Monocots and Dicots - Classical Conversations Week 8 (Cycle 1)

 My week 8 plans were already posted, but here is my updated plan for teaching about

  monocots and dicots.

We'll be doing this lesson on Wednesday this week.  

First, I'll read up to page 4 of the free plant book you can print from Montessori for Everyone.  

Page 4 discusses the differences between monocots and dicots but doesn't show pictures.  This will lead nicely to the chart and information in the monocot/dicot PDF I purchased from Montessori for Everyone (see below). I considered making it myself but am glad I didn't bother spending that time searching for images!

The PDF comes with beautiful photographs of flowers to sort into dicot and monocot.  I only laid out 3 of each, but there are tons more.

I wanted Bear to be able to tell apart monocot and dicot leaves as well, so I created my own leaf sorting cards by doing a Google search for "dicot leaves" and another for "monocot leaves" (I searched images).

So after we discuss the chart, we will look at the difference between monocot (corn) and dicot (bean) seeds.  I will have soaked some so they can see the difference inside.  Then we will sort the picture cards.

Finally, we'll go into the yard and see if we can classify the plants in our yard based on the plant leaves and flowers (the few that are left, if any!).  We'll be going to the botanical gardens in two weeks and will continue our search for monocots and dicots there.

As for conifers, there are plenty of pine cones and conifers in our yard, so I plan on doing a "parts of a conifer" hunt sometime this week.