Plant Experiments cont.

The blue container has their carnivorous plants. Thin red shoots have started to sprout!

The container next to it has their flowers. I moved the pots into an old grapes punnet so it'd be easier to transfer them to the window sill each day. 🌞 They've sprouted nicely and the girls are excited to check on them each morning! 🌺🌼🌸

The small container on the right has an abundance of cress seeds. 🌿🌿🌿 There were a few seeds left in the packet but not enough worth saving, so we decided to sow them all into one small container (old hummus pot!) and see if being overcrowded made a difference to their growth. 😁

The container at the front has 4 pots (old yoghurt pots in an old mushroom punnet!) from their cress experiment (the 5th pot being in the cupboard so it gets no sunlight!). In clockwise order from the top left: no water, no air, no soil, control. The girls predicted that only the control pot would grow, so they were surprised to see the seeds in the no soil pot were sprouting! So maybe the ones in the other pots, under the soil where they can't see them, are sprouting too? But how well will they grow? More waiting to see, inshaAllah! We only planted them on Friday so this photo is only day 2 of their growth. 🌱

The overcrowded pot had some seeds pressed against the side of the container, so they could easily see those ones sprouting. InshaAllah they'll be able to see the roots growing and spreading out as the days progress, too. 😄😄

On a particularly sunny day, the girls noticed that the plants on the windowsill were bending over. Which direction were they bending and why? M said they were trying to get closer to the light (she remembered seeing it a previous year in the kitchen when we were growing green beans!) so I thought I'd teach them the word phototropism. They didn't want their plants wonky, so what could we do to make them straight? Turn them around! When we checked back on them a few hours later, they were growing straight up again. 😄

When they told Papa later that they'd seen phototropism on the windowsill, they were happy to see him both surprised and confused. 😂 Then I got them to explain to him what it meant - which he remembered learning about in secondary school. 😂😂

[EDIT:]

Day 4: All the plants in our cress experiment have sprouted! But why? 😙

clockwise from bottom left: 1, 2, 3, 4

5

1) Control - everything is as expected!
2) No water - because the soil was damp when we started, even though we've not added any more.
3) No air - because there was some air in the soil/under the lid to begin with, maybe? And every time we water them, we take off the lid and let air in... We changed to lid to clingfilm so it wasn't pushing down on the plants.
4) No soil - because the water woke up the seeds, but they've not grown properly because they've got nothing to hold them up or give them nutrients!
5) No light - because the seed doesn't need light to sprout, the plant only needs light once it's grown leaves to absorb it... And every time we open the cupboard door, they get a little bit of light... M noticed they were yellow though!

The above is what the girls came up with, with some discussion. So what do they expect to see happen next? That only the control cress will grow and the others will begin to die as more time goes on. 😏

As for the overcrowded pot, they're all growing well at the moment. It's really interesting to look through the container and see the roots spreading out and the shoots breaking through the soil!

The flowers are still growing well and the carnivorous plants are growing too but more slowly in comparison. 😁

[EDIT:]

Day 8:

The no soil pot was beginning to smell so we threw it away! Why was it so smelly? Because the plants which weren't growing were starting to rot. 😷

[EDIT:]

Day ??:

I stopped keeping track of this lol.

The overcrowded one was too overcrowded! The plants pushed the soil out and made a mess (why? brief lesson on displacement!) and we compared the size of the cress to the control... Some of them weren't growing as much because they didn't have enough water/nutrients from having to share and others had grown bigger because they had taken most of the nutrients/water. Then we threw the pot away after seeing what would happen if we stopped watering them too. 😂

The cress with no light had withered and turned yellow, so we threw that away too. The girls came to the conclusion plants turn yellow/lose their green colour when they don't have enough light.

The no water cress had started out growing better than the control! But eventually they wilted and we could see the effects of not watering them - this was a few days after we threw the pot away which had no light. M was confident this was because the soil was already damp when we sowed the seeds, because otherwise they shouldn't have been able to grow at all! We also noticed how the flowers they'd planted needed to be watered every 1-2 days or they started to wilt, whereas the cress seemed like it could go a long time without needing any extra water - so even though all plants need the same things to survive, they don't all need the same amounts of them. This led to a discussion about cacti because deserts don't have much water at all but cacti can still grow there. 🌵🌸

[image]

The no air cress was still growing well in comparison. Why? The girls suggested it was because they kept getting air whenever we watered them, so really it was getting everything just like the control was! The clingfilm lid was stopping the cress from growing taller though, which is why they were bent over. When we looked more closely, we could see that some of the plants were turning brown. Maybe this was an effect of not having enough air?

