Week 6 Home Schooling

Plant life When we look at plants in our garden, we can see how they grow and change.

After we plant seeds and water them, we see a shoot with two leaves pop out of the ground. The shoot grows more leaves and a longer stem. Roots under the ground hold the plant up and help to feed the plant. When the plant is fully grown, it grows flower buds that become flowers or fruit or vegetables.

Plant's Life Cycle | BBC Bitesize | science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcSgaUBwIn4

When we cut open fruits, vegetables and flower heads, we can see the seeds inside. When we made pumpkin pie, we collected the seeds from the inside. In the summertime we can plant the seeds to grow more pumpkins!

Look for seeds in your food!

Story: The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZITtrzoK4c

Lots of insects visit or live in gardens because that’s where they can find food and a place to hide. Some garden creatures help plants… lady beetles eat the aphids that want to eat our vegetable leaves and worms help to make healthy soil and plants. Earthworms dig large burrows which let water and air into the soil. This helps the air and water to reach down to the roots of plants. The burrows also help plant roots to move more easily through the soil and into new spaces.

Seed songs

One Seed by Laurie Berkner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDtehB-BpIA

Grow little seed by Rachel and the Treeschoolers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5C9NyRJ35k

The Farmer Plants a seed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRhGOdqWIIo

TREES are so wonderful! I love how they come in all colours,

shapes and sizes. You can even have a tiny tree called a bonsai.

Some trees have autumn leaves.

Some trees have spring blossoms.

Mika loves to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan. She has a picnic under the trees with her family. That would be so beautiful!

Some trees grow fruit.

What fruits grow on trees?

Draw a picture of a fruit tree.

Some trees can live for hundreds and hundreds of years!

Have a look at the wonderful trees (attachment).

One of them is such an enormous tree!

See if you can find two people.

A tree is a plant by Jennifer Tucker & Clyde Robert Buller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VNRlUCFM

Have a look at the trees in your garden or in the park. Do you have a favourite tree?

You might like to sit near a tree and draw it.

OR You might like to collect some bark or leaves and do a leaf rubbing.

* Here’s an idea from Bernie… a nature treasure hunt (see attachment).

Bernie said you don’t actually need a magnifying glass. You may like to install a magnifier app such as Loupe. Bernie used this at preschool to look at bugs.

CONNECTING W ITH INDIGENOUS CULTURE The Wangal Clan were a fishing people.

Women fished from bark canoes. Mothers placed their babies safely under a Casurina tree that had spikey seed pods. Snakes couldn’t slide over the ground if it was covered in these spikey seed pods, so the babies were safe.

Casurina trees get their name from the cassowary bird because the long leaves look like the feathers of the cassowary bird.

Stories We love trees by Rossiti Aishah Rashidi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBZUKKGEeNw Leaves by David Ezra Stein https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Ow-WJH9QE I am a leaf by Jean Marzollo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH9NKpDvLCg

WATTLE Wattle day is the 1st day of September which is also the first day of spring.

There are lots of different types of wattle trees.

Wattle trees are very important to Aboriginal people. They use the seeds, bark and wood to make things.

Aboriginal women collected dried wattle seed pods and crushed the seeds to make flour. They mixed the flour with water to make a bread cake. They cooked the wattle cake in the fire and ate it up while it was yummy and warm.

Clarence from Gardening Australia talks about Understanding Plant Uses including wattle and paperbark: https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/understanding-plant-uses/9430794

Aboriginal people knew it was time to fish for eels when the wattle blossoms fell into the river. The blossoms had grubs inside and the eels came because they liked to eat them.

Botanical dye is made using a part or al l parts of a plant. For example: rosemary and lavender produce a dye from the leaves and the dye from avocados is extracted from the stones and skins. The dyes can be extracted just by soaking the plants in hot water and then straining the l iquid for painting or colouring fabric .

Last year we picked wattle blossoms at school. We put the blossoms into a bottle with hot water and left it for a

few days. The water turned into yellow wattle blossom dye. We used this to paint a design.

You might like to try to make some botanical dyes.

You can paint a picture or dye a white t-shirt. To dye fabric, you will need to add some vinegar to the plant dye.

We also used berries to make red, parsley to make green and turmeric to make an orange colour.

You might like to make your own food or plant colours.

Please take care when using hot water near young children!

Make sure you wear an apron to protect your clothes!

Boab Tree of Botswana

Big old oak tree

Rainbow Eucalyptus tree in Hawaii

Weeping willow

125 year old rhododendron tree in Canada

Japanese Maple in Portland Oregon

Norfolk Island pines on Lord Howe Island

Eucalypt forest

Jacaranda street

73 metre tall Giant Sequoia tree in California

Filling and emptying play is relaxing and a perfect opportunity to explore mathematical thinking: volume, estimating, comparing, counting and ordering.

You can use a sandpit or a sink of water filled with bubbles and a few drops of food colour. *For messy play - a mud patch or gravel!

Equipment suggestions: large spoon, teaspoon, soup ladle, plastic or tin cup, plastic jug, sieve or colander, whisk, plastic funnel, small saucepan, plastic bowls or containers, egg cup, old teapot… (I buy second hand stainless steel objects from op shops)

Let them play and experiment!

If you have time you may like to ask your child to: find the container that holds the most; find out how many spoons to fill the smallest container; measure how many cups fill the jug and compare the containers to see which holds the least and the most.

It’s also good to try estimating before finding out the answer. Do you think the saucepan or the jug holds more? How many spoons will fill this egg cup?

Vocabulary: empty, nearly empty, half empty/half full, nearly full, full, overflowing, more, less, equal, the same amount, pouring, filling, emptying, capacity, guess

These NSW Government educational maths videos each go for about 14 minutes, featuring some funny Australian muppet style characters.

Capacity: https://education.nsw.gov.au/campaigns/mathematics/resource/curated-

resources/which-container-holds-the-most-

Patterns:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/campaigns/mathematics/resource/curated-resources/what-comes-next-in-line

Play School and ABC kids also have some great story time videos:

Play School Story Time and Play School Story Time: Languages feature Aussie celebrities reading much loved children’s books . There is also ABC Kids listen’s Story Time, Story Salad and Little Yarns. All wonderfully engaging audio resources designed for pre-school aged children.