The Brick-Eating Ivy Mystery
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What Is This Video?
Attack of the Killer Ivy! is the Blorbians’ all-time favorite Earth movie. But it makes them worried for Earth, too. CAN an ivy plant really gobble up brick and destroy an entire building? On a mission from Plum, Gabi and Oliver travel to the city to find out!
Conversation Starters
Ask:
How is ivy harmful to the building? (Ivy traps water that eats away at brick.)
Are the buildings of Earth doomed? Will ivy crush them? (Not for a very long time [100 years] and only if people let ivy take over the buildings.)
How does the ivy help animals? (It provides a home and a place to hide for birds, mice, and other creatures.)
How do the animals help the ivy? (The birds leave droppings that fertilize the ivy.)
Explore Some More
Life on a Plant
Find a wall of ivy or another vine or plant in a park and stand quietly near it, with a magnifying lens if you have one. Observe how animals use the vine or plant. Look for birds, squirrels, ants, lizards, butterflies, spiders, caterpillars, and other creatures. Do you see animal homes—nests, holes, or webs? Any evidence of animals feeding? (Partly chewed leaves or fruits, squirrels collecting nuts, sawdust from beetles or termites eating bark, bees drinking nectar from flowers, and so on.) Any moss, lichens, or fungi (such as mushrooms)? How might the vine and the other creatures you see depend on one another? Draw or write what you see in a notebook and revisit “your” ivy or tree once a month or so to observe changes.
Curriculum Topics
ecosystems, plants, animals
Activity Type
indoor and outdoor
Standards