[image]

The control pot was still growing and all the cress was still alive. The only confusing thing was that there were less shoots in there to begin with, in comparison to all the other pots. Why was that? Maybe because those seeds just happened to be less hardy in the first place. There really isn't any way for us to find out except to repeat the whole experiment again and see if we get the same results. We talked about why repeating experiments, therefore, led to better results. Because if we get the same thing again and again we can treat those results as being more reliable and not inexplicable one-off results!

How Water is Transported in Plants

I bought the cheapest bouquet of white flowers from ASDA (£2!) and put them in a vase at home. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a note of the plant name for future reference. 😅

We talked about why we needed to put them in water (because plants need water to survive!) and why I added the plant food to the water (for nutrients) and why the label said the plants would only stay alive for a maximum of around 8 days (because they had no roots and weren't in soil).

So if they had no roots then how were they able to get water inside them? The water must be able to travel up the stem somehow...

We read about it in a couple of our science books and talked about how the water travels to all different plant parts/structures, i.e. from the roots into the stem and then to the leaves and flowers.

Was there a way we could see if it was true? One of the books mentioned an experiment with celery, so maybe we could do the same thing with our white flowers? There was a reason I chose white flowers to begin with! So the colour change would be more apparent. 😁

We took one of each stem and put them in 4 different glasses. In one glass we filled it with just clear water. In the other three we added red food colouring, blue food colouring, and a mixture of red and blue food colouring to give purple water. We set up the 4 glasses on the windowsill in the morning so we could keep checking on them throughout the day. I also used a whiteboard pen to mark the water level; what did they expect to see happen? The water level should go down as the water's sucked up by the plant!

So what did the girls think would happen to the flowers? What was their prediction? That we would see the flowers change into the same colour as the water in the glass. Why did we have a glass with just clear water? As the control, to make sure the flowers weren't just going to change colour anyway!

After a few hours we didn't see any change, so we decided to leave them for longer. M commented that the water hadn't really gone down at all from the starting lines either!

In the meantime, we watched this video: Ivy's Plant Shop - How does water get from the roots to leaves of a plant? The girls commented their prediction should be correct because the petals in the video changed colour!

We ended up leaving the flowers for a few days while checking on them... The water level went down a little, but the change in the flowers was really mild! I checked online for a possible reason and it turns out that the change in flowers with woody stems takes longer. 😓 But never mind, it just led to more discussions about "failures" in science leading to further experiments and how multiple experiments/repetitions mean more reliable results!

Identifying Plant Structures & Functions

We did a lesson on plant structures and functions a couple of years ago, when the twins were 4 1/2, so I thought we would repeat it now they're older (to see how much they remember/have improved!) and for Z's sake as a new lesson as she's recently turned 4. 😙

As before, we visited the Botanical Gardens. In the morning before we went, we read through the most relevant pages from the Roots, Stems, Leaves and Flowers book from the Fundamental Science Collection we have.

While at the gardens, we discussed the different kinds of plants and commented on how the same structure (e.g. the flower) could look so different on different plants. Did they all have roots and stems? Including trees? Could they find them? We stopped at a couple of points around the gardens so the girls could have a go at drawing some plants. They've not done much drawing from life so this was good practise! Z wanted to do one at first, but then she preferred just running around so I didn't force it. 😊 I modelled how to do a quick sketch first and then adding more detail afterwards.

This tree was outside, so after they identified the different structures I asked them what they thought about its trunk. Why was it twisted? Did it grow like that naturally or did someone make it grow like that? How? F said maybe they kept twisting the trunk as it grew. I'm not sure of the answer myself but that seems like it could make sense?! Maybe it's two different trees being twisted together as they grew? Even if we don't know the answer, thinking about it is still a useful exercise. 😁

We also took photos of the plants they were sketching. At home, they watched how I inserted a picture into a Word file and arranged it on the page. Then they had a go with the other photos we took. As well as inserting images, we paid special attention to cropping, resizing, moving them and using zoom to be able to see more clearly what we were doing. I printed the pictures out and they used them as reference to colour in their sketches with coloured pencils.

I was going to get them to label their drawings, but decided against it as felt it would be labouring the point... They already showed they understood by doing it verbally at the gardens, so what was the use in creating extra work as "evidence"?! 😏

On another day, we watched this video clip from the BBC: Ivy's Plant Workshop - Parts of a Plant.

