If you're looking for engaging plant life cycle activities for kids, your students will love becoming a botanist for the day! Come on along and watch as my students take a deep dive into the world of plants.
Project based learning activities are some of my favorite things to do in first grade. Imagine walking into class one day and telling your students that they're going to become a botanist for the day. A botanist is a person who studies plants – the way they grow, the differences between them, and everything else that has to do with plant science. In this unit, your students will get a hands on look at this profession as they study plants.
Setting The Stage
To begin this unit, we headed to Epic books online to read the book Botanist by RJ Bailey. This simple, kid friendly book was perfect for introducing the students to the jobs of a botanist.
Next, we worked together in shared writing to make a list of things that a botanist does in his job.
Going On A Plant Field Study
Next, I told the students that they were going to become a botanist for the day. We took a little field trip around our playground and school grounds to search for different kinds of plants. I gave my students all the needed equipment:
- a clipboard with field study guide
- magnifying glass
- small ziplock to gather their specimens
- kids sized tweezers
The kids were super excited to head out to search for plants and they took the whole thing very seriously! They were excited to show me all the different parts of plants, different flowers, grasses, etc.
As the students were searching, they worked on their field study guide. They wrote down and drew pictures of some of the different kind of plants that they discovered. They took samples to use later in the classroom.
Dissecting A Plant
Next, we headed back indoors to dissect a plant. For this activity, we needed some kind of flower. You could use cut flowers or pick flowers from your own garden. I don't have a garden and wanted something that would have all the parts, including roots, so I purchased a small potted plant from the store.
I gave each child part of the plant and they used their magnifying glass to study it closely. We found the pollen, leaves, stem, roots and petals. The students used their tweezers to dissect the plant and carefully taped the parts of the plant to this printable diagram. This was a great hands-on plant activity for kids!
Seed Sorting
Next, I told the students that botanists also study seeds. I purchased a few bags of dried beans and sorted them into small plastic cups. Dried beans are very inexpensive and will last forever! This was more than enough beans for our entire first grade (4 classrooms) to sort seeds.
The students sorted their seeds on their sorting mat and then graphed the results on this simple bar graph.
Planting Bean Seeds
Plant activities for kids must include some kind of planting! Next it was time for the students to plant some seeds and report on their growth. We chose to plant beans because they are a quick growing plant that's easy to take care of in the classroom. The students decorated a cup and planted their own bean seed. Then they created a plant observation flip book. Every few days the students made an observation and recorded their findings in the book and they made a cute plant craft.
Plant Research
Finally it was time for my little botanists to tell me everything they had learned about plants. They each chose a different plant to research and write about. I found a bunch of kid friendly books on a variety of different plants on Epic Books. The students chose a book to read and then they completed this graphic organizer with some of the information they learned.
The students finished up this unit by writing a report about their plant. They included the plant life cycle, the parts of the plant, where the plant lives and some interesting facts.
If you're looking for a way to get your kids excited about their learning, there's nothing better than hands-on project based units. My students were engaged and learning from start to finish! Ready to have your students become a botanist for the day? Head over here to take a closer look at these plant activities for kids that include google slides, printable worksheets, plant life cycle activities, diagrams, craft and more!
