Fungi, Fungi Everywhere!

To conclude our collecting and examining life unit, the children learned about fungus.  They learned that different fungi such as mushrooms and mold are living things.  We collecting mold spores on bread to create our very own mold farms.  We then provided our mold farms with a moist, dark environment.  The children took pictures of their mold farms using both the digital camera and proscope to compare the different kinds of mold that we found.

  

  

We found green mold, black mold and some white mold.  Some of our mold was also "fuzzy" looking!




Here are pictures of our mold under the proscope digital microscope:

More Plant Parts!

After learning about leaves, the children learned about roots, fruit and seeds. We learned that the scientific definition of fruit is any part of the plant that contains seeds. We talked about how this is different from what we typically think of when we hear the word "fruit." We looked at many different types of fruit and dissected them to look for seeds. We then compared many of these seeds with seeds that we brought in from home. The students watched a short YouTube video on how seeds travel. They then sorted their seeds based upon how they predicted that they would travel from place to place. Finally, we placed both a lima bean seed and a corn seed in a warm moist environment to see what would happen!
To conclude our learning about plants, we dissected flowers to find the different parts of the plants that we have learned about. The students took pictures of their flowers and flower parts using a digital camera and the digital microscope. These are becoming very comfortable using both of these technologies to enhance their learning!
During the next few weeks, the students will be completing a performance assessment in the LMC to show what they have learned about plants and their parts.  They will use the pictures that they have taken with the digital camera and proscope to complete this project!  Check back often to see these projects!

Here are some of the pictures that the students took:

Our Flower!

Petals from our flower

Our Petal under the digital microscope

Leaves with digital camera

Pistil with Digital Camera

Pistil with Digital Microscope

Stamen with Digital Microscope

Stamen with Digital Camera

Stem with Digital Camera

Leaves, Leaves, Falling Down!

The students recently spent some time observing leaves during our Collecting and Examining Life Unit. We preserved leaves from our fall wild walk for this special activity. The students worked in small groups to sort our leaves by various attributes.


Untitled from Julie Cowen on Vimeo.

Untitled from Julie Cowen on Vimeo.


Our little scientists are quickly becoming experts on using our digital microscope (proscope) to make observations about living things. They looked closely at our leaves and recorded some of their observations. Check out their thoughts below!

Untitled from Julie Cowen on Vimeo.

This activity helped the children to learn that leaves and flat in order to collect sunlight that is then turned into food!