Seed Dispersal

This week, we studied about how seeds travel and the characteristics of the seeds for each type of dispersal. Our seeds collection came in handy to discuss the adaptation each seed have.

 

Wind Dispersal

I used Tridax and milk weed for parachute seeds, Indian elm and Tecoma stans for flutters and spinners, some Moringa seeds (drumstick), samaras of casuarina pine for helicopter seeds.

Dispersal by Explosion

These seeds were one of our favorite play things in our childhood. We used to keep these in the palm and show them in the sunlight to watch the seeds burst and scatter.

     

Water Dispersal

These are tamanu seeds- an example for drift seeds which I collected in the Tharangambadi (Tranquebar) beach during a visit. Drift seeds like sea beans, coconut, and tamanu seeds are adapted for long distance dispersal by water. 

Animal Dispersal - Food

This is a very common scene in our place which helped us to discuss about animal dispersal.  The bright red banyan fruits are eaten by the crows; the undigested seeds are discharged and germinated somewhere - here on a palm tree.

Animal Dispersal - Hitchhikers

Food Chain and Food Web

We did some exciting activities on food chain and food web this week.  The first one is to make a simple food chain by putting together the animal figurines.    I placed an organism and my daughter has to extend the food chain in either direction to make a food chain or web and will get points according to the length of the chain/web. We also labeled it to learn the food chains vocabulary.

The second one is to place some animal figurines of a habitat and arrange the food web.

Here are few sample questions that I used to find out the food chain or to find out the type of organism.

We read this book again as a part of our lesson and it is one of the best books to go with the lesson.

Study of Periodic Table of Elements

This year 2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT). When I planned to introduce the periodic table of elements, I wanted the lesson to be simple, fun, memorable, and understandable as it is important up to high school.

 We cannot learn any subject, if we do not recognize the connection that has in our daily life.  When we started the study of the periodic table, the first think I did was collecting some elements that we use in our daily life.  I started with showing the stuffs that made up of aluminum, silver, gold, and, copper which my daughter is familiar with. After showing these elements in the periodic table, we started to learn the name of other elements. 

A colorful periodic table, simple information cards, and, the elements collected - that’s all; it makes the learning of periodic table fun and hands-on.

Our lesson covered the following,

·        What are elements?

·        Elements that found in our daily life

·        Total elements found so far, and how they are arranged in the periodic table.

·        Major classifications of elements and their properties.

Light

We reviewed our first part of the study of light. We always love short lessons.  We used our information cards and did some experiments alongside.

Though we use Montessori inspired activities for learning, I don’t know about the assessment methods in Montessori elementary.  I love Singapore question papers and it is really useful to assess whether the child understands the concept.  It is not about how much they score, but about how they think.  Each question is associated with pictures and leads the kids to think.  My little one really enjoys these questions. This is what I prepared from the Singapore primary science papers for the first lesson on light. DOWNLOAD

Human Body: The Internal Organs

Children love to learn anything when they have a realistic model. This week, I want to share our activities on Human Anatomy.

I wanted to make a four part Nomenclature cards to go with the ‘squishy human body model’.  I downloaded the three part cards from here, and make the definition cards separately. My little one matched the picture and name, placed the corresponding organ, and read the information card.

The model is really good.  My little one enjoyed taking the organs out and reassembling it.

If you want, you can download my definition cards here.

Interactive Science Notebook

The interactive science notebook (ISN) is an essential tool in elementary in which a student can record what (s)he observes in the class (or in the nature walk). Interactive notebooks support drawing, writing, and creativity among young children. It also improves the organization skill. We began our ISN recently and here are some glimpses of how it looks.

I like her leaf shaped 'P' in 'Plants'

chromatography for kids

We played color mixing game a long before and here is our color separation experiment.  Chromatography is a process of separating color pigments and it will help us to show how primary colors are mixed together to make the secondary colors.

                        The experiment is very simple. Take a filter paper and draw something in the middle using sketch pens or non permanent markers.  Put few drops of water in the middle and wait for some time.  When the water moves in the filter paper due to capillary action, it separates the color pigments.  Black and brown colors are the best for this experiment.  You can repeat the experiment with different colors and different brands of sketches.