Thrifty Scissors: Integrated Nature Studies for 4th

Showing posts with label Integrated Nature Studies for 4th - 6th graders. Show all posts

Saturday, August 31, 2024

Study Nuts

A red squirrel eating a hazelnut.

A nut is a hard, one-celled and single-seeded indehiscent fruit. It is usually produced from an ovary of two or more cells, with one or more ovules, in each of which all but the single ovule and single cell have disappeared. The nut is often enclosed in a kind of cup, which still further protects the seed. This cup is called a cupule. Such is the husk of the hazel nut, the cup of the acorn, and the prickly husk or covering of the Spanish chestnut.

The kernel contains, besides the embryo, a considerable amount of nourishment, on which the young plant lives till it can support itself. It is this store which men turn to account, using it as food for animals and for themselves.

Required for Observation In The Classroom: Some hazel nuts. Branch of the hazel bush with nuts. Picture of hazel flowers.

Method of Student Observation:

Each child should have a nut for examination and description.
Compare the nut with the other fruits examined, and the kernel with the seeds previously described.
Show that the kernel splits, like peas and beans.
Explain how the nut is developed from the flower, and compare its growth with that of other fruits previously examined.

How To Grade Study Notes For Student Journals: Every student will need a journal to write in weekly for this online nature study series. Teacher will assign the weekly content in advance.

Make sure the facts are: written in complete sentences, the first word of each sentence capitalized, and a period should be included at the end of each sentence.
Spell check your vocabulary and write the words correctly.
Dress up your journal entries with student clip art, drawings of your own in color or in black and white.
Student may also include photographs of their own taking for extra credit.

Look for the following facts about nuts inside of student journals. Assign a point value to the quality of the content.

The Nut - On a woody stalk. Surrounded by an irregular green cup. The nut a fruit.
Shell brown, with a soft lining within.
Kernel covered with a brown skin. A seed. Readily splits into two equal parts.
How the nut is formed - Produced from the flower.
Flowers formed in the spring.
The nut is the ripened seed-case-of the middle of the flower.

Video at Youtube for Students to Watch:

Nut themed crafts: nut + seed dolls, pistachio shell wreath, nut-head owls and Miss Hickory.

Crafts Made With Nuts:

Extended Learning Content:

Free Student Clip Art: Clip art may be printed from a home computer, a classroom computer or from a computer at a library and/or a local printing service provider. This may be done from multiple locations as needed because our education blog is online and available to the general public.

1. The Nut - On a woody stalk. A fruit. Green cup outside.
Kernel within. Kernel a seed. Has a brown skin.
2. How the nut grows - Formed from the center of
the flower of the hazel bush.

Study Wood

Age of the tree determine by the
cross cut showing annual rings
in the tree trunk.

In dicotyledons, or exogenous plants, the stem consists of the bark, the cambium layer, the wood, and the pith. The cambium layer gives rise to a layer of wood, which is deposited next the old wood, a layer of bark deposited next to the bark, and a new cambium layer. The layer of wood deposited grows hard during the winter, and so forms quite a distinct ring from the next layer of wood, which is deposited on the outside of it.

Required for Observation in The Classroom: A few blocks cut from the branch of a tree - varying in diameter. One end of each may be smoothed and varnished, if necessary , to show the rings better. Also some young twigs containing much pitch.

Method of Student Observation:

Point out the bark, wood, and pith, in the sections of a branch.
Show that wood is tough and fibrous, and that pith is soft and devoid of fibers.
Show the pith rays running from the center of the wood.
Show the rings of wood in sections of different sizes.
Count the rings in each.
Show that a young twig has only one or two rings of wood.

How to Grade Study Notes For Student Journals: Every student will need a journal to write in weekly for this online nature study series. Teacher will assign the weekly content in advance.

Make sure the facts are: written in complete sentences, the first word of each sentence capitalized, and a period should be included at the end of each sentence.
Spell check your vocabulary and write the words correctly.
Dress up your journal entries with student clip art, drawings of your own in color or in black and white.
Student may also include photographs of their own taking for extra credit.

Look for the following facts about wood inside of student journals. Assign a point value to the quality of the content.

The parts of a log - bark outside. protective, sometimes very rough, sometimes smooth.
Wood - forms greater part of the log. fiberous
Pith - In the center, soft, no fibers. Rays from pith run in all directions.
How tree grows - The wood is formed in rings. A very young twig has only one ring of wood. Each summer a new ring of wood is formed outside the older wood, and underneath the bark. The bark is then pushed outward year by year, and the age of the tree may be calculated by counting the rings.

