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!