12 popular posts for 2012

 Thank you to everyone who visited our blog this year! We would like to wish you a happy, healthy and blessed New Year! The 12 most visited posts were....

Sandwich graphic organizer: elements of a story

Christmas Science Project collection

Charlotte's web Lap book and unit study

Our 2012 Advent plans

Pre K Learning with Candy canes

Christmas (Multi age) Hands on Math

Plant Science Lapbook and unit study

Prek: Letters to St Nick, Gingerbread Men math

Pre K Turkey and Christmas fun

The Piwis make their own Shopping ABC book

Human Body Unit & Lap book

Piwi Explorers 'visit' China

Woolly Aphid Nature study

This week, I was once again reminded that I should spend more time looking at things through the eyes of an inquisitive child.

Piwi Dad called the kids out to see something on the patio on Sunday. What he had spotted was what looked like a tiny bit of dryer fluff 'walking' along the patio toward the garden. Miss K theorized it was an ant carrying some fuzz. I carefully picked it up and discovered that under the fuzz was definitely not an ant but an odd little grayish white bug with lots of legs. The Piwis were convinced it needed to be looked at closely so it was put into an old huggies wipes container with some leaves.

The new species guess was that it was like an insect version of the Decorator crab Miss K recalled from the Aquarium earlier this year. Off to google we went and a quick search of 'fluffy insects' made us realize that we were harboring the crop destroying Woolly Aphid or Mealy bug. This of course did not deter the Piwis who insisted on bringing it more leaves. I could see the irony...for the years I had heard my green thumbed Grandad talk about how bad aphids were on roses etc and now we were looking after their furry cousins. A quick search of the garden turned up an Orange tree covered in Mealy bugs and other pests...The Landlord has probably got a insect battle on their hands. We, on the other hand, had a mini ecosystem (literally) on our doorstep to spend the day observing.


The eggs on this leaf have yet to be determined. It is not likely a Mealy bug as it is not fluffy 

The observation turned into a Mealy bug research report....and a mini Lapbook

The Front cover of the Lapbook and Mini Piwi's little book she made about ladybugs.

I'm not sure how clear this is, but here Miss K has written some of what she learnt about Mealy Bugs...including 'Farmers and Gardeners think they are pests, I think they are cute and fuzzy. Ladybugs eat them'.

Plant unit wrap-up

I wanted to show off all the hard work Miss K put into her Plant unit Study!
Here is the finished (very large) lapbook...



Parable of the sower mini book , collage of plants we eat, definition of vegetable and drawings of favorite veggies

List of what we use plants for, edible plant part match up

Labeling plant parts, observation of a plant (snapdragon)

Definition of a stem, Results from an investigation of water flow through a celery stem

Labeling of a seed, observation of a soaked chickpea

Leaf study

Definition of roots and Chlorophyll minibook

Leaf mini book

Definition of fruit and flowers and drawings of favorites

Types of tree word find, tree part labeling

How maple syrup is made mini book

What I learn't about trees by Miss K

 Resources
I made up most of the lap book parts with the activities and worksheets from this book:
It seems to be out of print but it still looks readily available on amazon, alibris and ebay for less than $10. It is full of great resources for plants, animals, the human body, geology, forces...

Here is a list and the links to of all our activities:
Stems are plant straws: learning how plants transport water
Organic gardening kit -Growing tomatoes and lettuce
Seed germination experiment:
Mini House
Community garden nature study
Deciduous and Evergreen tree hunt nature study
Making seed 'handbags'

 

Online resources we used

Parable of the sower resources (including the mini book we used)
Community garden locator for nature studies
Tree shape printable for poems, writing etc
www.seedsofchange.com
Parts of plant worksheet
TLC Plant activities for kids
Science game for kids -Grow your own plants

Plant Science Lapbook and Unit study

All the Plant activities the Piwi's did in the last few months have finally come together in a (very large) lap book.

Parable of the sower, plant parts, plant observation and plant uses



Science experiment report, Fruit and flowers, Tree parts and types. The space is for Miss K's tree poem



Seed dissection report and diagram, seed types, leaf studies,

Here is a list and the links to of all our activities:

Mini Green House

Stems are plant straws: learning how plants transport water

Organic gardening kit -Growing tomatoes and lettuce

Seed germination experiment:  

Community garden nature study

Deciduous and Evergreen tree hunt nature study

Lap book assembly:

Many of the mini books are filled with the activities and worksheets from this book:
It seems to be out of print but it still looks readily available on amazon, alibris and ebay for less than $10. It is full of great resources for plants, animals, the human body, geology, forces...

You can see all of Miss K's hard work in her Lapbook here in the Plant Wrap up
Online Resources:

Parable of the sower resources (including the mini book we used)
Community garden locator for nature studies
Tree shape printable for poems, writing etc
www.seedsofchange.com
Parts of plant worksheet
TLC Plant activities for kids
Science game for kids -Grow your own plants

Nature Study: Evergreen and Deciduous trees

The week's nature study had the Piwi's searching for Evergreen trees and Deciduous trees.

Cones and needles on an evergreen

Deciduous leaf rubbing

Miss K does a Deciduous bark rubbing and Mini Piwi collects leaves