The twins completed the following worksheet, with the guidance that the bottom of the flowering plant should be at the bottom of the table and the top should be at the top... They could either draw four separate diagrams or have a go at joining them to make one tall diagram spanning the table! We talked about the four structures (roots, stem, leaves, flowers) and their multiple jobs, and I wrote some keywords (mainly as spelling help!) on the whiteboard. If they needed more help, they could look in one of the Science books they have which I'd put in the book box for this half term.

When they were done, I asked them to draw and label a tree with the same four labels.

You can download the simple worksheet here.

Meanwhile, Z did the activity from our previous post, i.e. drawing a picture of a flower from scratch and me guiding her with adding labels. MashAllah the twins were able to work pretty independently so I was able to give Z enough attention!

What plants need to grow

Our Science topic for this half term is plants: looking at what they need to grow, their basic structures and functions, and their life cycles in terms of flowering, pollination, seed formation and dispersal.

We were gifted a carnivorous plants display from my parents - which I've been putting off planting over the winter as we were back and forth between Ipswich and Birmingham so wouldn't have been able to look after them well - so we finally got round to planting those! We also had a few flower seeds from my nephew's birthday party so we planted those too.

I asked the girls what they thought the plants needed to grow well - what did they already know? They said water, light and soil because they remembered our sunflower experiments in the garden from previous years. 😁🌻🌻🌻 We looked in one of their science books about plants so they could check and they remembered plants also need air - because they "breathe" in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, which is the opposite of what animals do.

I told them I was going to put their flowers and carnivorous plant display on the sideboard where they could get lots of sun because I wanted them to grow well, inshaAllah. And we needed to remember to water them often! They were already in soil and they weren't covered up so should be able to get plenty of air.

Then I asked them if we could design an experiment to test if they were right about these four factors being important for plant growth... We could use cress seeds and see what happens if we tried to grow them without those things. Could they design an experiment to see which one of those things is the most important, maybe? How could they make it a fair test?

With some  discussion, they came up with the following:

They both found the "no soil" pot hilarious for some reason. 😂😂

Z didn't really take part in the designing an experiment part, but she understood we had 4 different pots to compare how the seeds would grow without either light, water, soil or air. And the 5th pot had all four things to be the control, so to show how the plant is supposed to grow.

Once the cress has sprouted, inshaAllah, we can discuss what they'll observe and why it happened. 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Acrostic Poetry

We haven't done any poetry for a while! So I checked online for a list of suggested genres and picked a few for us to look at over the next few weeks inshaAllah: acrostics, shape poems and couplets.

We started by visiting the library and looking for poetry books - not in any particular genre - just for general inspiration.

Fortunately, there were some examples of acrostics in one of the books we took out!

We read the examples together and I asked the girls what they thought an acrostic poem was... They said it has a word going vertically which is what the poem is about. 👍 Then I quickly made this up on the whiteboard to demonstrate!

As our current science topic is to do with plants, I thought it'd be nice to link our poetry to this. We talked together and wrote the following two examples:

Then I challenged the girls to write their own using a plant-related word as their theme. We talked about how poetry doesn't have to rhyme! And the meaning of what they want to say is more important. 😁 When they were finished, we used thesauruses to make their writing more interesting. Finally, they wrote their poems out in their best handwriting, illustrated them, then trimmed and mounted them onto coloured paper.

Papa was late coming home that evening, so we left this final acrostic on the whiteboard for him... The girls eagerly asked him if he saw it the next morning, but unfortunately he was too tired to notice. 😂

Summer of Year 1 - Autumn of Year 2

A list of some of the things we've done over the last few months... No time for proper updates! SubhanAllah, my youngest brother was diagnosed with stage 4b lymphoma and things were a bit busy and a lot of going back and forth between Bristol, Birmingham and Ipswich. Alhamdulillah, he's finished his chemo course and seems to be doing well (and MashaAllah, the work we've done in Science recently on infection and the human body was really useful in the girls being able to understand pretty quickly why I was upset to hear the news and why we need to make lots of dua that Mamu gets better soon). Next time we visit will be next month, inshaAllah. 😄

So aside from the usual Literacy and Numeracy, guided by the Year 2 NC (going through the list and filling in all the gaps), we did the following:

1) Definition of habitats: research in non-fiction books, identify from fiction books, create a poster of a habitat of choice (including marking locations on a world map) which contained examples of plants and animals found in that habitat. Rehearse and give a presentation of their poster to each other, giving feedback on how to improve, then give an improved presentation to Papa. Convert their posters to PowerPoints (skills: typing, text boxes, inserting images, animations) and show this as a presentation to Papa.

