Dissecting an Owl Pellet

The last two weeks we have been studying birds.  Last week we studied the bird's digestive system and dissected an owl pellet.  You can see how enthused Lauren was. Ha ha!  She did stick with it for about a good 2 hours.  Of the three we dissected her seemed to be the most difficult.

Hannah had the best pellet.  We were able to dissect it without breaking the skull apart.  Based on answering the questions that came along with the kit we believed it was a rat's skull.

Butterfly Battle

We are enjoying our lapbook, Butterfly Battle, we received from the Homeschool Swap.  You can find the lapbook at http:///www.yeeshallknow.com. We are reading the Magic School Bus A Science Chapter Book #16 Butterfly Battle. 

To go along with this study we are adding new hosts plants to our butterfly garden.  Each one of the three oldest picked a butterfly that they would like to observe and watch as it goes through metamorphosis.  I will post more on this next week when we get our hosts plants.

So far in the book we have learned

To help remember the 4 stages the kids acted it out

 egg

 caterpillar

 chrysalis

butterfly

We read that a newborn caterpillar eats.....

the shell of it's own egg then it eats the leaf where it hatched.

We read that Monarch butterflies are poisonous because they eat poisonous milkweed.

We learned that Monarch butterflies do not make the round trip when migrating and that they lay their eggs as they are heading south.

Lastly we learned that the Painted Lady

photo courtesy of http://www.butterflyutopia.com/live_butterfly_kit_feeder.html

can migrate from Africa to Iceland.

We can't wait to discover many new facts about butterflies and to experience first hand the life cycle of a few new varieties this year.  To see pictures/video of the life cycle from previous years of the Monarch check out the Monarch link on the right hand side of our blog.

Pumpkin Observations/Carving

Micah chose to decorate his pumpkin with stickers.

So these are the pumpkins and squashes the kids picked from the pumpkin patch.

We began by reading the The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons. Then we spent some time observing our pumpkins. I explained to the girls that pumpkins were a fruit not a vegetable. If you are speaking in a botanical, scientific context, then the pumpkin and squash are fruits, because they have seeds. We also completed a pumpkin notebook page from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/docs54478/Pumpkin%20Runner%20notebook.pdf. Afterwards, we asked ourselves if they would float or sink? We also estimated how many seeds were in the yellow squash.

We read The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons.


Lauren writing her observations of her pumpkin.

Hannah measuring the height of her stem, she didn't have much of one. Her pumpkin stem measured 1/2". Lauren's stem was 5-1/2".

Well the squash floated. Both girls thought this would happen.

So how many seeds were in this? One child guessed 50 the other child guessed 100. AND drum roll please...... there were 92 seeds.

One girl thought they would float, the other that they would sink. All but the boy floated. Micah just had to get in with the pumpkins. So why did they float if they were so heavy? I asked if they could guess. Hannah said, "because it was hollow." I explained that yes because it was hollow and the inside was filled with air it floated.

Hannah cleaning and describing the inside of her pumpkin.


Hannah's notebooking

Lauren's notebooking

We did the Pumpkin Prayer as we carved our pumpkins.

Dear Jesus,

As I carve my pumpkin, help me pray this prayer:

Open my mind so I can learn about you,

(cut the top off the pumpkin)

Psalm 100:3

Take all my sin and forgive the wrong that I do.

(clean out the inside)

1 John 1:9

Open my eyes so Your love I will see;

(cut eyes shaped like hearts)

Psalm 119:18

I'm sorry for times I've turned up my nose at what you've given to me.

(cut a nose in the shape of the cross)

Psalm 51:10

Open my ears so Your word I will hear;

(cut ears shaped like the Bible)

Isaiah 55:3

Open my mouth to tell others You're near.

(cut the mouth in the shape of a fish)

Psalm 118:17

Let Your light shine in all I say and do!

Amen.

(place a candle inside and light it)

Matthew 5:16

Yeast Experiment

1st Experiment

Yeast, Sugar, and Water

After 30 mins we checked our experiment and our flattened balloon was now blown up. We learned that yeast uses sugar as food, and this produces carbon dioxide. Since we are studying bread, I explained that carbon dioxide gas in bread dough helps the bread to grow up and out.

2nd Experiment

Yeast, Salt, and water

What happened????

Yeast needs sugar to grow. Yeast breaks the sugar apart to get energy to grow. This is what produces carbon dioxide. So no carbon dioxide this time.

The Kids Solar System Mobile

The girls were really excited to hang this over their bed. Afterwards, he hung up glow in the dark stars. They did a great job painting it.

Ladybug Cake

Micah mashing the bananas
Lauren and Hannah making the icing

Lauren testing it to make sure it is edible

Lauren icing

Hannah icing

Their masterpiece

While decorating the cake we talked about:

1)How we identify an insect

2)What a ladybug uses its antennas for

3)How ladybugs are benefecial in our garden

Then we reviewed other facts we learned about the ladybugs.

Lady Beetle Unit

Lauren and Micah made the Fifteen-spotted Lady Beetle and Hannah made the Seven-spotted Lady Beetle.
We are a little impatient.


Micah glueing on his spots.

Lauren cutting out her spots.

Micah painting.

The kids are really enjoying studying the ladybug. We have learned a lot of facts we didn't know. In about two weeks we will make a ladybug cake, so stayed tuned.

Creating a light bulb - Edison

with oxygen in the jar
added candle, fire went out, and you guessed it no oxygen in jar so light burned longer