Selena had to examine both the expensive and inexpensive. She used all her senses, well not taste, though that would have been fine but she didn’t want to taste it. She also used her magnifying glass.
Some of her comparisons:
- Cheap hay looks more like long grass and is very green
- Expensive hay is thicker and green and yellow in color, she compared the coloring to that of a candy cane.
- In the expensive hay we found alfalfa buds.
- The expensive hay smells stronger then the cheap hay.
We then came to the computer and did some research on Hay. We looked at pictures of hay fields, alfalfa fields, and the harvesting process. We found this YouTube clip from a farm outside of Ephrata WA.
We discussed the process of baling the hay, how the combine works, along with how weather can increase the amount of good hay, and suddenly decrease the amount of good hay.
The last thing left for Selena to answer, “Does hay float and which one will float or sink, the cheap or expensive hay?” Her question.
Her answer: “They both float.”
We had a lot of fun with this examination of hay. Sure there is a lot more we could have learned but I know that will come on down the road, right now I don’t think Selena would appreciate or understand how much a bale of hay weighs, how many bales make a ton of hay, how many tons of hay does it take to feed one horse. I guess you can see a lot of math coming up in the future for us just from a few pieces of hay.
This did lead to quite a hilarious discussion between Selena and I.
- Selena, “Grandma, can I raise a chicken?”
- Me, “Why would you want to raise a chicken?”
- Selena, “To eat.”
- Me, “Do you know that you would have to butcher the chicken to eat it?”
- Selena, “How do you butcher a chicken?”
- Being the grandma I am I explained the entire process to Selena, she was very interested in the details right down to not wanting the chickens to run around the farm without their heads.
- Me, “You know Selena I have even watched them butcher cows.”
- Selena, “The chickens butchered a cow?”
I love the fact that you studied hay!
ReplyDeleteSelena's comment made me laugh :)
her comment was great. So is alfalfa another the same plant 'cause in your email I was thinking you meant it was the same plant just at a different stage. I'd always thought it was another plant.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever used Venn Diagrams with her. This is a great tool for comparisons.
ReplyDeleteI like Phyllis's comment. Interesting study. Selena's comment made me giggle.
ReplyDeleteHa ha the chickens butcher the cows... For what it's worth my children totally watched us butcher chickens and are still solid wonderful human beings with very few side effects... Meadow does tell people that we are eating the chicken we killed sometimes though :)
ReplyDeleteSelena's comment made me laugh out loud!!!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I could ever eat meat again if I had to butcher it, or even if I had to watch someone do it.
How interesting to study hay!