2) Art trail around Ipswich, looking for Elmer statues. Map reading, walking, exploring, checking off a list, art appreciation & discussion... The girls then designed and named their own Elmers on pieces of scrap paper and compiled these into a booklet each. They tried to copy the art trail Elmers and came up with puns where they could!

3) Visit to a working water mill, where they grind their own flour and make their own bread - Tide Mill in Woodbridge. We took the train there with Nani, which was an experience in itself! The mill itself was really educational and child friendly. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area! The girls got to help start the water wheel by turning a handle and follow all the ropes and pulleys to the top of the mill. They were able to identify where the old pulleys should have been connected in the roof for the bags of flour to be lifted through the hatch, and also understood the mechanism behind the cogs turning and affecting each other. While there we also did some bird spotting from the lookout area and talked about how the mill was connected to the river. This led onto discussions to do with water sources and the sea, which inspired some more visits whilst in Ipswich...

4) We went to Felixstowe beach twice - once on the train with Nani during the daytime and another at sunset by car with Papa. Both experiences felt completely different despite being to the same place, which led to some good discussions. On our first trip they had fish & chips and ice-cream on the pier, played in the sand and F was brave enough to paddle in the sea. On the second trip we went for a short stroll on the beach and they played in the sand by the light of some coloured string lanterns hung across the promenade. It was interesting to watch the sunset on the horizon and see how the sky changed colour and then how the sea faded to black so it was impossible to tell where the sea ended and the sky began - the only clues the sea was there at all were a few lights from ships far in the distance. This led to talks about lighthouses and on how vast the sea is.

5) We walked down to Ipswich docks (only 5-10min from my parents' house!) and compared how the water was flowing to the river we saw at Woodbridge. Why? M had the idea that maybe both the water in the docks and the water from Tide Mill would end up in Felixstowe to meet the sea, so we checked on Google maps by zooming out and saw she was right! We didn't have time this visit to see, but I'd like to take them to Orwell Bridge so they can compare how the river looks there to how it was after the docks (and also to the little streams we saw in Holywells Park).

6) Which is the most popular car colour in Ipswich? The twins came up with a method of answering this question (watch the cars on the main road outside Nani's house) and keep a tally chart. We repeated this on two different days and compared the results (the same top three colours but not the same most popular colour on each day!) then turned these results into a bar chart (column addition practise to collate their results from both days). I helped them with this through prompts and questions and then wrote some simple questions about their data for them to answer.

7) We went to a free pizza making workshop at Pizza Express, organised by another home ed mum. The 3 eldest girls learnt a little about Italy and why a margarita has that name (the colours of the Italian flag represented by the toppings), tasted some pizza toppings then made their own margaritas on a pre-made base. The next week they wanted to make pizza at home from scratch, so I found a simple dough using Greek yoghurt and flour they could do independently. They made the dough themselves while I helped with the oven parts and making the sauce (tomato puree, oil & herbs). They put all the toppings on themselves and decided to make tuna, sweetcorn, mozzarella and cheddar.

8) Bake Off inspired baking: taking it in turns to bake cupcakes with me, one person each week. They designed their cupcake on paper first (sponge flavour & decorations) then baked with my guidance (they did measuring themselves for once!). After we all had a turn, we discussed which bake was our favourite and why. Mine was mint chocolate and my favourite lol - will need to post recipe soon inshaAllah!

9) First piece of extended writing in a while... We're currently reading the Famous Five series together and they're really enjoying them, so I used this as a basis for their writing. After a particularly eventful chapter, we did some hotseating on the characters' thoughts/feelings then I modelled writing a simple diary entry on A3 paper. Together, we discussed what the features of a diary entry might be and annotated them on the paper. Then the twins wrote their own diary entries as different characters from the book. When they thought they were finished, they referred to the poster and added to their work.

10) Bouncing ball investigation (as M asked why did the ball bounce higher in the kitchen compared to the sitting room?). Discussed in terms of energy (potential, kinetic) and energy being absorbed. Twins came up with ideas on how to test these factors (i.e. strength of throw, height dropped, floor surface) and how to measure - describe in words or use tape measure? Both ways difficult but tape measure was preferred option! One of the results didn't match our predictions, so we did some further investigations explore why. M came up with hypothesis 1 and F with hypothesis 2, with them both working together to think of how we could test each one. We put both ideas together to come up with a reason to explain why that one result didn't match.