Chapter 3: Plants

2007-09-17T00:55:55Z

In science children learn about all different cycles, including the water cycle, the life cycle and plants is no exception. Studying plants gives them the opportunity to look at the growth of a life from just a small seed and through the various changes it makes as it grows into a plant.

Plants are universal therefore children in every country and culture are able to have experiences with them even before they study them in school even though each culture may be exposed to different types of plants. That idea right there could lead into a learning experience for the children to try and discover why different countries have different plants and why for example a child from Toronto couldn’t grow a cactus in their backyard.

As a plant grows children can record the changes they see in it, which allows them to look back on the whole process once the plant is done growing. You can have children learn what a hypothesis is by giving them all different seeds to grow and have them draw pictures of what they think their plant is going to look like when it is done growing. It’s a very exciting experience because they don’t know what they are going to get in the end.

Growing a plant also teaches the children how to take care of a life, so they need to make sure to give it water and sun or it won’t grow. They can relate this learning to themselves in the sense that humans need food and water to grow as well.

In my special needs placement I did an activity with the children on growing grass heads. The children really enjoyed it and as it grew they kept a record of when they watered it and the changes they saw. Once the grass had grown long they were allowed to give it haircuts and they absolutely loved this.

The text gives the idea of using songs to relate the science of plants into other areas of the curriculum. A song can take the idea of growing a plant and help put it into the child’s memory.

michellemce

Chapter 3: Plants