How we spent Christmas Eve 2012

A taste of things to come: how we spent Christmas Eve 2012.













Merry Christmas, everyone!

(And Happy Birthday, Neighbor Geek!)

My Plant Project

At school we are learning about plants. We had a choice of whether or not to do an optional project to make a model of a flowering plant. I decided to do it.

I cut petals out of blue felt. Our neighbors let us borrow their glue gun to put the flower together. We used straws to straighten the petals. Here's a picture of the side with the straws:

This is a picture of the other side:

After glueing the petals together I added the sepals. The sepals are the leaves that protect the flower before it blooms. Here is a picture of it on the side with the straws:

And the other side:

Earlier I had made a stem out of a boba straw and stuck two intertwined pipe cleaners into it to color it green. Then I poked a  hole in a box and stuck it in. After that I taped on some yarn for roots. Here is a picture of all of that:

I had also made the pistil (the "female" part that has what will become seeds) and the four stamens (the "male" part with the pollen) earlier. I attached them together with the hot glue gun. Here is a picture of them:

Then came putting it together. We attached a bent paper clip to the stem and poked a hole in the petals and sepals. Then we used the hot glue gun to attach the paper  clip to the pistil. After that I  glued on the leaves. That left one last step. I had to label the parts. I had a numbered list with the functions of the parts, so I only needed to use numbers. Here are the parts: 

• Ovules- the "eggs" that will become seeds
• Ovary- holds the ovules
• Style- brings pollen to the ovules
• Stigma- catches pollen
• Pistil- the "female" part of the plant. The ovary, style, and stigma are part of it.
• Anther- makes and stores pollen
• Filament- holds up the anther
• Stamen- the "male" part of the plant. The anther and the filament are part of it.
• Petals- attract insects to pollinate
• Sepals- the leaves that protect the flower before it blooms
• Stem- transports nutrients throughout the plant
• Leaves- absorb energy from the sun
• Roots- absorb water and nutrients from the soil and keeps the plant grounded

Here's a picture of the finished plant:

Note: Daddy helped with the glue gun.