Sunday, April 27, 2014

Growing a Kinder-Garden: Plants Unit {Freebies!}

This was one of my favorite science units that I did with my kids last year. Many of the activities you see here are part of my Freebie Plants Unit. The unit includes fun activities, templates, songs, crafts, book ideas, and a sample outline of lessons. Some of the activities and templates are not included in the unit because they were borrowed from other blogs. I've included links to those activities below if you'd like to use them.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Growing-a-Kinder-Garden-A-Unit-About-Plants-1224263

We started our unit by reading the story of Peter Rabbit. Then we received an urgent letter from "Mr. McGregor" asking us to help him with his garden. This idea came from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten. We decided we would have to learn more about plants so we can write back to him and help him. Then we created a schema chart of our prior knowledge. This cute chart was inspired by The First Grade Parade

Next, we learned about the plant lifecycle. We read some books and watched a Brainpop video. Then we learned a song about the lifecycle, which we acted out with body motions.

We also learned about what plants need to live and grow. We read "Once there was a Seed" and we sang the song "What Do Plants Need?" I found this cute little song a while back but I can't remember where it came from. If you're the author please let me know so I can credit you for it. Finally, we made these cute flap books. The front of the book was inspired by Mrs. Lee as well. 

Next we learned about the parts of a plant. We started with this video on Brainpop about the parts of a plant. Then we learned the plant parts dance called "Flower, Leaves, Stem and Roots" (similar to Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes). Finally, we made a poster and students made their own plant parts diagrams.

Finally, we were ready to plant our own garden! The kids enjoyed watering and measuring their plants every day and recording observations in their plant journals. We also went on a field trip to the botanical gardens and nature center as part of this unit. At the end of the unit, we decorated flower pots and brought our plants home as a Mother's Day gift!

I hope you have lots of fun learning about plants and enjoy the freebies!

12 comments:

  1. I love planting! Learning about plants is one of my favorite units. Thanks so much for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for sharing this. What a great unit!

    ReplyDelete
  3. great tips . that gonna help me for my garden .. thank you

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing. Great ideas which I was able to use in my classroom. What a great unit!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Then again in the event that you agree to a DVD rental participation and scratch off your link membership of $50 every month, you'll be sparing a lot of cash. $50 every month works out to $600 every year. The DVD rental enrollment will cost you $204 every year, except you will get the opportunity to pick the films you need to see and invest fundamentally less energy watching advertisements. Check Cashing

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love, love, love all your ideas! Thank you so much for sharing this unit on plants.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is a great post,i really appreciate the work
    QuickBooks enterprise support helps you with everything regarding QuickBooks software. If you are stuck in some general issues related to QuickBooks like installation error or payroll issues then we are here to help you anytime you want.

    ReplyDelete
  9. back every day. It’s great to have a place like this. I’ll come often. Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks on your marveous posting! dependably manufacture astonishing entities.

    ReplyDelete
  11. keep up the good work for sharing the information.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great post! I am actually getting ready to across this information, is very helpful my friend.

    ReplyDelete