All About Habitats For Kids

We are working on a Science unit on habitats and I thought I'd share our journey. I love taking these journeys with my kids. I often learn (or sometimes relearn) just as much as they do. 

 To get started learning about habitats and adaptations click here to watch a short video. There will be questions during the video to check for understanding.

We watched this Magic School Bus video, "All Dried Up" to build interest in learning more about desert habitats.

Next I am planning on doing a cactus experiment to learn about how they can survive in the desert. Begin by watching this very short video on adaptations of desert plants.

Instruct your student that the cactus plant can survive with very little water, and some kinds can live for years without any water at all. This is why they do so well in hot dry desserts. Cactus roots spread out near the surface so that they can soak up moisture from dew or brief rainstorms. Most plants lose water through tiny breathing holes in their leaves and stems but not the cactus. The cactus has spines instead of leaves, and fewer holes in their stems, so less water can escape.

Tell the children that when it does rain, the cells inside the stem of the cactus absorb water the way a sponge does if you were to sprinkle water on it or try to wipe water off a surface with it.

Try the following experiment.

Grab 6 paper towels and get them nice and damp.

Roll 3 of them and put them in a plastic grocery bag, plastic wrap or wax paper.

Roll the other 3 towels but don't put anything around them.

Put all the paper towels in the sun.

Come back the next day to make observations.

Explain that the "skin" surrounding the one set of paper towels is similar to the skin of the cactus in that it keeps the moisture in the paper towel.

Easy Science Experiment

Today (9/19/11) we did an easy science lesson on chromatography. (Fancy word right?) Basically chromatography is a way of separating mixtures of different chemicals. For example, pen inks are often made up of a range of different colors.

I cut up several paper towels. (I've read coffee filters work great too.) Then Katie and I colored pea sized dots in various colors toward the bottom of the paper towel strip.  I put about a half inch of water in a cup and then we taped the strips to the top making sure the ink did not touch the water but that the bottom of the paper towel did.  Then we watched as the water climbed up the paper towel and separated the ink into different colors. Obviously we were able to see the most colors come from black and brown. We also saw colors separate from purple and grey.  We used this as a chance to talk about primary colors (red, blue and yellow: colors cannot be mixed from or formed by combining any other colors, and they are the basis for making most other colors.)  We even used primary colors in the experiment to demonstrate that we most likely would see no other colors.  There is the possibility of seeing another color but that is if it was not a true blue, yellow or red color.

After we saw what happened with each color I had Katie tell me what other colors she saw come from our dots.  She wrote these colors on a sheet I made.  You can print one here. 

I want to do the experiment again because 1) Katie really seemed to enjoy it and 2) I can make sure Katie grasps the idea of primary colors.

I also thought it would be fun to have her solve some sort of mystery when doing the experiment.  Read more about that here.

*If you do this make sure to use a separate container for each color.
Here is another way to do the experiment.

My happy homeschooler! 

Easy Science Lesson Plan for Kindergarten

For science this week we are going to use a Lakeshore lesson plan to learn more about the parts of a plant. Here are the objectives for this lesson plan:

• Students will identify the parts of a plant and how plants grow.
• Students will determine what plants need to survive.

The printable activity page has a plant that needs to be labeled by cutting and pasting the following words onto it: leaves, roots, seed and stem.

I think we will also do the extension activity. 

Amazon: Live Butterfly Garden Only $11.99 Shipped

I just bought this Live Butterfly Garden marked down to ONLY $11.99 (no longer on sale) for my kids! They're 3 (almost) and 4 1/2.  This kit comes with a relatively easy-to-assemble observation chamber; supplies for feeding the butterflies (you provide only sugar and water); an informative booklet of clear instructions and butterfly facts; and a certificate for three to five free painted lady caterpillars! Your kiddos will actually be able to watch the metamorphosis from larva to butterfly which takes about three weeks. They can then release the butterflies after a few days of observation!  Perfect time for Spring.  Easy science activity! It currently has 297 reviews with 217 of them 5 *'s.