Botany Week 5 - Photosynthesis with buttons

I didn't have time to post this last week, so apologies and here it is : )


The girls worked on the structure of leaves, identifying different leaf shapes

and photosynthesis.

I showed the process of photosynthesis (using buttons to create the different molecules)
We started  by making Carbon Dioxide and discussing how the plants absorb it,

then discussing how plants absorb water and made the water molecules.

Plants use these raw ingredients combined with the light energy and chlorophyll to create glucose 

at this point I mixed them all up and remade in the form of glucose

with the remaining Oxygen and Water produced during the process released from the leaf

then, realising its a little hard to remember which colour was suppose to be oxygen and which was hydrogen, I labelled the buttons and left the girls to have a go.

While they wrote up their notebook pages, Rose worked on counting - she had to match the correct number or leaves to each flower.

Critical Thinking Company - TOS Review

I'll be honest  - I came into this review biased as I LOVE The Critical Thinking Company and this was no exception. Anything to stretch their minds and encourage new ways of thinking gets a big thumbs up from me : )

Inference Jones: Beginnings is a workbook, aimed at 3rd & 4th grade, to teach children how to analyse  information (they also sell another book aimed at 5th & 6th grade). It really makes you interpret and think about the  higher level content, the cause/effect and encourages you to draw your own conclusions.
The activities encourage reading comprehension as well as literary analysis. Topics covered include: analysing character traits, identifying a theme, identifying settings, sequencing events, distinguishing fact vs inferred details and reading for detail.

The book consists of 18 activities - a short story (approximately 20 sentences) and an average of 10 questions. Some questions require you to consider what is explicitly stated (true, false and unknown) other questions ask you to 'infer' and give a reason why you think that. 

The girls thoroughly enjoyed the activities and I loved that there was no teacher preparation required (bar printing) - the book is even perforated for easy copying and comes complete with an answer key. 

I received a pdf version but you can buy the Inference Jones: Beginnings book for $11.99 

You can read what my crew mates thought of the Inference Jones and other products from Critical Thinking Company here.

Disclaimer: I received a free pdf version in exchange for an open and honest review.

Stamping Plurals

Tulip has been working on plurals this week. We started with the normal plural box

and ended up with a reading/stamping exercise - she had to read the words and stamp the correct number of stamps (i.e. one 'sun' stamp and two or three for 'dogs')

Botany Week 4 - Pollination and seed dispersal

For Botany this week we studied pollination - looking at why pollinators are attracted to flowers,

how the pollen gets transferred between plants (Sunflower was our pollinator in this photo, with some sticky tape on her finger)

and looked at the different types of pollinating animals. We also looked at the stages of plant fertilisation.


We followed this by looking at the different methods of seed dispersal. I tried to get a real life example as well as a hands on example (so Velcro dots to demonstrate how burrs work)


Zoochory - dispersal via animals (i.e. burrs that stick to an animals fur, seeds that pass through the gut and animals burying nuts for later consumption)

Anemochory - wind dispersal (like dandelion seeds blown by the wind and maple seed helicopters) The balloon was filled with flour so they could see how it would disperse when the 'seed pod' burst and the grass had some flour on that they could blow.

They did make paper helicopter seeds - unfortunately I didn't have a real life example for this one but I think they got the idea

Hydrochory - water dispersal (seeds that float on currents to new locations.)

Ocean Workshop

We spent a lovely day yesterday at a Home Ed group - we worked to an ocean theme.
There was a wonderful drawing table (the kids got to take home some mermaid purses and some fish eggs from this table)

Fish dissection - the all loved this : )

A water pressure experiment and looking at the golden ratio/ how it is used in nature, specifically in the Nautilus. They even made an origami nautilus.

A look at the different creatures living at various depths,

a barnacle study,

and a great art activity - a 3D ocean picture