Video at Youtube for Students to Watch:

Left, wooden rounds. Right, sculpted honeycomb.

Photo of table and chairs set up in
the garden ready for the fairy feast.

Craft a Fairy Feast for The Garden: For this wooden craft you will need the following supplies: wood glue, sliced wooden rounds, acorn shells and caps, Sculpey, acrylic paint (puff paint optional) and pretend or real garden flower clippings.

Details above show wooden slices stacked and glued together to make the simple fairy dining furnishings and also the Sculpey shaped honeycomb prior to painting.
The table is set for a Fall meal of dew drop wine and crusty honeycomb. Leaves make the table covering and a large acorn ''bowl'' displays a toadstool, small berries and a delicate orange flower. The acorn cup goblets are filled with dew drop (hot glue) and the honey comb is made from Sculpey hardened in an oven and painted with puff paints. There is also a small faux apple the size of a crab apple in this case for fairies on the table. Each fairy has a stool made from smaller wooden slices glued together in a short stack.

Left, the table and stools were made by gluing and stacking wooden rounds.
The far right, details of honey comb and dew drop wine, some of our fairy's
favorite foods for fall.

More About Fairies in The Woods:

The Rainbow Story by E. Antionette Luques
The Valleys Where The Shamrocks Grow by Charles Cashel Connolly
The Rainbow Land by Bertha Carman Herbst
The Land of Fairy Tales
Rainbows by Dixie Willson
The Mermaid Poem by Tennyson
Have You Seen Them?
The Good Night by John Martin

A Log includes: bark outside, wood that is tough
and pith in the center that is softer.

Integrated Nature Study Lessons

The integrated nature studies here for 4th-6th graders include journal writing prompts, art and craft assignments, educational youtube video (reviewed by teachers in advance), and reading materials collected together for independent, student research.

There are also materials included in many of the lessons for adapting the material for younger students in grades kindergarten through 3rd via our reader's requests. Homeschooled children with mixed ages may be included in the studies along with their brothers and sisters.

The Animals & Plants Journal Lessons:

Study The Rabbit - The rabbit is a small rodent of the family Leporidæ - the same family to which the hare belongs.
Study The Caterpillar - The eggs of butterflies are interesting microscopic objects, as they are usually covered with a hard shell, and are of various shapes and colors. The majority of insects pass through a regular series of changes.
Study The Butterfly - The butterfly is one of the '' Lepidoptera '' or scale-winged insects. Besides butterflies, of which it is reckoned that there are 10,000 different kinds, this order includes the moths, of which it is estimated that there are 40,000 species.
Study The Spider' Web - Spiders are distinguished from all other animals by their habit of spinning webs.
Study Wood -
Study The Cabbage - The cabbage is another of the plants cultivated by people for eating and display.
Study The Bee: Lesson 1 - The bee is a rather stoutly built insect, belonging to the Apiarian family of the Aculeate or stinging Hymenoptera.
Study The Bee: Lesson 2 - During the winter and the spring the hive consists exclusively of the perfect female, the Queen Bee, and of a number of imperfect females or worker bees.
Study The Mole - The Common Mole belongs to the order of the Insectivora, an order of animals small in size, and m stly of more or less purely nocturnal habits.
Study The Crab -
Study The Slug - The air-breathing molluscs in which the shell is internal or entirely absent are popularly called slugs.
Study The Pea-Pod - The fruit of the pea is a simple fruit, that is, it is the result of the ripening of a single pistil.
Study Leaves: Lesson 1 - Leaves show an almost infinite variety both of structure and of shape. They are the breathing organs of the plant, and by their aid the plant makes organic material from its inorganic food.
Study Leaves: Lesson 2 - With regard to the distribution of the strands which traverse the green blades we distinguish between blades with a single main strand and blades with several.
Study Insects and Flowers - The vast majority of flowering plants are arranged by botanists into two classes, wind-fertilized, and insect-fertilized, that is, plants whose pollen is brought to their stigmas by the wind, and plants for which insects perform this duty.
Study How Seeds Grow - The seed, which must be carefully distinguished from the fruit, of which it forms a part, is the fertilized seed-bud or ovule.
Study Wood - In dicotyledons, or exogenous plants, the stem consists of the bark, the cambium layer, the wood, and the pith.
Study Nuts - A nut is a hard, one-celled and single-seeded indehiscent fruit. It is usually produced from an ovary of two or more cells, with one or more ovules, in each of which all but the single ovule and single cell have disappeared.

