Studying Plants to Welcome Spring

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"Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer."

 - Anita Krizzan
So I guess we are doing science at home now.  My kids may be in different grades, but I told them this is one subject that everyone can study together.  To welcome spring we started out with a little plant study.  We often frequent gardens so this was not a new topic matter, but I really wanted to help them get into it a little more and have it be something we could work on for a week or two.

To start off, both were given their own laboratory notebook.  Next, was the research portion for me to find what we needed for our study.  I was amazed at what I could find for free from videos to ideas.  Our first stop was to review the scientific method.

If you haven't signed up yet, Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. are offering free access while the schools are closed.  They have so many wonderful videos covering a wide range of subjects.  We started in the Be A Scientist section of Brain Pop Jr. to learn methods and set some clear goals on how we would conduct experiments and make observations.  The videos we found helpful were Scientific Method and Making Observations.  This really helped us get into the mindset of becoming scientists.

We then began our lesson about plants.  There are tons of kid friendly books and online resources geared towards kids and botany.  We found some in our home library and supplemented with videos that we found by searching under topic on ABC Mouse and the ones under the Plant Section on Brain POP Jr.

It was then time to get hands on with our experiment and observation!  First, we planted seeds for our garden using a seed starter tray, but an empty egg crate and soil would make an easy substitute.  We also set up an observation jar so that we could observe what is happening when seeds sprout under the soil.

To make the observation jar, we took a clean empty jar and stuffed it with a moist paper towel.  Then we pushed some green bean seeds into the area between the paper towel and the glass, 1-2 inches from the bottom of the jar.  We checked the paper towel daily and added a spoonful of water if it started to feel dry. 

Each day the kids made an entry in their laboratory notebook.  They recorded the date, how many days it has been since we placed the seed in the jar and a drawing of seeds in the jar.  Day #1 was planting day.  By Day #7 things really started to get exciting as they could see the parts of a plant begin to take shape.

Throughout the week continued our exploration about seeds and plants, starting with a close look at the parts of a seed.   I printed out a diagram and had the kids trace/draw them in their books and then label them.  This ended up being a great reference once our seeds started sprouting and some of the internal parts of the seed were exposed.

For learning about the needs of plants and the plant life cycle I searched online and printed out a reference chart.  We found books to read including "The Tiny Seed: by Eric Carle. "From Seed to Plant" and "Vegetables We Eat" both by Gail Gibbons.  Some we owned, others we were able to get as virtual copies from our library.  To finish it all off, we watched the Magic School Bus Goes To Seed (season , episode 11) on Netflix.

I printed each child a copy of an awesome flip book called Flipping For Plants by Conversations in Literacy It is available for free on teachers pay teachers.  The flip book gave us areas of focus as we took our time exploring the different aspects of plants.  We used it throughout the week to illustrate what we were learning.

My children are in a Montessori school, so I wanted to bring in a little Montessori learning into our home classroom.  I found these wonderful Bean Life Cycle 3-Part Cards from Montessori123.com.  The kids loved having them and I could print them right at home.  (Take note, every 2 weeks Montessori123 is releasing some free resources to help all of us stuck at home.  I can’t wait to see what is next!)


"When life hands you dirt plant seeds."

 - Matshona Dhliwayo

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