Our Wonderful World by Emery Lewis Howe is a rich nature study book available for free download covering backyard neighbors, feathered friends, garden life, four-footed comrades, and the earth and its neighbors. By covering one chapter a week, there are 32 weeks worth of lessons. Enjoy the complete series!
A Plant and Its FlowerWe are in the third section of the book, Garden Life, covering plants in 12 lessons including how plants grow, flowers, roots, stems, leaves, wildflowers, pollination, trees, seeds, and wheat/bread.
Suggestions
- Copy Luke 12:27 into your notebook.
- Add a page in your notebook for each of the flowers mentioned: peony, water lily, cherry blossom, buttercup, lily, and tulip.
- You can view the parts of the flower as they are discussed by referencing this Flower Anatomy diagram at Enchanted Learning. For more information see resources below.
- For a closeup of pollen, see a variety of pollen grains under an electron microscope.
- Dissect a flower to see the inside of a pistil. You’ll find resources below.
- View an animated illustration of fertilization taking place inside a flower.
- You’ll find resources below to help you label the parts of a flower.
- Create a flower notebook to include the ten common flowers of your neighborhood. You’ll find helps below.
- You’ll find help for planning and planting a flower garden below.
- Keep a journal to record your flower observations. Include dates, illustrations, and other comments.
- Use the Bible verses listed for copywork or dictation.
- Read, memorize and/or copy “Discontent,” by Sarah Orne Jewett.
- More about flowers from the Book of Knowledge:
Flowers are important to plants because flowers are necessary for the production of seeds, and seeds bring about the reproduction of the plant. Most of the plants we know best — the rose, the daisy, the lily and so on — produce flowers. Most trees have flowers, and so do all of the vegetables we eat, the grass on the lawn and all weeds (except a couple of ferns and the horsetail, which act as weeds in some places)….
A typical flower includes the following parts:
- The sepals, usually green and somewhat leaf-like. They protect the inner parts of the flower when it is a bud. Taken together the sepals form the calyx.
- The petals. These are the part of the flower we notice most, because they are often large and brightly colored. They attract the insects, or birds in some cases, which carry pollen from one flower to another. Taken together the petals form the corolla.
- The stamens. These consist of a stalk (sometimes thread-like) called the filament; and the anther, which grows at the tip of the filament. The anther is the important part, because it produces the precious pollen. Most flowers have a number of stamens.
- In the center of the flower is the pistil, or several pistils. Most flowers, such as the cherry, the orchid and the violet, have only one pistil. Some have more, and the strawberry and buttercup flowers may have a hundred or more. Botanists use the word carpel for each pistil when there are several separate ones. The pistil consists of three parts: at the top, the stigma, which is either sticky or feathery and which catches the pollen grains; the style, which connects the stigma and the ovary; and the ovary at the base. The ovary is the most important part of the pistil. It contains one or more ovules. The ovules later become seeds.
“The Structure of Seed Plants,” The Book of Knowledge
- Plants
Ready to go outdoors? The Handbook of Nature Study covers plants beginning on page 453, and continuing through page 731. The beginning pages cover how to begin the study of plants and their flowers, and then follow guidelines for investigating specific wildflowers, weeds, garden flowers, cultivated crop plants, trees, and flowerless plants.
Additional Resources
The Parts of a Flower
Click on the various parts to learn about them.
Flowers
The parts of the flower and diagram for older students.
Flower Parts
An interactive learning tool, part of The Great Plant Escape, from the University of Illinois. The labeling activity begins here.
Wildflowers
A directory of wildflower sites to help you locate flowers common to your area.
Books & Activities
Flower Dissection
Instructions from Home Training Tools.
Flower Dissection
From an AP Biology class. Includes lab sheets and instructions.
Life Cycles
Virtual flower dissection from the BBC. Information is also printable.
Plant Reproduction
Informative interactive on plant life cycles.
Label a Flower
Worksheet from Enchanted Learning.
My First Garden
Interactive with lots of tools for helping young people start their first garden. From the University of Illinois.
Flower Cups
A Crayola craft activity.
Wildflowers Worth Knowing by Neltje Blanchan
Public domain work with color illustrations.
The World of Plants by Dinah Zike
Dinah Zike was known for her foldables before lapbooks became popular. In this book she incorporates that learning tool with learning about plants. Includes 24 complete lessons including templates, activities, the scientific method and suggestions for further activities and research. You’ll find the table of contents and an example lesson at the publisher’s website. Lessons on flowers are included.
Lapbooking and Notebooking Resources
The Parts of a Flower
Page 3 of this flower dissection download is a color flower diagram with labels that makes a great addition to a notebook.
Dissection Lab Sheet
For recording observations when dissecting a flower as suggested above.
Color Wildflowers
Would work well for a flower notebook.
Botany Lapbook
Free download from Homeschool Share that includes a parts-of-a-flower foldable on page 13. Other pages go well with our Garden Life lessons.
Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers Notebooking Pages
This is not a free download, but can be helpful if you are keeping a flower notebook. Includes pages for 45 plants (coordinated with the Handbook of Nature Study) with blank pages included for other plants in your area without individual pages. Notebooking pages for studying the parts of a flower are also included.
Nature Journal
Free pages from Donna Young.
Plants & Trees Nature Study Notebooking Pages
This 52-page download is not free, but it is a relatively inexpensive option for those who would like a set of pages covering trees, leaves, seeds, and flowers — all included in this book study. A great feature of this particular set are the diagrams and labeling activities included: tree anatomy; layers of the tree trunk; twig anatomy; anatomy and types of leaves; leaf arrangements, venation, margins, and shapes; cones, fruits and nuts; and parts of a flower. A perfect go-along!
Free Nature Studies: Our Wonderful World – Complete
Our own unit studies, book studies and investigations that encourage research and independent learning.
