particularly berries.

Are there other ways people and animals use plants?

By webbing their discussion and drawing arrows to make connections, the children thought about ways we use trees for building our homes and how animals, particularly birds, use trees to build their nests. 

They examined some real nests and looked at the materials birds used to build them and we watched a video of a hummingbird building a nest.

The children were ready to build a nest of their own!

It didn't take long for the children to notice that their nests looked different than each others. This was an opportunity to practice open mindedness; there is more than one way to build a nest. In nature different birds build different kinds of nests and our little group of "birds" built a diverse collection of nests!

Plants: Where Does Mould Grow?

Discovering mould in the seed sprouting experiment prompted another experiment to find out where mould grows. Upon researching and learning that mould is a plant that grows from spores the children selected items for the experiment. After being kept in a closed container for a week the results were observed.

Mould did not grow on water but it did grow on the apple slice, cherry tomato, cream cheese, and soggy crackers! Interestingly mould did not grow on the store bought cinnamon roll!! Hmmmmm kinds of makes you wonder . . . .

 Children's Observations: 

"It didn't grow (on water) because it's not food" Jayla
(Mould didn't grow the on the cinnamon bun either, could it be that this isn't food either!! Just kidding .  . . sort of)

"The food is changing!" Rielle

"It looks like spider webs." Rylan

"It didn't grow on the bun" Tyreese

What else grows from spores? We researched and learned that mould, moss, algae, ferns and mushrooms all grow from spores. Although mushrooms are neither a plant nor animal but have their own kingdom: Fungi

 The children play amongst ferns everyday in the forest. A closer examination on the underside of the fern fronds revealed spores.

Recreating Science in Art
The children painted fern fronds and used a pencil tip dipped in brown paint to paint spores. It was a great opportunity for them to use this new vocabulary!

Plants: Who Eats Berries?

Line of Inquiry: How people and animals use plants

It's a very exciting time of year as the first berries of the season are beginning to ripen.

It's Salmon Berry time!

A walk in the forest provided many opportunities to pick berries. "This is like an Easter egg hunt!" said Esme. The children were determined to pick as many as they could and ventured deep into the bushes.

During group time the children answered the question "Who eats berries?" and they all responded that they do. "Who else eats berries?" They came up with several ideas: bears, birds, seagulls, crows, eagles. We watched several videos of animals that eat berries and added them to our web; squirrels,
racoons, and coyotes.

.

"Do you think we should eat all the berries in the forest?

"No, we should share them with the wild animals" said Esme

Oliver had a different idea "We can eat all the berries we can eat and leave the berries we can't eat for the animals, like the ones that are poison for people."

The children represented their knowledge in art and created a salmon berry bush, using Lego bricks to stamp berries. They added pictures of animals found in Pacific Spirit Park that eats berries and they included a picture of themselves!

Plants: Did It Sprout? Discovering Mould!

We carefully unwrapped the paper towels from last weeks experiment to see if any seeds sprouted. Just as they thought, the seeds did not sprout in the vinegar and chips but they were surprised at the results of the oil and water . . . everyone was sure that since the paper towel included water the seed would sprout . . . but no! Milk didn't sprout the seed either.

 We came to the last cup containing juice and what a surprise!! The seed didn't sprout but SOMETHING was growing . . . mould!

"What's mould?" they wanted to know. I researched their question and we learned that mould is a plant in the fungus family, it doesn't grow from seeds but from spores, which are in the air all around us, and it grows on wet food.

This discovery prompted a new experiment "Where will mould grow?" Back to the kitchen we went to find items that might allow mould to grow. They selected cream cheese, cherry tomato, slice of apple, water, soggy crackers. Everyone had an opportunity to make a prediction. Before making her guess Rielle wanted to know if the item is wet, she remembered that mould needs wet conditions to grow. All the items got a mix of of predictions, Rylan is the only one who thought that none of the items will grow mould. We shall see!!