Somewhat fortuitously, Luna brought a big bag full of juicy cherries to school on Tuesday, as her contribution to our not-quite-appropriately-called ‘bake sale’.
She was very accommodating when I suggested to her that it might be rather nice if maybe we ‘borrowed’ one or two. With her approval, I picked enough so that we would have one each. But (shh) don’t tell anyone.
First we observed (no easy task when it is a juicy cherry!) - we identified the part that had been attached to the tree and we spotted a tiny speck at the opposite side which we thought was probably where the flower once was.
Most of us were able to say, quite rightly, that a cherry is a fruit - and of course this means that it should have a seed inside; because as we know, that’s what a fruit is – a seed ‘container’!
But would it? That’s a good question Anusha.
To find out of course we will need to bite through the cherry (yum). Carefully though…..
because if there is a seed inside, it might be hard.
Do you see there? Yes, that’s the seed.
Poke it out for a closer look.
And now we need one of these…..
because inside the hard seed, is a soft kernel. And the soft kernel is the part of the plant that sprouts into a new plant. All being well.
One hefty well-aimed tap later…..
and the soft kernel is revealed. See?
Now - can you label all the bits? The kernel? The stem?
I wonder. Do all hard seeds contain a soft kernel?
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