Thursday, January 16, 2014

Twig Talk



When we went to the farm today, we learned about the parts of the twig and how they grow.  As twigs grow, they will split into buds, leaving bud scars.  The twig created one new bud every year.  The distance between two bud scars can tell you if it was a good year or a bad year.  If the buds are far apart, it means it was a good year.  If they are close together, then it wasn't.  The nodes are another part of the twig, basically, they are where the twig breaks off into another twig.  The lenticils are tiny dots all over the branch that let in air and water.















Then we got to go out to the outdoor classroom.  I have not been there in a long time.  The new students had never been there at all.  Farmer Mark let me introduce them to the outdoor classroom.  We had gone out there to find twigs in order to identify all their parts.  But I wanted to explore.

































The first thing I wanted to do was see if our spaceship was still there.  What do you mean "our spaceship," you might ask.  Well, it's a long story, but it was in fact still there.  The spaceship is something I helped make out of wooden pallets.  You can't see it from the ramp as you walk in, you have to actually be in the outdoor classroom.  You can find it on Google Earth if you want.  Just search for Hampstead and zoom in behind the big red barn.

































Shockingly, the butterfly garden we planted last spring was completely covered by dead grass and weeds.  You couldn't really see any of the plants anymore.
















Ok, back to the assignment.






































I did find a good branch.  It came from a very, very tall tree.  The branch had somehow grown so low, it almost touched the ground.  I think it must've gotten struck by lightning at some point.

A short time later, it was time to go back to the farm.  We talked about the assignment for a few minutes.  We left when the Lower El arrived.

~ Heather Otis, Upper Elementary

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