Fall nature lessons, and leading into Spring!

We have been enjoying Fall. I'd just as soon skip winter ;) and go straight to spring. I guess I live in the wrong part of the country to be able to do that. But for School we've been preparing our garden for spring. Doodle LOVES to rake leaves- so he played around in the leaves for a while.

My dad sent me an email with a cool link to some seasons lessons. The site is called Journey North on the site- it's a global study of the seasons. They track monarch migrations, whooping crane migrations, whales, plants and soo much more. We are participating in the Tulips experiment this year. What you do- plant Red Emperor Tulips, by their specifications on the map you can mark when you plant yours. Then when spring comes, you report back when your tulips first emerge, and when they bloom. They have animated maps that show you when spring "arrives".

So on Friday we did a few experiments. First we had to decide where the best spot was to plant our tulips. Using this page. Then we examined the bulbs closely, cut one open and drew pictures of what the tulip bulbs looked like. We made some predictions- using a few different variables. First- Bug wondered what would happen if he planted them 12 inches or 3 inches instead of the 7 inches that the website says. He predicted that the one that is planted 3 inches deep will bloom before the others, and the one that is 12 inches deep will bloom after the others. Then we wondered after looking closely at the insides of the tulip bulb, if it matters how fat around the bulb is, if fat ones grow better than skinny ones. So we measured our bulbs, numbered them, and we'll see in the Spring whether the fat ones grow better or not. Bug's prediction is that size doesn't matter. Doodle predicts that the fat ones will grow better.

AT LAST it was time to plant them! OOOH! LOOK! Another use for craft sticks! (use number 9)