Flower Anatomy Dissection

As part of our study of flowers, we dissected a bloom from a rhododendron bush in our backyard.

This was a good opportunity to see what my kids already knew about flowers and maybe teach them a few more terms.

First, we picked some blossoms off the bush.

Then, I used a knife to slice apart the petals to reveal what is inside.

We pasted this diagram of flower anatomy from Enchanted Learning into our science journal. That is a good outline drawing for the kids to color.  A similar graphic is available on Wikipedia.

We pasted the flower to the paper below the diagram and I asked the children to identify what parts they already knew.  They had no problem finding the petals and the stem.

My daughter knew that we were looking for pollen.  She said that the bees help spread the pollen from one flower to another.

I told her that flowers have both male and female parts and that the pollen would be located on the male parts. I showed her the stamen with the filament and anther.  She labeled the “pollen” on the anther.

She then said she was looking for “eggs”.  She probably recalled this from Oh Say Can You Seed?: All About Flowering Plants (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library).  I told her that, like female people, the flower has an ovary.  We found the stigma, style and ovary but the ovary wasn’t large enough for us to cut open and see the ovules.

After we were done examining the flower, I placed a sheet of contact paper over it.  The kids colored in the diagram.

To finish up, I asked the children what is their favorite flower. My daughter chose rhododendron, presumably because she had a pink one right in front of her.  She rejected the rose because she doesn’t like the “prickers”.

My son chose daffodils and proudly selected the yellow crayon for scribbling.

And here are their finished diagrams and drawings in their journals: