Botany Unit / Science Shelves

I know it’s been quiet around here.

In the real world, we’ve been spending a lot of time on science, and as much time as we can outside, as the temperatures start to creep up. Afternoons are in the 80s. The kids have been doing a lot of Teaching Textbooks for math lately, and there are a lot of questions about seasons and monthly temperature averages; it keeps asking things like what month you’d have a cook out / when you’d go ice skating etc. My kids are thoroughly confused because here in Florida there’s melt-your-face-off hot and humid — or — mild and humid (with a few freezing temperatures sprinkled in around January or February). Really we have two true seasons in our subtropical climate: rainy and… not rainy. I don’t know if “dry” is accurate when the humidity is so persistent. I say all of this to explain that April is the last month before the rainy season and the temps begin to trend toward unbearable leading into truly horrific cook-eggs-on-the-concrete hot.

Soooo lots of botany and outside exploration happening right now.

We’re studying trees, bark, leaves, pollination methods, flowers and roots — in that order.

We’ll be schooling through the Summer with our tiny window a/c unit cooling the classroom. The little a/c that could. Speaking of machines that make your life better — I’ve recently acquired a laser cutter, and I’ve been making my own Montessori materials (which is more slow-going than purchasing them). Teaching myself three different programs right now including CorelDraw2019. Not too hard, but I’m not super techy. However, when I’ve mastered them enough, I’m setting up my Etsy shop with a bunch of affordable elementary materials. For example, I don’t think people should need to pay $400+ for equivalency materials. Plus I’m creating original stuff I wish existed. So stay tuned for that. Fingers crossed.

In the picture above you can see some botany cabinet materials I DIYed quickly and inexpensively out of draft board. I can do cardboard, acrylic or wood, but this was a trial run, and I figured we’d go with what we had. In the spirit of quick and dirty, we used a tray to hold them rather than a cabinet.

Dirty — botany unit. Get it?

I know — clearly I am hilarious.

Too bad those leaf shapes are totally stealing the spotlight.

And in all seriousness, if you don’t have the Nature Anatomy book pictured here, do yourself a solid, and pick up a copy. It’s a fantastic resource and very thorough covering a wide range of nature topics. Great for all ages too with lovely artwork. (Affiliate links)

Also pictured above is a really cool fandex that lists so many identifying information about common North American trees. There is a very detailed leaf cutout at the top of each page and it lists everything else from bark to seeds. Super fun.

Leaf shape scavenger hunting.

What else…

Oh yes — highly recommended is the plant identification app PictureThis. We’re using the free version, but I still managed to identify so many plants in our backyard jungle. We’ve got both blackberry and raspberries growing, Pokeweed, Confederate Jasmine, tons of Poison Ivy, an oriental cherry tree and Black Nightshade — which now that I know it is there, truly freaks me out.

But cool to see that it truly does resemble the tomato plant. I can totally see why tomatoes were originally thought to be poisonous.

Cool beans. Again with plant humor.