Intraspecific Competition and Radishes

Welcome Back

I measured my radishes and Hammerhead123's radishes. The average height of my radishes were 5cm and the leaf length was 8cm, Hammerheads123's radishes were 2cm and his leaf length was also 2cm.

My radishes are 2.5 times taller than his. Also my longest leaf is 4 times bigger than his.

Term of the week: Intraspecific Competition

Hammerhead123's radishes are smaller than my radishes because his radishes are close together because he did not thin his radishes right away. His radishes showed intraspecific competition, which means members of the same species are competing for food,water,light,space and nutrients. Click on the link above to learn more about intraspecific competition.

The opposite of intraspecific competition is INTERspecific competition. That is when two different species are competing for the same resource, like a carrot and a radish.

Cloning Tomatoes in the Square Foot Garden

This is a photograph of our recently cloned tomatoes.

In the past week, I have replanted melons and tomatoes, cloned tomatoes from my mom and dad's garden and I have one strawberry that is red. I also added mulch to the top of my garden to conserve moisture.

The word of the week is cloning, which means copying an organism.

The tip of the week is how to clone tomatoes. The reason to clone tomatoes is that you can make an exact copy of your favorite tomato variety for little or no money. Did you know that most tomatoes you buy at the store are actually clones?

Here are some simple directions for cloning. If you would like more information on cloning tomatoes, click here.

Step one: Cut off a three inch branch that is still growing. This is called a "cutting".

Step two: Stick the cutting in damp soil in the shade.

Step three: Cover in plastic and wait until roots begin grow.

Cloning is that easy!!!!

Square Foot Garden Fractions and Percents

Today we headed out to the garden to collect data.

MCS, in fourth grade, focused on fractions.  She found that:

• One-third of her garden is radishes, one-third is cucumbers and one-third is beans.
• 32 out of 41 of her radish sprouts have at least one leaf missing (slugs???).
• Two-thirds of her cucumber sprouts are still alive without insect damage.

Hammerhead, in fifth grade, focused on percents.  He found that:

• 11% of hisstrawberries are already ripe.
• 11% of his garden is beans.
• 56% of his garden has already sprouted.

Later this week we will upload photographs of our Square Foot Gardens!

Fraction Toast: The Best Activity to Introduce Fractions

Do you need a quick activity that will help your students understand fractions? 

This year one of our most successful (and best tasting) activities was Fraction Toast.

This activity only takes one hour and is perfect for students from 4th grade through middle school.

FRACTION TOAST

Numerator equal to the number of pieces of toast with jelly, avocado, peanut butter, etc.

Denominator equal to the number of pieces that the toast is cut into.

Our picture shows two-thirds.

Materials:  a toaster, bread, spreads (peanut butter, avocado, jelly), butter knife, paper towels, paper and pencil, camera

Method:

1. Decide on a few fractions to visualize.  Choose denominators that are easy to cut out!
2. Toast the bread.
3. Cut the bread into pieces equal to the denominator.
4. Apply spread to the number of pieces equal to the numerator.
5. Make a label using paper and pencil and place the label near the fraction toast.
6. Photograph your edible work of math-art.
7. Eat the Fraction Toast.

 This activity was designed by Limelight Education in San Diego!

 Square Foot Garden Updates:  MCS and Hammerhead123 will post later this week.  We have new growth, new pests and new seeds sprouting in our gardens!
 
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!!!  WBD

California Homeschool Photo Gallery by Limelight Education

Here is a photo slideshow of some projects that we did this year.  These pictures were posted by Limelight Education, LLC.

Projects:
Fraction Toast
Blueberry Eggs
Square Foot Gardening


Extra special thank you to Learning with Love Dog Training and Shelter Dogs to Dream Dogs.
Please click on their links above if you would like to rescue a dog or train your dog to stay out of your Square Foot Garden!

Projects and Activities Photographs

I created a photo gallery of projects from the 2009/2010 school year.  Click on the photo above to visit the photo gallery.

Educational Website Review Spelling City www.spellingcity.com

This is our review of the website http://www.spellingcity.com

You can get there by clicking here: Spelling City

Overview: At Spelling City a student or teacher can type in words to be learned and choose to play a game, take a test or be taught by a computer voice. The best we found game was "hangmouse". A student must know what the words are before beginning and also must input the spelling correctly.

Rated on a Scale of 1-10

Appearance? 6.5/10

Kid Friendly? 8/10

Would I use it again? maybe

Comments:

MCS - "It is good because it doesn't let you learn words that were misspelled from the beginning."

Hammerhead123: "The voice talks to me like I am a second grader"

Do you have any suggestions? Please comment on our blog!