We got a delivery of larvae last Thursday!  They are currently safely ensconced in their own food containers, for the time being.  We will be transferring them to a larger home, very soon, which is prepped with branches for them to wander along and, hopefully, use to hang from when they are ready to form their chrysalises.

We will be learning about the life cycle of the butterfly, and the changes they go through – metamorphosis.

Students put beans (three Lima and one pole bean) into a ziplock bag which contains a damp paper towel.  We will be watching the changes to see if the beans sprout, and how long the different stages of growth take.

Students will be posting their bean bag photos on their individual blog folios.

We have two plants that are the same.  One is on the window sill getting sunlight and water.  The other is under a brown paper bag.  It is getting water but no sunlight.  We will see what happens.

We cut a plant off of its root ball at the soil line.  We stuck the stem back into the soil.  Both plants are getting water, air, and sunlight.

We will monitor them to see what will happen.

We put celery into food coloured water to see what might happen.  We also split the stem of a white flower and put each half into a different container – one with red and white and one with blue food colouring.

The next day we noticed changes in the plants.

We learned that stems have straw-like structures inside their stems.  The job of the stem is to hold up the plant and to suck water up into the plant.

We began our plant unit by discussing what we already know (or think we know) about plants.