What To Put Under a Microscope
You can really put anything you want under a microscope! But only some things will really give you an interesting image when you get down to it. So, while you can put your socks under, it would probably be better to find something else. As a small note, there’s really no hard rule on what you want to put under your microscope, as long as you’re having fun while doing it. By all means, you can steal your friends' socks and see what they look like zoomed in, but this section is just for some general pointers for what will probably make for a good slide.
Transparency
The first thing to be on the lookout for is transparency. If sunlight could pass through it, so can your microscope light. If your microscope light could get through, that means you could get an image. Look for things like flower petals, salts (some tips for salts and the like are here), and insect wings.
Size
Another thing you could look for are objects that are small in size already. It will probably be hard to get an entire flower under your microscope, but it’s easier to try your luck at things that make up that flower like its petals, pollen, and its stem.
Small organics
In general, it may be good to place your bets on ground findings like dead insects, fungi, and mosses. Small plants like mosses easily allow light to pass through it and are small enough that you don’t really have to cut off many parts of it to fit it in a slide. Fungi also have many of the benefits of moss. Dead insects have a diverse array of parts to pull from like their legs, wings, and head. As a side note: you should not kill insects just to make a slide. If you look around hard enough, you are sure to find enough dead ones lying around to make several. Unless you are sure that the insect you are looking at is invasive or otherwise harmful (like a mosquito or a tick on your arm), you should leave the live ones be.
Look Inside
If you want to try your hand at things that aren’t outside, you can look here for making rock slides and here for making salt and sugar slides. For more things, you should try to find things that are thin, small, or things that have small and complex designs (like a penny). For starters, you could try for nail clippings, hair, and fabrics. You could even make a slide with nothing but dust from an old shelf- because dust is actually made up of many very small organic materials (like skin, dust mites, and fabrics)
Look Down
You can generally find enough specimens to collect by simply looking down. Whether it is in the grass, on pavement, or in your garden, you can find any of these specimens ready for collection. You can also find many plants and flowers on or around trees or gardens.