`
home about contact products facebook pinterest bloglovin teachers pay teachers email Image Map

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Plants! (& freebies!)

We are in the middle of our plant unit, and we are loving every minute of it!  We began with an "Is it alive?" lesson.  We sort picture cards in various ways (size, shape, color, etc.) before sorting by whether each thing is living or non-living.  Usually I sort this way and have students determine my rule, but a little smartie this year suggested the sorting rule independently!  We worked together on the computer/projector to make a Living and Non-Living t-chart:
The kids were totally thrilled that I actually typed "underwear" and found a clip-art picture for it.  I just love Kinder kids.

Each student then created a 2-part foldable in which they listed and drew living and non-living things.  These were glued into their science journals.


Our Language Arts curriculum includes the big book, Seed Secrets, by Tom Leonard.  I love this book because it shows the many different ways that seeds can travel and eventually be planted.

Before reading, we listed our schema on this chart (which we adjusted and added to throughout the unit).

We later reviewed what we learned in a morning Chit Chat.

We observed and sorted real plants that the students brought from home.  We focused on finding ways they were all the same - even though some looked very different!

The students labeled the parts of a plant and glued the sheet into their science journals.  Grab this printable for free right here.

The greatest fun was our hands-on dissection of lima bean seeds!  We started by observing uncooked lima beans and making observations.  We also made predictions about what could possibly be inside!  The students drew their predictions on this free recording page.  I then gave each SuperKids a pre-soaked bean, and they went to town dissecting away!  The students drew the insides on the page and we glued them into our science journals.
We all identified 3 main parts of our dissected lima bean seeds.  After discussing what we thought each part might do, I named the 3 parts and confirmed their ideas.  We labeled the parts on an AIMS activity page and of course, glued them into our science journals.  :)

To continue with our hands-on learning, we "planted" lima bean seeds in baggies and taped them to our back door...
...As well as grass seeds in cups (with faces drawn on them of course).

We will be observing and recording in observation logs as our plants change and grow.  I'll be back in a few days with the rest of our learnings and doings about plants!

HAPPY SPRING!  (It's in the 80s here now, so I feel like summer is officially on it's way!)

5 comments:

  1. Cute ideas! Love the lima bean dissection! Do you use Texas Treasures?

    heathernnance@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very Cute!!

    kutekinderkids.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fun ideas, love that you had kids bring plants from home! When it gets warm enough here in MN I will have to do that, too.

    Kelly
    Kindergarten Kel

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi! My name is Myriam and I'm a kindergarten teacher in a Northern town in Argentina... I teach English as a second language and I'm always looking for simple, bright ideas to involve my kids in real life learning, as well... I love your ideas!

    ReplyDelete