Baylor College
Needs of Plants
What better way to learn about plant life than by creating a class garden? Young botanists start with a brief discussion about radishes before planting seeds and watching them grow. To determine the importance of water, sunlight, and...
Education Outside
Seed Saving
After a discussion of the factors that affect seed germination, class groups harvest and preserve seeds from the school garden.
DocsTeach
Sequencing from Seeds to Harvest
Explore the farm to table experience in a fast-paced lesson on gardening. The activity uses image sequencing to help young scholars understand the process of growing food from seed to harvest. Academics also participate in group...
Baylor College
Do Plants Need Light?
Turn your classroom into a greenhouse with a lesson plan on plant growth. First, investigate the different parts of seeds, identifying the seed coat, cotyledon, and embryo. Then plant the seeds and watch them grow! Measure the new plants...
Curated OER
Growing plants
Students explore plants and recognize that they are living things that require light and water to grow; students identify, name and match the parts of plants.
Illustrative Mathematics
Growing Bean Plants
Plant growth experiments offer rich, cross-curricular learning opportunities that can really excite and engage young learners. In this series, children work in pairs planting, measuring, and comparing the height of bean plants in order...
Education Outside
Grow an Art Garden: Plant a Rainbow
After a reading of Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow, class members plan a rainbow garden, research growing cycles of the fruits and vegetables in their section, and then plant and maintain the garden.
Berkshire Museum
The Three Life-Giving Sisters: Plant Cultivation and Mohican Innovation
Children gain first-hand experience with Native American agriculture while investigating the life cycle of plants with this engaging experiment. Focusing on what the natives called the Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash - young...
Cornell University
Weed IPM
Go on a weed hunt! Scholars gain insight into the characteristics of plants and examine the outdoor environment in order to identify five different types of weeds. Learners then show what they know with a one-page reflection.
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Gardening
A Reading Adventure Pack invites scholars to start gardening. Following a reading of two books—fiction and nonfiction—young green thumbs repurpose food containers to grow an herb garden in their kitchen, plant seeds in starter pots out...
Curated OER
Growing a Lawn
Learners research plant growth. In this plant growth lesson, students explore the needs of plants. Learners compare and contrast grass and broadleaf plants and grow a miniature lawn in a cup of soil. Resources are provided.
Curated OER
Seed Socks
Students explore how seeds travel. In this seed disbursement instructional activity, students head outside in their bare socks. Students walk around then before going inside they take the socks off and examine what their socks picked up....
Curated OER
Let's Get Carried Away
Learners discover how seeds travel from their parent plants in search of water, sunlight, and nutrients, and conduct experiments in which they note characteristics that encourage seed dispersal by means of wind, water, animal carriers,...
Curated OER
The Dirt on Plants
Students draw and label the four parts of a plant. They describe changes that are part of the common life cycle. Students follow various one and two step directions. They are asked to discuss that they can recall about plants.
Captain Planet Foundation
Square Foot Fall Garden
First graders learn the basic needs of plants and identify geometric shapes while planting a fall garden. Combining math and science in one lesson, the resource guides kids through starting their class garden as they discover the...
Curated OER
Life Cycle of Trees
Turn your students into young tree-tectives with this fun science investigation into the life of trees. To begin, a class volunteer gets dressed up in a tree costume as the different parts of trees are introduced. Then, the class learns...
Curated OER
Soybeans: The Miracle Seed
Students discover why soybeans are called the "miracle seeds." They make their own soynuts and share other foods made from soybeans. They create a bulletin board of soybean products.
Curated OER
My Little Seed House
First graders chart the growth and development of seeds. In this seed growth lesson, 1st graders observe seeds as they mature through the growing process.
Curated OER
What Is It?
Play the game of Tag and differentiate between plants and animals. Explore the characteristics of plants. Identify the major parts of plants (e.g., seeds, stem, pistil) and describe their basic functions. Compare the requirements of some...
Curated OER
Milkweed Plants
Second graders view milkweed plants (or pictures). The describe the plant and discuss ways some butterflies use it as a food source. Students view four pictures of different phases of a milkweed plant's life cycle. They discuss the...
Serendip
Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
How does energy from the sun make plants grow? Scholars move step by step through the processes that promote plant propagation during a detailed lesson. The resource illustrates ADP production and hydrolysis, then allows learners to...
Curated OER
Grow Your Character Bookmarks
Students make bookmarks out of seed paper to study the growth of seeds and complete an activity for the Six Pillars of Character. In this science and character instructional activity, students describe the stages of growth of plants and...
Curated OER
Germinating Seeds on Gelatin
Students germinate seeds in unflavored gelatin to which liquid house plant food has been added. Students observe and record plant growth in this medium with a variety of variables in a number of experiments.
Curated OER
Grain Seeds and Food
Students observe the characteristics of different seed types. They classify, sort, name and write about the seeds.