Lesson Plans pt3 (plants)

 Plant day! 

Keep your regular routine just use these spring fun ideas to fit into your daily or weekly lesson plan. This lesson plan would also work great for earth day

 A trip to the grocery store is also a great way to introduce your child to the benefits of plants. Have them pick out some fruits and vegetables they want to eat. I have a a few games I made up for Dash to help teach him about identifying fruits and vegetables. Click here to check it out

 Start their day with a veggie omelet. Chop up some onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and fresh spinach and have them mix it into their eggs, once it is cooking sprinkle with some cheese, yum! 

Next, either buy gardening books or borrow them from the library. Read with your child/classroom, about different tips and tricks to growing healthy plants. Also how plants grow and reproduce.  

Now we are ready to go to the store and buy seeds and dirt (let your child pick out which vegetables, fruits, or flowers they would want to grow. If it's for a whole class just get them beforehand, I would choose easy to grow plants).

Of course the next step would be to plant the seeds. I have seen many things used as planters, we had a lot of Styrofoam cups left over from other activities we have done in the past, so that is what we used. This part may get messy so I suggest doing it outside if possible. (If you are doing this for a class, I would have them take their new plant home with them)

Once you are all finished planting, have your child start a plant journal. Their first day they can record the list of seeds they planted, and also what steps they needed to follow to plant their seeds. Every day your child should be watering their seeds, have them keep track of the changes they see and the dates, just like real scientific research.

 A delicious and healthy lunch is pesto mac n cheese, click for the recipe.

Reading: Find some fun fictional books about plants or gardening, to either have your child read, or to read with them.

At the end of the day or week, have a discussion about what are somethings your child remembers about plants, and gardening. Teach them some vocabulary words I am sure they came across, and have them try and use them in a sentence. Like: Germination, transplant, roots, harvest, and photosynthesize.     

Snack time:  A great snack for a day like today would be either fruit salad, veggies with ranch dip or hummus, or an edible seed mixture like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, and hemp seeds.

For art make a picture of what growing plants look like below ground and above ground, using whatever supplies, paint, markers, crayons, or colored pencils. For example, carrots and onions look like only grass from above, but it has a beautifully colored vegetable below. Tomatoes and strawberries are just the opposite, we see their pretty colors and they only have roots below ground.  

I hope you have fun with these ideas let me know how they turn out or if you have anything I could add. Please follow for more ideas!