martinzoo

Our challenge this time was to spend 10-15 minutes outside, which once again turned into about an hour……..LOL! We were supposed to observe any aspect of nature and describe it thus:

1. Use one word to describe something you HEARD - GB decided to use chirping.
2. Use two words to describe something you SAW - GB chose swimming creatures ( he saw them in a puddle down in the ditch out by the road)
   If you look really closely at the water, you can see the tiny little creatures.
   After looking through zillions of pictures online, we guess that they must be some kind of water mite, like this one: *****Update: Theresa suggested that these guys could be called copepods, so I searched online for a video, and found this this one It’s quite possible, and knowing my source, probable, that she is right and that they are not mites. It’s so cool how this homeschooling community can help each other. Honestly, I would have never come across either mites or copepods if we hadn’t been homeschooling.
3. Use three words to describe something you FELT or could TOUCH - GB’s choice was rough, fuzzy moss

We don’t know too much about moss, so we came in and looked it up in our Handbook of Nature Study. And then to further enlighten ourselves we found these cool little 3-D videos to teach you about the life cycle of moss.

This is what GB wrote in his journal about moss:

Moss Life cycle:

1. starts with a moss plant that already has tiny leaves
2. tips of plant have either male or female parts
3. male fertilizes female egg
4. the baby moss forms a spore plant that rips open the egg case
5. the casing on the spore plant has tiny little spores that spill out all over the place
6. the spore germinates to make a new moss plant, starting the whole thing from the beginning

Kinda funny how I snuck in a little education on a day that was supposed to be Spring Break, huh? Funny thing is, he doesn’t consider this educational at all.