Almost two weeks ago we challenged all of our students to take a peek at changes that are happening outside as spring started, warmer weather has been coming our way and we have more hours of daylight. I have really enjoyed observing the flowers blooming in my own garden and posting photos here to share with you since we can't be in our classroom together. I hope some of you have been able to get outside and make your own observations of where you live!
3/18/20
From bud to blossom. WHEN will my tree
look like this?
Let's take it back to the beginning to see some of the changes that have taken place. Look at the forsythia tree buds from 3/18/20. I notice they are pretty tightly closed and they have a dark covering over the buds, they are mostly brown in color. They look a lot different than the bright yellow blossoms that will be blooming.....soon?
I didn't observe much change 3/20/20
WOW! Snow came on 3/24/20
It didn't seem to harm the buds on the tree
I WONDER....do you think that dark covering over the buds and having them closed tightly helped protect the flower that is growing inside? I sure hope so!
3/27/20
I observed the buds looking a little lighter in color but about the same size, showing very little blooming progress. This weekend I decided to cut some branches and bring them inside to put them in a vase with water.
Forsythia and Pussy Willow branches
on my dining room table
You may notice in the vase there are some other branches that my daughter Evi put in there. These are pussy willow branches that we discovered on one of our walks. The soft fuzzy little nubs were fun to touch and really did remind us of our cats' paws which the branch is named for.
Now it's time for PREDICTIONS 1. Think about the bud photos that I have posted above. Did you observe anything different than what I observed? 2. Do you think bringing some of the branches inside will change anything about the buds? If you say "YES" please post in the comments below your prediction of WHAT WILL HAPPEN and WHY. WE HAVE FLOWERS!
Let's look at the stages of blossoming!
first the bud turned green
then the bud started to open, flower petals are obvious
the end of the bud turned yellow
the petals started to open
TA-DA!!
Time lapse video of flower opening overnight
This is what the pussy willow looked like when we put it in water with the forsythia
My kids Owen and Evi helped me do an activity to go along with our kindergarten learning about snow! If you are older you can do the activity too, test your knowledge of states of matter! I hope you got outside to play in the snow!
Our forsythia was covered in snow but it is a strong and healthy tree, a little snow won't keep it from blooming when it is time!
We call this bird feeder "Cat TV". You can see my Maine coon cat, Lovey, is a little confused by the snow. I think she is wondering if there will be any friends who will come to the feeder today to entertain her!
My crazy son can't get enough skiing! This is Owen's old pair of skis, do you notice anything strange about what he is wearing?
Covering our irises yesterday helped the warmth from the ground keep the flowers protected enough that they made it through the snow storm just fine!
I love to snowshoe! Comment below on what you did today, we would love to hear from you!
Wow! I wasn't expecting to get so much snow last night! I hope kindergarten students remembered the books we read in STEAM like Snowflake Bentley who loved snow so much he started studying snowflakes and taking photographs of them! I went outside and watched the flakes fall onto my black paper and tried to get some photographs to share with you!
I measured the snow that fell on my deck railing, it was about one marker high, or nearly 6 inches!
I have a snowball experiment I want to to do with you so I will make a video to post soon! What fun things will you do in the snow today? I can't wait to snowshoe around my house and my kids and I want to make snow angels and maybe jump on our trampoline in the snow!
It was a beautiful sunshiny weekend! The flowers were as happy to have the sun shining on them as I was, even if it was a little chilly it still felt nice to be outside! What did you do over the weekend? My family went for a lot of walks. We walked on trails in the woods and even got to Pine Point to walk along the ocean at low tide. There were other people and dogs on the beach but we were very careful to stay a safe distance from everyone, at low tide there was so much sand to walk on! Can you believe it is supposed to snow this evening!?
The forsythia bush is still trying to open it's buds into bright yellow blossoms. With snow on the way I am going to cover up the mini irises to help protect them from the cold. Our pretty purple patch has grown!
Matter is anything that takes up space. Matter can be in the state of a solid, liquid or gas. You can change the state of matter by changing the temperature. Follow the steps below to learn more.
States of Matter: 1. Listen to the read-a-loud Burn by Darcy Pattison
2. Watch the following video and follow the instructions. You will need a piece of paper, a pencil, a blue crayon and red crayon.
3. Name the 3 states of matter. How can you change matter's state?
4. Watch the next video about Reversible or Irreversible Changes.
5. Learn more from Brainpopjr. Click on the links below and see what Moby and Annie have to say about Matter.
Hi Everyone!
Happy Spring! It isn't nearly as nice outdoors today as it was yesterday but I took a photo of my forsythia tree, not much has happened yet.
Looking ahead to tomorrow there might be periods of showers but the high temperature is going to be 60ºF! What are you plans today? What will you do tomorrow when it is warmer outside?