Independent Study: Independent study lessons may be accomplished when the student is away from the classroom. These studies could involve a student's beloved pet or a likely nature study students may participate in when on vacation or during a school closure. Students also may need a lesson or two if they are sick in bed at home. For these lessons I have chosen a few animals that students are likely to be familiar with and therefore comfortable in observing them outside of the classroom.

Study The Cat - The Cat belongs to the order Felidæ, the group to which the lion, tiger, leopard, puma or panther, and lynx belong

Study The Cat

The domesticated Orange Tabby.
7 facts about orange cats.

The cat belongs to the order Felidae, the group to which the lion, tiger, leopard, puma or panther, and lynx belong. The animals belonging to this family are, in proportion to their size, the strongest, fiercest, and most terrible of beasts. Their teeth and claws are powerful weapons of attack. They assail their prey by striking it with their powerful fore-paws, and do not, like dogs, first grip it with their teeth. Each fore-paw has five toes, and each toe is furnished with a strong claw, which is protected, when not in use, by being withdrawn behind folds of skin. There are only four toes, also with claws, on each of the hind feet. Their strong muscular limbs, small head, and slim body, and the soft pads with which the toes are furnished enable these animals to move very swiftly, gracefully, and silently. Cats have thirty teeth, and these, especially the four canine teeth, are very powerful weapons. Man has been able only partially to tame one very small member of this family, namely, the domestic cat.

Requirements for Independent Study: Independent study lessons may be accomplished when the student is away from the classroom. These studies could involve a student's beloved pet or a likely nature study students may participate in when on vacation or during a school closure. Students also may need a lesson or two if they are sick in bed at home. For these lessons I have chosen a few animals that students are likely to be familiar with and therefore comfortable in observing them outside of the classroom.

How to Grade Study Notes For Student Journals: Every student will need a journal to write in weekly for this online nature study series. Teacher will assign the weekly content in advance from the writing list below.

Make sure the facts are: written in complete sentences, the first word of each sentence capitalized, and a period should be included at the end of each sentence.
Spell check your vocabulary and write the words correctly.
Dress up your journal entries with student clip art, drawings of your own in color or in black and white. Students may also include photographs of their own taking.

What to write about in the student journal?

A.) Observe a domestic cat in person or from one of the videos below and answer the following questions.

Explain the purpose of rough play between kittens.
Explain the purpose of cat whiskers.
Why are the claws of a cat retractile and why to they have soft pads underneath these?
How does a cat use it's rough tongue?

B.) Write in your journal a brief paragraph describing one of the following comparisons between a cat and other animals or things.

Compare the coat of a cat to that of a dog. Explain why the cat's coat is warmer.
Compare the pupil of a cat to a window, and explain the advantages of these.

Video Options at Youtube for Students to Watch:

What kinds of art/craft projects about cats may a student accomplish on their own and share with their classmates once the return to the classroom?

Option 1. The Life Cycle Wheel Graph: Students will need writing and drawing tools, two white paper plates, scissors, white school glue and one brass-plated fastener. The teacher should supply the two paper plates and fastener per student.

Directions:

On one plate cut away a pie shaped ''window'' to reveal a stage of the cat's life cycle and a second one opening directly across from it to reveal a brief description.
On the second paper plate, draw a pie shaped grid with 10 slices. In the first five of these pie shaped windows include clip art of the different stages of a cat's life: the newborn kitten stage, the neonatal stage, the juvenile stage, the adult cat and the geriatric cat.
Within the remaining five grid spaces, write brief descriptions of each stage. Correct answers should be revealed by the turning of the upper plate windows to reveal the correctly positioned content. (See a similar illustration of this craft here.)
Stack the two paper plates together, cut-away on top, and poke a tiny hole with the tip of your scissors through the centers of both plates.
Insert a fastener through both plates at once in order to join the two paper plates together at their center points only.
Be prepared to discuss these stages of a cat's life with a fellow student or teacher when presenting your hand-crafted wheel graph in class.

