Saturday, October 2, 2010

My Herbarium!

It's October! Can you believe it? I love October, fall, and Halloween! I have so many fun things I'm planning to do this month, and I will share them all with you.

But first, I have to decide what to be for Halloween. Will you help me? I have it narrowed down to two choices. I'm either going to be Hermione Granger, from Harry Potter; or Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Vote and let me know which one you think I should dress up as over on the right side of my blog. I'll leave the poll open until Wednesday, October 13th, when I'll tally up the votes and see which costume I should start making!

This week I've been working hard putting together my herbarium! Remember all of those beautiful flowers I gathered and pressed over the summer? They are all finished being pressed now, and ready to be displayed.

Making my herbarium was easy. I'll show you what I did, so you can make one too!

First I gathered together enough white paper all cut to the same size to be the pages of my book. I punched holes in the same place on the top of every page. I got a piece of green cardstock to be the cover of my book, and folded it in half so it could be both the front and back covers. I punched holes in that, too.



Then I gathered together some things to decorate my cover with.





After I attached my paper flowers to the cover, I wrote my name on it so everyone would know it was mine.



Then I got out my flowers. Be careful with them - you don't want them to break! I used clear tape to put them on the paper. Try to arrange them so you can see the different parts of the flower.



Write about the flower on the paper. It's important to include the common name of the flower as well as the Latin name. You can get books from the library to help you identify your flowers, or look them up on the internet. I put down where I found the flower, as well as when it was. You can also include anything interesting that you learn about the flower. For example, when I was looking up the lavender, I found that it does well even without a lot of rain. I thought this was interesting because I collected that lavender in the middle of the summer when it was so hot here!



Then put all of your pages together and use yarn to tie the book together. This way I can add more pages later!



If you make a herbarium too, let me know! I'd love to see it. Don't forget to vote in my poll for what I should be for Halloween!

8 comments:

  1. Hi, Piper! Your herbarium looks lovely!

    That's a hard decision about what to be for Halloween (I voted for Belle, because she had no votes yet). I'm sure I would have a hard time too, as Harry Potter are my favorite books and Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney classic. Whichever one you turn out to be will be adorable! (If you go as Hermione, you'll be my mini-me even more, because I look like you and I'll be Hermione for Halloween!)

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  2. Wow! Good work! Your so artistic!

    I think for Halloween you should be a whitch, or a milk carton, like me!

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  3. I voted for Hermione because I love Harry Potter and Hogwarts .. three of my sisters are attending Hogwarts this year and I almost went but chose to stay home and home school .. But .. Bella would be awesome too as she is a beautiful princess .. and I love the story and .. oh I am not much help am I ..

    Your herbarium is awesome .. I will have to get photo's .. I put my flowers all together like a boquet and then covered them in the clear tape to make like a bookmark .. I will let you know when I get photo's ..

    Talk to you laters,
    Kelsyee

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  4. Hi Piper! You did an awesome job on your herbarium; it looks lovely!
    I voted for Belle. (I've never cared much for the Harry Potter series) I'm sure you'll look great in whatever you dress up as for halloween!

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  5. Your herbarium looks so cute Piper! You did an amazing job on it! :)

    -Claire

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  6. The herbarium looks brilliant, definitely an inspiration for me! And I voted Belle... she's so gorgeous and I love all the costumes in the Disney films.

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  7. So cute! Lavender would look pretty in a garden. Its nice to know that it is good for desert landscaping, too!

    I think you should go as Hermione Granger! Harry Potter is the best series ever! But Belle's dress is cute too...so hard to choose!

    I'm going as an angel this year.

    ~Ellie

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  8. Oh, Piper! That's wonderful!! :D I LOVE reading your blogs(: I was the 5Oth voter and I voted for Belle. It was a very difficult choice. I love lavendar. And maybe soon, I could press some flowers with my girls. I'm sure they'd love that.
    ~Mary

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