Plants Mania! :)

After weather we dove right into plants. In first grade, the kids need to learn the parts of the plant and be able to describe the life cycle of a plant. Our first activity was a super fun craft project from a plant unit by Made for First Grade. The students had to make a flower and add the things a plant needs to live (sun, air, water, soil). They also labeled the plants and needs and its parts. Here's my example:

On the first day I showed the kids my example and had them cut and glue the parts to make the flower.

The next day I let them cut out the labels and glue them on their picture.



Here are a couple of their finished projects! :)


Everybody's flowers made our room look even brighter! :)

We also read four books from the plants part series by Vijaya Bodach: Seeds, Roots, Leaves, and Flowers. These books are perfect for 1st grade but also share a lot of great information along with providing beautiful, close-up pictures.

Later in the week we took a plant walk outside around our school. We used our sense of sight to see how many different kinds of plants we could find. Our school has a wonderful graden surrounding our portables so we found many different kinds of plants. We filled in a plant hunt checklist and found all the plants except for a cactus.

At the end of the unit I had the kids draw their own flower and label the parts. I also had them draw the life cycle of a plant in their science journals

As an extension activity, I had my kids write their own version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Instead of Jack, they got to be the main character. They came up with their own story of what would happen if they grew a giant beanstalk and climbed to the top.

I was really impressed with how much my kids wrote. They really enjoyed coming up with their own ideas for a story. Lots of kids climbed up to find a castles and a giant like Jack did. One kid found a house made of candy while another found Santa Clause! :)

A few of my kids even wrote about the life cycle of their beanstalk, starting with the planting of the beans.


Hope you enjoyed our plant unit! Coming soon...Apples Unit and a fun mapping activity! :)