 |
| Graphic by Melonheadz Background by The 3am Teacher |
Happy Spring! I am so enjoying our warm spring temperatures!
Spring weather means plantin' time so last week during Spring Break I spruced up
my little reading nook, planted all of my pots and finally moved my
(very messy) fuscia back outside.
She really needed to get out of the house and look!
She's already blooming!
It's almost plantin' time in my classroom too!
We're gearing up to study life cycles and I wanted to share some
of the fun plant activities that we do! This is one of my very favorite
units to teach and we incorporate a lot of
writing and hands on fun!
We germinate lima beans and start by soaking them to observe the inside of a seed.
These large beans are perfect for a close up view of the inner workings
and labeling the parts of a seed.
Last year I placed one under a document camera and my class
thought it was the coolest thing ever!
We'll place our seeds between damp paper towels (with a little squirt
of hand sanitizer to prevent mold) inside a sandwich bag.
We check on them every couple of days and record any changes.
We do several mini labs along the way including answering the question,
"How do leaves help a plant get light?"
We looked at different types of leaves and compare their shape, size
and outer covering. We predict which leaf types would help a plant
get more sunlight. We also ask ourselves, "Can we tell how much light
a plant needs by the type and shape of leaf it has?"
Next, we went outside and students worked in pairs to use their hands
as leaves to test their predictions and record their observations.
We demonstrated how different leaf shapes helped a plant
to get more or less light.
We did this little cut and paste activity during our literacy centers to help us
understand the causes and effect involved in a plant's life cycle.
During our unit we make several mini books to include in our
culminating project.
In order to manage our time, I spread this out across the curriculum
and students do some of these activities during our literacy centers.
Students research plant facts at the computer center or during our
computer lab time, and do some of the writing
during our writing block.
computer lab time, and do some of the writing
during our writing block.
We used these charts to help us identify the parts of a plant and
to understand the process of photosynthesis.
to understand the process of photosynthesis.
You can download a free copy of these charts{HERE}
We later wrote about photosynthesis and how a plant makes it's own food
in mini books that will go inside of our final flower booklets.
We used yarn to make the roots of our flowers before writing
about the job of the roots.
Students researched interesting plant facts and included them
on the back of the flower's petals.
We compiled all of our learning and writing in our flower booklets.
My kiddos worked so hard on these and I love how they turned out!
During our unit we learned how a plant makes it's own food and why a plant's
leaves are green. For some Friday afternoon art fun we "painted" with
chlorophyll by doing leaf rubbings.
This is our spring hallway display for our open house with our butterfly haiku and acrostic poetry.
I love to tie in art wherever I can and this year we'll be learning about
Van Gogh's sunflower painting during our plant unit!
You can find all of these activities and SO much more in my Life Cycle of Plants unit.
Happy planting friends!