Birds--more about migration

 We are getting ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count and are learning about a few kinds of birds.

Today we read the first story in the Birds Nature Reader (Good and Beautiful) about the Barn Swallow.

We enjoyed watching this video showing how the swallows make their nest.

Corn!

 We live in the midwest and the corn harvest is happening right now.  Corn is also a major plant and food source of Latin America (month 9) and also an important part of the Pilgrim's experience as they came to America (month 2). We also are excited about learning more about corn because of our ongoing study of Botany that we started this summer! This week we drew the parts of the corn plant into our Botany Notebook.

We watched a dissection video of corn to see the different parts of the corn seed and learned it is a monocot.

We learned that the Mayan name for Corn is Ixim. And watched this film about the creation story of the Mayan with corn.

We loved this book called Corn is Maize so much on YouTube that I ordered a copy for our family library. Amazon Link

Because corn is such an important crop for Native Americans we listened to the music of  the Corn Dance of the Pueblo Indians

And this corn grinding song and this video.  Music makes work better!

These picture books came from our LiftEd Botany study and we watched the read aloud on YouTube:

 about Roots 

How a Seed Grows

After playing in a corn pit at the farm we love the sensory aspect of corn too!

Next up is fun with popcorn

and corn meal