Saturday, September 24, 2011

Our Nature Study: Milkweed & Monarch

 

OHC

  My girls and I are working through Barb’s Autumn ~ 2011 ‘’More Nature Study with the OHC” e-book.  It’s super cheap and packed FULL of FUN with your kids.  The lessons are guided so there is no busy work for mom!

 

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We went to my dad’s field behind his house to find the milkweed.  You can see the big pods.  We did not get to study them when the flowers were in bloom.  We plan to plant some seeds this fall and hope to see them bloom in the spring!

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These are what we call the milkweed beetlesCheck out their babies!

 

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This is the Monarch Butterfly caterpillar!  The monarch lays just ONE egg on a milkweed leaf.  The eggs hatches 4 days later and the caterpillar has the leaf to munch on and grow

 

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This is the inside of the milkweed pod.  There are tons of seeds inside.  As the pods dry in September and October, the seeds fall to the ground.  In the spring, new plants emerge!  This is the part of the study my girls and I are looking forward too!

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These are the OHC Milkweed study worksheets!  I taped real seeds to the paper.  The fluffy part above the seeds are so silky soft.  It helps the seeds travel in the wind for new plants to germinate!  God’s design is so unbelievable!

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Our resources for this week’s Nature Study:

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  1. Barb’s - Outdoor Hour Challenge: Milkweed – details here
  2. Handbook of Nature Study
  3. Monarch and Milkweed – Frost

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11 comments:

  1. Great pictures! Don't you just love it when your nature study turns out great? :o) Good job girls!

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  2. Did the milkweed turn her fingernails green?....pretty pretty!!

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  3. This is great! I've looked at her blog, but haven't participated yet.

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  4. Wow! What GREAT drawings! We also did milkweed a week or so ago now. No caterpillars though!

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  5. This is a wonderful look at how the perfect milkweed study should go if you have access to real milkweed plants and pods. You were able to see all the various aspects of the plant (except the flower) and the habitat that it provides. Excellent look at your nature journal pages!

    Thanks for sharing your link with the OHC.

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  6. Very nice journal pages! Thanks for sharing.

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  7. I love the pictures and taping the seeds down is a good idea!

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  8. Those drawings are fabulous, and I love the monarch butterfly on the flower. Beautiful!

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  9. We enjoyed this too! I think we may have seen some of those beetles on another plant but didn't know what they were. Love, too, how the green nail polish matches the pod!

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  10. How fun! We collect a monarch caterpillar every summer and watch it change. It amazes me how every time they do they exact same thing. Genetics is fascinating. I have photos on my fb page of this and last year's "model." I have never thought of actually studying the milkweed though. Something to add next summer!

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