More little critters!

As part of our nature study unit we have been participating in the South Shore Quests and have a great time doing so. It actually has been one of the highlights of this wretched raining as it has been perfect weather for hiking!

On our hike today we came to spot in a meadow that had snails EVERYWHERE. SC, KM and her "bestest" friend ~who wishes she was homeschooled and states this EVERYTIME we are out somewhere~ wanted to bring some home. I am always hesitant about taking things from their natural habitats, but there were SOOOOO many of them so I agreed, they grabbed 2 each and some grass and shoots and put them in an empty sandwich keeper...

and off we went to finish the quest.

Upon getting home they realized that they had not 4, but 7 little cuties ~ three had been hidden amongst the gathered weeds and reeds.

Then they remembered that we had an old fish tank in the garage, that would make the perfect little habitat for them! So we put in some dirt, collected some weeds from the yard, labeled and named them all!
Now we need CJ make a frame for some screen we just happened to have hanging around the recycle craft closet and we should be all set to see how our little biome comes along.
As of right now the little critters seem to be enjoying themselves!

Science Thursday - Plant Cycles

This week's unit was on the Life Cycles of Plant. This is something we have been learning a lot about with our nature study and garden as well, so we just briefly glanced at the book and focused more on the adaptive curriculum experiment and hands-on projects which were pretty interesting...

Her favorite unit on adaptive curriculum was a demonstration of aerobic respiration in a plant.

Then we started on soaking different types of seeds in different containers and under different conditions and we will check on them through out the next week or so to see what happens.

We also peeled the skins off some beans that had been soaking and took a peek at them under the microscope, as well as some prepared slides of different pollens, spores and plant parts.after just two days they were already sprouting...