Option 2. The Environment of The Cat: Students will need a small recycled cereal box or shoe box, craft paper, scissors, extra cardboard, white school glue and drawing pencils to fashion a diorama environment for a small toy cat. The toy figure may be of a domesticated cat or of a wild cat. Three things that must be included in the cat diorama are listed below.

Depictions of the food a cat ordinarily eats.
The shelter sculpted or arranged to hide a cat from both danger and bad weather.
The inclusion of animals or humans the cat may peacefully tolerate within their own environment.

Option 3. A banner made up of photographs, pictures and collage. These items may be attached to a string with clothes pins, clamps, tape, or paperclips.
Hang the banner up across the classroom while sharing the information a student learned while absent from the classroom.

Extended Learning Content:

The Bad Kittens -poem by Coatsworth
Name The Cats - puzzle just for fun!
The Majestic Bengal Tiger - article
Belinda - poem by Parker
A Cat's Birthday Celebration - poem by Jones
Find even more content about domesticated cats by clicking on this link...
Felines and canines in life and art - article
''Ricardo Cat'' by Niki De Saint Phalle - sculpture
Old-Fashioned Halloween Mask Silhouettes
Query after cats at the Crayon Palace!

Clip art includes: a cat skull, head with whiskers, eyes in dark,
eyes in daylight, foot with claws, underside with pads.

Friday, August 30, 2024

Study Insects and Flowers

Soldier beetle pollinating a flower.

The vast majority of flowering plants are arranged by botanists into two classes, wind-fertilized (anemophilous), and insect-fertilized (entomopkilous), that is, plants whose pollen is brought to their stigmas by the wind, and plants for which insects perform this duty. One striking feature of wind-fertilized plants is the absence of bright-colored leaves and of scent. The interior of these flowers, too, contains no honey; the visits of insects would be of no use to them, so they do not offer any inducements to these animals to come to them.

Insects are induced to visit flowers in some cases to get shelter from storms ; in others to deposit their eggs, but most commonly of all to procure food. Honey and pollen are the principal foods which they seek for in flowers; but pollen is ordinarily produced in such abundance that much of it can be spared. The brilliant colors of the corolla enable the flower to be seen at a distance, and the various parts of the flower are, as a rule, so shaped as to admit only into the interior the insects that are serviceable. The honey which the flower secretes, and the sweet smells do not, as far as is known, serve any other purpose save that of attracting insects.

The modes in which the flower adapts itself to the visits of special insects, the appliances by which it covers these with pollen, to be transferred to stigma of another flower, are wonderfully various, and seem mostly intended to favor cross-fertilization.

Required for Observation in The Classroom: This lesson should be illustrated by means of a variety of flowers, including species that are small and inconspicuous, and others brightly colored, flowers that sleep by day (evening primroses, tobacco, &c.), flowers that sleep by night (daisy, dandelion, pimpernel, &c.), and odorless and sweet-scented flowers. Diagrams showing the sucking-tubes of insects.

Method of Student Observation:

Various flowers should be examined in order to see and taste the sweet nectar produced by them.
Diagrams showing the sucking-tubes of insects should be shown, and the insects themselves should be observed as they visit the flowers in a garden.
This information should be acquired, if possible, by the observation of insects at large, and not given by the teacher in the school-room.
Examples of flowers (primrose, canterbury bell, carnation, etc.) illustrating the accompanying notes may be found in most flower-gardens, or in hedgerows and banks.
These facts should be verified by the actual observation of flowers and insects at different periods of the day and evening, and the children should be encouraged to make notes of their own independent observations, carried on at any time.

How to Grade Study Notes For Student Journals: Every student will need a journal to write in weekly for this online nature study series. Teacher will assign the weekly content in advance.

Make sure the facts are: written in complete sentences, the first word of each sentence capitalized, and a period should be included at the end of each sentence.
Spell check your vocabulary and write the words correctly.
Dress up your journal entries with student clip art, drawings of your own in color or in black and white.
Student may also include photographs of their own taking for extra credit.

Look for the following facts about insects and flowers inside of student journals. Assign a point value to the quality of the content.

