Flower Dissection
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| Flower Dissection | |
|---|---|
| Science - Botany | |
 | |
| Level | Primary Elementary |
| Age | 5 |
| Prerequisites | Handling Sharp Objects Parts of Plants Puzzles |
| Materials | flower to dissect scissors (manicure scissors or dissecting scissors) tweezers heavy paper (card stock) glue or tape pencil tray optional: pre-printed labels |
In this activity the child cuts apart a flower to examine the different parts. This activity helps to reinforce the child's knowledge of the name of the parts of the flower.
Presentation
- Take the tray to a table.
- Use the scissors to carefully cut apart the parts of the flower.
- Arrange the parts on the paper and glue down.
- Label the parts of the flower.
Points of Interest
Control of Error
Variations and Extensions
- Provide different types of flowers to dissect.
Material
References
"Once I tried to show some children how a flower should be dissected, and for this purpose I supplied all the necessary instruments: the botanist's needle, pincers, etc., just as is done in the university for the experiments in the natural science. My only aim was to see whether the preparations which university students make for botanical anatomy were in any way adaptable to the needs of little children. Even at the time when I studied in the botanical laboratory at the university I felt that these exercises in the preparation of material might be put to such use. Students know how difficult it is to prepare a stem, a stamen, an epithelium, for dissection, and how only with difficulty the hand, accustomed for years exclusively to writing, adapts itself to this delicate work. Seeing how skillful our children were with their little hands I decided to give them a complete scientific outfit and to test by experiment whether the child mind and the characteristic manual dexterity shown by children were not more adapted to such labors than the mind and hand of a nineteen-year old student.
My suspicion proved correct. The children with the keenest interest dissected a section of violet with remarkable accuracy, and they quickly learned to use all the instruments. But my greatest surprise was to find that they did not despise or throw away the dissected parts, as we older students used to do. With great care, they placed them all in an attractive order on a piece of white paper, as if they had in mind some secret purpose."
-Dr. Maria Montessori, The Advanced Montessori Method II, page 313
