Creative Art Ideas For ideas of more art related to plants and trees, visit my Spring page or my Autumn page. |
There are many, many ideas for plants. Here is a few..... |
Create an outdoor flower or vegetable garden. If you can't do an outdoor garden, consider growing herbs indoors. |
Discuss the needs of plants - water, light, air etc. Sprinkle easy growing seeds such as wheat onto damp cotton. Leave one set of wheat in a place where there is sun and air, and put another set in a dark cupboard. Compare the results. |
Compare fruits and vegetables - what foods fall into these categories? What is the classifcation of a fruit or vegetable. Compare a variety of fruits and vegetables and sort them into 2 hoops on the floor depending on their classification. |
Look at how different plants grow e.g. vine plants such as beans or tomatoes and plants that grow underground such as potatoes or cucumbers. Compare to fruits that grow on trees. See if you can find pictures or real life examples depicting the growth of these types of plants. Discuss the life cycle of plants. |
Uses of Plants - discuss how plants are used in everyday life e.g. foods, drinks, medicines, clothing, dyes. Collect real life examples to display and discuss. How do plants assist people an animals e.g. oxygen, shade, food, providing homes etc? |
Use plants for cooking - make soups, vegetable or fruit salads, vegetable or fruit kebabs, fruit juices, or make tea e.g. green tea. |
Use plants and flowers in art - do still lifes, study the art of Vincent Van Gogh or Claude Monet. Talk about their depiction of plants and flowers in their art. Visit artists in the community who use plants or gardens as their subject. |
Create with plants and flowers - provide fresh flowers and vases. Encourage children to practise flower arranging. Provide sand in trays with pebbles, twigs, shells, plant cuttings and bark. Have children create their own mini gardens in the trays. |
Visit a florist, market gardener, orchard, greenhouse, nursery, botanical garden or grain farmer. |
Use beans or legumes as counters for math activities Provide leaf shapes drawn onto card. Children can use dried beans, legumes or seeds to measure the area of the different shapes. Provide balance scales with containers of beans, lentils and rice. Children can use the scaled to find equal weights of the different type of materials e.g. how mcuh rice is needed to equal the weight of a cup of beans? Measure the length of classroom items e.g. pencil, rule, book etc with dried beans or other legumes. |
Science, Technology and Environment Ideas |
Creative Art Ideas For ideas of more art related to plants and trees, visit my Spring page or my Autumn page. |
Music and Movement Ideas |
Discuss how a plant grows and its needs from the time it is a seed. Have children pretend that they are a tiny seed in the ground growing into a plant. role play to classical music. Have children pretend to be a tree, plant or flower. Try different movements as a plant - swaying in the wind, opening and closing petals to the sun. Be a dandelion seed and float on the breeze. Role play to classical music. |
Nature Walk Outdoors - Go for a walk through a park or garden. Observe various trees and plants. Do we know the names of any of them? Look at and compare plant parts and structure - roots, leaves, leaf veins, bark etc. Collect nature materials such as seeds, barks, twigs, grasses, leaves for future activities |
Seed Study - Bring a variety of fruits and vegetables such as apple, peach, orange, corn, peas. Cut the fruit or vegetables open where possible and discuss the different types of seeds |
Plant Study - Bring in some flowers. Talk about the parts of the flower - roots, petals, stem etc and discuss the role of the parts of the plant. Dissect the plant to further observe it. Talk about the role of insects and animals in aiding the pollination of plants and flowers e.g. bees, hummingbirds, butterflies etc. |
Nature Collages or Sculptures - Use nature materials collected on a walk in the park or garden to create a collage on paper or as a sculpture with clay |
Math Ideas. |
Language and Reading Ideas |
Brainstorm a concept map. What do we know about plants? Record children's ideas and develop a concept map with the titles such as Plant Parts, Plant Uses, Plant Types, Plant Needs. Display the map. Sequencing and Recall - provide children with a picture sequencing activity "Growth of a Plant". Children glue the pictures into the correct order and then orally describe the sequence. An adult scribes the child's verbal description. Labelling - Provide each child with a picture of a tree and of a plant. Have written labels ready e.g. trunk, stem, vein, branch, bark. The child works with an adult to label the tree and the plant, gluing the labels in the correct area. Find poems or rhymes about plants. Read stories about plants - The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle - The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss - The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein - Eating the Aplhabet and Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert |
Interest Centre |
Plant charts and diagrams, seed pods, leaves, twigs, bark, plants in vases, items made from plant fibers, tea, coffee, samples of foods made from plants. Provide magnifying glasses and special interest books also. |
Title designed with: |
Concepts on this page designed June 2003 |