Why Insects visit Flowers. - Many flowers produce sweet fluids on which certain insects (bees, butterflies, etc.) delight to feed. Such insects are provided with long sucking-tubes, which can be thrust down the cups and tubes of flowers for the purpose of obtaining these fluids, and some (bees) are also provided with jaws by which they can bite through the lower parts of the flowers when their sucking-tubes are not long enough to reach the sweet juices from above.
Some insects (bees, &c.) feed on the pollen, or else collect the pollen to feed their young.
How Insects help Flowers. - When an insect visits flowers, some of the pollen adheres to its body. Then, as it flies from flower to flower in quest of food, the pollen it carries is transferred to the stigmas, thus assisting in the work of fertilization.
Insects generally fly from flower to flower of the same species, thus adding to their usefulness, for the ovule of one species can only be fertilized by pollen from the same species or from one closely allied.
Some flowers cannot possibly fertilize themselves, either because their anthers and their stigmas are so situated, relatively, that pollen cannot be transferred from one to the other (e.g. the primrose); or because the anthers and the stigmas are never mature at the same period. Such flowers must have their pollen transferred, and this work is carried on by insects or by the wind.
How Flowers attract Insects. - Those flowers which are fertilized by the wind are, as a rule, very inconspicuous, and have no scent ; but those which require the aid of insects generally have brilliant corollas, or emit sweet odors to attract them.
Again, some flowers seem to prefer the aid of particular species of insects, and remain closed except at the hours during which those insects are on the wing. Hence we find some flowers sleeping during the day, and others during the night.
The flowers which require the aid of day -flying insects usually have corollas to attract them. Those which prefer the visits of night-fliers often remain closed till the evening, and attract the insects either by their sweet perfume, or by their large white or pale-yellow corollas, which are readily distinguished at a distance after dark.

Video at Youtube for Students to Watch + articles to read:

The Insect and Flower Anchor Chart and Classroom Discussion: Direct discussions, develop vocabulary and demonstrate correct sentence writing. Anchor charts are used in many different grades the following example below may be used in 2nd through 4th grade during a group discussion.

The insect visits flowers to seek for honey.
The honey lies at the bottom of the flower-cup.
The insect sucks up the honey from the bottom of the flower with its long sucking tube.
The insect visits flowers to seek for honey, which lies at the bottom of the flower-cup.
The yellow dust inside the flower is called pollen.
The insects gather the pollen and make it into a kind of bread for their young.
The pollen sticks to the insect when it is seeking for honey in the flower.
The yellow dust inside flowers is called pollen, and sticks to the insect, when it is seeking for honey in the flower.
When the insect leaves a flower its body is covered with pollen.
The insect carries the pollen to the next flower.
This helps the flower to produce seed.
When the insect leaves a flower its body is covered with pollen , which it carries to the next flower , and so helps the flower to produce seed.

Insect and Flower Frame Printables: Print, color and write your favorite nature poem inside the boarder printable. For student use, not for resale.

Click to download the largest available size before dragging to your desktop.

Poems to Copy, Credit the Author Please:

Extended Learning Content:

1. Section of Flower, showing honey secreted at bottom of tube ;
2. Insect-fertilized Flower; 3. Insect at work, sucking honey;
4. Sucking-tube of insect enlarged,
and section of same ; 5. Wind-fertilized Flowers.

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Study How Seeds Grow

Parts of a bean seed showing
the seed coat and embryo.

The seed, which must be carefully distinguished from the fruit, of which it forms a part, is the fertilized seed-bud or ovule. It consists of a nucleus or kernel, enclosed generally by one or more coats, called seed -coats. The nucleus consists of the embryo or initial plantlet, surrounded by a store of nutritive matter on which it draws for nourishment, until by the help of its own roots and leaves it can supply itself. In a fully developed embryo, that is one in which all the parts are manifest before growth begins, we can distinguish the caulicle or radicle, the cotyledons or seed-leaves, and the plumule, or rudiment of a primary terminal bud. The first stage of growth is seen in the lengthening of the rudimentary stem ( caulicle or radicle), in its taking a vertical position, and in the development of a root from its naked end. As it issues from the seed the root end turns downward into the soil, the stem bending if necessary. While the root end avoids the light, and, protected by the root-cap (see Lesson on Roots), makes its way into the ground, the opposite or budding end seeks the light. The result of this lengthening of the caulicle, and passing of the root into the soil, is to carry the budding end into the air.

Required for Observation in The Classroom: About a fortnight before this lesson is to be given, a box of soil should be prepared to receive the seeds. A few grains of wheat and a few beans should then be sown, and a few more of each every day up to the time when the specimens are required. By this means a series of specimens, illustrating all the earlier stages of growth, will be ready on the day for which the lesson is arranged.
If necessary, the growth of the seed, and the development of the young plants, may be hastened by keeping the box in a warm room.

