Botany~ Root Week

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Today we were able to get some work done on our botany unit. We were stopped last week by all the spring cleaning, so we never got to the roots. So this week we are exploring how they work, what they do, and what they are sensitive to! We started by talking about the parts of a root and what they do. Usually we use the Montessori botany charts, today I used the plants that we have been growing to illustrate the parts and the jobs of the roots! We were able to see the long roots of the tomato plants, the root hairs and the the root tip. We also could see how the roots in the clear cups started to grow toward the outside, but then turned to go back into the dirt. This allowed us to talk about how roots don’t like the light and will go back toward the dark because the dark is where the water is! Then we went to park to a small pond to see how the roots grow toward the water. I was excited to go because I knew that they would be able to see the roots going right into the pond. It was better then a chart because it was for real! The girls were really interested in seeing the roots all over. We walked along some as far as we could see them and Bunny was impressed by how far they went. It was a great way to explore and discover together!

Exploring how roots grow in all directions

 
These are the roots of our tomato plants. Think its time to transplant? 🙂

This was a tiny plant that we needed to pull because there was another one in the pot. So we talked about how hard it was to pull out of the soil and how roots are there to hold the plant in the ground by forming a network of roots.

Just because they are cute.

Roots along the water that turn and head into the water.

We also got to see some pretty spring wildflowers that were growing! I took some pictures using my new camera and they look so pretty! I wanted to shoe you, even though they don’t have much to do with the root study! 🙂

And this crazy girl is so silly!
 
We had a great time and I am hoping that Bunny will draw some of what we talked about today and write a little bit. I love it when we are able to use real things to explore how things work! It is the beauty of learning and I wouldn’t trade these discovery days for anything!