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| Strawberries by Fran W. |
Use your senses to observe a strawberry!
You will need:
Washed strawberries with their leafy tops (hulls), a paper plate, knife, magnifying glass, paper and pencil, and colored pencils
Optional: A pocket or regular microscope
Site
Put your strawberry on a paper plate and look at it.
Without touching it, describe what you see. (Colors, texture, etc.)
How does it look?
What do you think it feels like?
What do you think the leaves feel like?
Draw what you see…
When a scientific illustrator draws a picture, they use as much detail as possible, try to do the same with a pencil and paper. Lightly color your illustration with colored pencils when you’re finished, if you want to.
Take a deeper look…
Use a magnifying glass to take a closer look at the strawberry – remember to examine it without picking it up.
A pocket microscope can also be used.
Touch
Use your sense of touch to feel the strawberry.
Pick it up, feel the weight of it, run your fingers over it, feel the leaves, run the strawberry against your lips.
What textures do you feel?
How does the leaf compare to the red flesh of the strawberry?
Pick it up and examine it with the magnifying glass and/or microscope.
Remove the leafy top, called the hull, and examine it with a magnifying glass and/or pocket microscope.
Smell
What does the strawberry smell like? Do you like it?
Take 2-3 of deep inhales of the strawberry, as you do, pay attention to the inside of your mouth.
Take 2-3 of deep inhales of the strawberry, as you do, pay attention to the inside of your mouth.
What happens in your mouth when you smell it? (Your mouth may begin to water in preparation of eating the berry.)
Pick up the hull and smell it, what does it smell like? You may need to crush a little of it between your fingers to release the smell.
Pick up the hull and smell it, what does it smell like? You may need to crush a little of it between your fingers to release the smell.
Observe the inside…
Cut your strawberry in half from the top to the bottom and observe the inside of it.
What does it look like inside? Feel like? Smell like?
Describe what you observe.
Draw what you see.
Draw what you see.
Is the inside the same as the outside? If so, how? If not, compare them.
Taste
Take a bite out of your strawberry. What does it taste like? Chew it slowly and pay att
ention to where you taste it on your tongue. (Front, back, sides)
ention to where you taste it on your tongue. (Front, back, sides)
As you slowly chew, pay attention to what’s going on in your mouth.
How do the seeds (achenes) feel on your tongue and on your teeth?
Taste a piece of the hull of the strawberry and describe what you experience.
Try this…
Take a new strawberry and remove the seeds by cutting them off with a knife or scrape them off with your teeth, leave as much of the strawberry in tact as possible and taste it. How do the seeds taste and how does it taste without the seeds?
Tip: Save some of the seeds and see if you can grow a strawberry plant with them.
This activity is part the Strawberry Craze series.
Related posts on Fran’s World of Discovery:
A yummy and fun way to start the day or enjoy as an anytime treat.
Learn how to start your own strawberry plant from seeds and some of the interesting ways people grow them.
Find out how strawberries have been used over the centuries and make strawberry hull tea.
Find out how to extract DNA from a strawberry using simple household items.
More strawberry related activities can be found in my ebook Strawberry Craze. This 91 page ebook is filled with 30 strawberry-related activities and 15 yummy kid-friendly recipes.
Connect with Fran’s World of Discovery!
Note: Has this or another activity on Fran’s World of Discovery inspired you or someone else in a positive way, or have you featured this activity in a blog post? I invite you to comment and link back to where your post can be found, or tell me what you or your family enjoyed about the post! Thank you!
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