it's been said that the grass is always greener on the other side.
well. BigGirl wants to know why.
in our child-led lesson planning, BigGirl told me she wanted to learn why the grass is green.
"Because God made it that color, honey," wasn't good enough for her.
we read the book "Why is the Grass Green?" (from our Just Ask Book collection) and defined new words: chlorophyll, photosynthesis, root system, carbon dioxide, oxygen. we also went outside to find different types, shapes, and colors of leaves.
this little cut -and- paste timeline activity looks fun educational and will reinforce what she learned from the book. we'll review the new vocab words again.
and we will make time for this fantastic experiment (found here) that demonstrates the sun's importance in the photosynthesis process.
Materials:
Small shrub, tree or house plant
Cardboard or aluminum foil
Scissors
Paper clips
1. Pick a shrub, tree or houseplant that you can use for an experiment.
2. Using the cardboard or aluminum foil, cut out some geometrical shapes like a circle, square or triangle. Make sure your shapes are big enough to make a patch that will cover nearly half of the plant leaf.
3. Paperclip each shape on a different leaf. 4. If you use a house plant, place it near a south, west or east window were it will get plenty of sunlight. Make notes about the weather each day and add them to your observations.
5. After four days, remove the shapes from the leaves and observe each of the leaves that had a shape covering it.
6. Compare the areas on the leaf that were covered with the shape to other parts of the leaf.
and hopefully that'll answer her question and fulfil her quest to find out why the grass is green. hopefully.
