Sharing what we've been up to for Science this summer with Exploring Creation with Botany.
This is my second time through this book in my homeschool and it is one of my favorites of all the books in the Young Explorer series that we've been through so far (which is all but the newest one).
So far we are averaging about a week per unit (with a few weeks off for vacation and summer camps), so we need a good 6 more weeks of summer to finish if we stay on track.
We are using the printable notebooking pages available in the Extras link mentioned in the book.
Here's what we've been up to. . .
Lesson 1: Intro to Botany, Taxonomy, Angiosperms, Gymnosperms, Seedless Vascular and Nonvascular Plants
Building a light hut
Designing a notebook cover
Notebooking for Lesson 1
Examining a been seed embryo
Labeling the parts of a seed
Learning about seeds
and finding unusual seed coats.
Creating our own seeds and plants they grow into: "The Bee Plant" and "The Creeping Vinebury"
Writing up lab reports a.k.a. scientific speculation sheets
Learning about monocots and dicots
Finding examples of monocots
Witnessing the start of a strawberry, which led nicely into our next lesson
Lesson 3: Flowers
Dissecting a flower
Naming flower parts
Labeling flower parts
Labeling a flower
Creating flowers ~ the Lion Plant and the Firefly Plant - the flowers light up like fireflies :)
Learning about pollinators
We studied butterflies in more depth for Bo's row of Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?
Learning about seed dispersal
Learning about human seed dispersal :)
And animal dispersal
Counting seeds for a spiritual application
Learning one seed produces many seeds, so plant those seeds!
Learning all about fruits.
We are off to a good start on Lesson 6 so I hope to catch up this week and finish leaves and start roots. Then we're off to stems, trees, and gymnosperms!
You may have noticed that some of our learning tied in nicely with our row of The Carrot Seed. Love that!
Hope you are having a great summer! Wish I could say I'd be back with some great back-to-school posts, but I can't. We are still very much in summer mode and will be through the month of August.♥