Spring Flowers and Geometry

We've been inspired by the beautiful daffodils blooming in our yard!  To celebrate this sign of early Spring, we sketched the daffodils for a while when the sun was out....

Daffodils have 6 petals, so we drew 6-pointed stars and hexagons to help us with the symmetry.

Our wonderful neighbor loaned us an amazing Waldorf book that is no longer in print and is all in German.  It features forms and shapes of plants, animals, minerals. 

Next, we drew triangles, squares, 5-pointed stars and 6-pointed stars.  Based on the drawings in the book, we sketched out flowers that follow these 3, 4, 5, and 6-petal/leaf patterns. 

 

Then, it was time to color the flowers.  If the flowers were blooming outside, we observed them (mostly pansies and daffodils right now!).  

Joey

We discussed the color variations of each flower as we drew. 

Ricky

We wrote the numbers in Arabic and Roman numerals and the names of the flowers in English.  Next week, we will add the names in Spanish and German. 

Wilson

Botany - Bulbs

We love watching plants grow! We attended a wonderful bulb-planting workshop for homeschoolers at the Loomis Flower Farm back in October. Each child planted daffodils, tulips and hyacinths in a pot. On top of the layers of bulbs, pansies were added for color. We learned about bulbs and how to plant them successfully.




Our bulbs starting peeking out their little leaves in January!


We watercolored two sheets of paper, made twizzlers out of yarn, and created our own botany books. We selected one of the bulbs to watch and sketch over the weeks to come.

Now, the daffodils are done blooming, the tulips are beginning to fade, and the hyacinths are showing the last of their vibrant lavender color.

Our bulb learning culminated with a trip to Daffodil Hill in Volcano, CA. Over 300,000 daffodils and 300 varieties! We met our uncle and cousins there who live near the hill. We had fun trying to count the varieties of daffodils.

Here is a song that we are singing during circle time right now:

Little Bulbs (sing to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Are you sleeping

Are you sleeping

Little bulbs

Little bulbs

Springtime is a-coming

Springtime is a-coming

Time to wake

Time to wake