Science Class

I’m sure if you look closely you’ll see a little monkey in this tree.

I wonder how many schools have their own little monkey who climbs straight up into a tree as soon as the class goes outside?

While the teacher sits on the ground underneath, dreaming of roses and violets and daisies.  Ahhh, spring.  You are never far from my mind.  Spring, I love you, even if you are slow getting here.

Oh. 

Anyway, we went outside yesterday with a mission: to gather some nature items. It was too cold yesterday to  have lessons outside, but we braved the chilly breeze for just a little while to gather up a few things to bring in for examination under the microscope. 

I pulled a small square of lichen off of this dead branch. 

I plucked up a tiny little patch of moss growing nearby. 

And I took a little piece of decaying wood from this stump.

We took everything inside and turned on the microscope.  The decaying wood was surprising in that it didn’t look ugly and dead under the microscope.  It was BeAuTiFuL, with many shades of brown, and tiny little crystal-type structures that looked like little diamonds interspersed in the piece of wood!

The moss, of course, was alive and growing, so it was a little world of green!  Viewed outside in the yard, it’s so small and under-our-feet, we don’t really appreciate it, but under the microscope, oh my!  It was like being in a little FAIRY world. 

What surprised me most was the lichen.  I wish I had a microscope that would take a picture so you could see!!  As Princess of the Universe put it, Ewwwwwwww, it looks like cheese!

And it did!  It looked amazingly smooth and beautifully yellow under the microscope, with a couple of little broken areas in the surface, and in these broken areas there were bright white fibers.  Whoa.  It was really cool.

BUT the COOLEST thing EVER was when we turned it over to look at the side that had been attached to the wood, readjusted, and took a look. 

I gasped.  Michaela, it’s a creature!

She quickly got over the eyepiece and looked.  Ewwwww.  And tiny eggs!!

You’ll just have to take my word for it that it was amazing.  This little creature — uh, it looked like a millipede, only you could barely, barely see it with the naked eye.  It looked like a dot, but only if you knew it was there.  We would have never noticed it otherwise.  And the eggs were absolutely minuscule!

Michaela’s assignment then was to write a three-paragraph paper, with three objectives.  I want her to learn to write a cohesive, clear paper.  You know, something with a point to it.

• tell me about your microscope
• tell me what you saw today
• close with why everyone needs a microscope

She did pretty well, only it could have been longer.  I’m working on her.  (Susan, where is Mrs. Peele when I need her?)

I hope you all have a lovely Wednesday. 

Lynn