Method of Student Observation:

The specimens obtained as above directed are to be placed in order of their development, so that the children may observe the stages of growth in proper succession.
The presence of much food material in the seeds may be proved by growing them in water; but elicit that the soil and the air become necessary sources of supply after the food stored up in the seeds is exhausted.
The children may be encouraged to draw the young plants in their different stages from the actual specimens.

How to Grade Study Notes For Student Journals: Every student will need a journal to write in weekly for this online nature study series. Teacher will assign the weekly content in advance.

Make sure the facts are: written in complete sentences, the first word of each sentence capitalized, and a period should be included at the end of each sentence.
Spell check your vocabulary and write the words correctly.
Dress up your journal entries with student clip art, drawings of your own in color or in black and white.
Student may also include photographs of their own taking for extra credit.

Look for the following facts about seeds inside of student journals. Assign a point value to the quality of the content.

Growth of the Bean - At first the bean absorbs water from the moist soil, becoming much larger and softer. The skin then splits and the young rootlet protrudes. As the rootlet increases in length, the seed itself splits into two parts, thus revealing the young bud (plumule), which occupied a small cavity in the closed seed. The rootlet increases rapidly in length, giving rise to branched fibers and root-hairs, which absorb food from the soil for the growing plant. At the same time the young bud grows upward, seeking light and air.
The two halves of the seed remain attached to the young plant, forming a pair of thick, fleshy leaves (cotyledons). These contain a large store of plant food, by which the young plant is nourished until the root has sufficiently developed to absorb the necessary food from the soil. The function of the seed-leaves being over, they gradually shrivel, and finally drop off.
Growth of the Wheat - The grain of wheat passes through the same stages, except that the food store of the seed gives rise to one seed-leaf only, and does not split
like the bean.

Video at Youtube Seed Growth for Students to Watch:

Left, a 3D turtle craft lesson plan. Center a seed mosiac and right a pumpkin seed counting book.

Seed Related Arts/Crafts Projects:

Extended Learning Seed Content:

Welcome, Little Seed!

Free Student Seed Clip Art: Clip art may be printed from a home computer, a classroom computer or from a computer at a library and/or a local printing service provider. This may be done from multiple locations as needed because our education blog is online and available to the general public.

Growth of the Bean - Absorbs water and swells. Skin splits, and rootlet appears.
The seed splits, showing the young Dud. The rootlet grows downward, and
the bud upward. The halves of the seed supply food to the young plant.
Growth of the Wheat - Grows like the bean, but does not split.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Study The Cabbage

Ornamental Kale blooming in January in Washington, DC.

The cabbage is another of the plants cultivated by people for eating and display. It absorbs water and nutrients quickly, and the surplus food which it draws from the air and ground is stored by it in a variety of ways. The head of the common cabbage is a store of such surplus food laid up in the form of a bud. In the kale is stored in the leaves, in Brussels-sprouts in small cabbages or buds, and in the cauliflower it is poured into the flower-heads. It is supposed that all the different varieties of cabbages have sprung from the wild cabbage , a not very common plant which grows on the sea-coast, often to a height of nearly two feet.

Required for Observation in The Classroom: A complete cabbage plant with a close heart. A complete cabbage plant in flower, if possible. Cabbage seeds. A knife. Various leaf-buds or a video showing same things.

Method of Student Observation:

Compare with other roots previously examined.
Examine the stem, cutting and breaking it when necessary. Compare with other stems previously examined.
Let each child examine a leaf, and describe it. Arrangement of veins and absence of fibers to be noted.
Explain that the parts eaten have no fibres, and are therefore soft.
Make a longitudinal section of the cabbage, to show how the leaves are folded. Compare with other leaf- buds.
Exhibit a cabbage plant in flower, and let the flowers be examined by the children. (The cabbage in flower may be obtained in the spring.) Show the seed-vessels and the seeds of the cabbage.

How to Grade Study Notes For Student Journals: Every student will need a journal to write in weekly for this online nature study series. Teacher will assign the weekly content in advance.

Make sure the facts are: written in complete sentences, the first word of each sentence capitalized, and a period should be included at the end of each sentence.
Spell check your vocabulary and write the words correctly.
Dress up your journal entries with student clip art, drawings of your own in color or in black and white.
Student may also include photographs of their own taking for extra credit.

Look for the following facts about the cabbage inside of student journals. Assign a point value to the quality of the content.

Root - Branched. Fibrous. White.
Stem or Stalk - Thick. Green outside. In part fibrous and tough. In part brittle and without fibers. White within.
Leaves - Much wrinkled. Midrib thick, running through the middle. Veins branched, forming a network. Leaves not fibrous, but brittle. Outer leaves green. Inner leaves white, and folded closely together, forming a large bud.
Flowers - If the cabbage is allowed to remain in the ground for a long time, the bud opens and forms a tall, green, branched stem, bearing yellow flowers. The seed-vessels are formed from the central part of the flowers. The seeds produce new plants.

Video at Youtube for Students to Watch:

Cabbage growing time lapse, 100 days by Real Time Lapse

Ornamental Cabbage & Kale Facts by MisStateExtension

Stain and Assemble Coffee Filter Cabbages: I prefer to use watercolor or acrylic paints for this craft because these are already ''color fast.'' This is the key advantage to using artist paints of any kind. I know that once the paints are dry on the filters, these will not rub off on anything else.
Dye will stain things that they rub up against if they are not either washed again to remove what doesn't take on a filter or if the dye is not properly made stable by the addition of a fixative.

A decorative, coffee filter cabbage for
arranging on a table, wreath or display.

Supplies Needed:

package of white coffee filters
white school glue
green and magenta non-toxic acrylic paints or watercolors
bag of cotton balls
chenille stems
masking tape

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Prepare a kitchen space or a space next to a sink in a classroom.
Soak each coffee filter for 30 seconds. You can do this with an entire stack if you are willing to take the time to peal the filters apart, one from another, before ''dying'' these in the paint.
The acrylic paint should be of a liquid-like consistency before using in this craft. So, you may need to water it down a bit before puddling the paint on a kitchen tray. To make your colors more intense on the filters you may repeat this process being described over and over until you are happy with the results. Coffee filters are actually quite durable.
Puddle the paints in a dish, tray or cookies sheet. Tent the wet coffee filter, one at a time, so that it looks like a teepee. The edges should be facing down to grab the most intense paint color. The paint will seep upward towards the peaked center fold as the filter drys. Don't worry about the paint left in the tray; it will wash easily with just a bit of scrubbing and a once over in the dish washer on high to disinfect it.
You may also take a wet paint brush, load it with color and brush on more color randomly.
Let the filters dry over night and then open these up in the morning to further dry out in the sunshine.
Use just one filter to make the center of the cabbage. Wad together in your fist 8 or 9 cotton balls and place these in the center of the filter. Gather up the edges around a doubled chenille stem and twist the ends around the wire. Tape this in place and trim off the long length. This will be the center ball that all of the other leaves of the cabbage are attached to.
I folded all of the magenta inter leaves in half and then again, to cut the edges into a ruffle. Then unfolded and separated these again to fluff them out.
Apply glue to the bottom of the center stuffed leaf and attach the next magenta leaf to the center of this. Proceed through all of the leaves in order of their appearance squeezing a bit of glue to sandwich between each leaf.
Now tuck the entire cabbage into a small bowl so that it will dry in a ball-like shape. Wait a day and then turn it upside-down to further dry.
Separate and fluff the leaves when the glue has dried and your cabbage will then be finished for display.

Coffee filters in peaked shapes like teepees, have soaked up the puddle paints beneath them.
Right, after drying overnight, flatten out the filters to dry some more in the sunshine.

The center of the cabbage has one
stuffed leaf with cotton balls.

Cut the ruffled edges all at once by stacking the dry filters neatly, folding and then
cutting them together. Fluff them out before stacking and pasting them together.

Left, see the magenta leaves before the green are pasted behind them. Center, all of the
leaves have paste, white school glue, between them and are not ready to dry inside of a
bowl. Right, see the bowl and cabbage tucked inside. It will take awhile for the glue to
dry. After about four hours turn the cabbage upside-down an keep it in the bowl.
In a day it should all be dry completely, then fluff out the leaves as you like.

Extended Learning Content:

1. Root. - Branched. Fibrous. White.
2. Stem. - Thick. Green.
3. Leaves. - Wrinkled. Form a bud. Network of veins.
4. Flowers. - Yellow. Formed when the bud opens. Produce seeds.

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