Parts of a Plant and Plant Life Cycle

So the last couple of weeks we have been learning about the plant life cycle.  My student teacher, Megan, has really come up with some great lessons for the students.  For the first week of this unit, students learned about the parts of a plant and the life cycle of a seed.

They got to come up and match the parts of a plant to a poster:

Then students made their own construction paper flowers during stations that day.  We used green construction paper for the stem and leaves, various colors for the flowers and brown yarn for the roots.  Here is a picture of the completed project:

In case you are interested here are the words for students to cut out:  Parts of a flower words

We also sang about the parts of a flower and did the hand motions to, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.   Here is the song that we made up to learn the parts of a plant:

Parts of a Plant Song

Tune:  Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Flower, Stem, Leaves and Roots

Leaves and Roots

Flower, Stem, Leaves and Roots,

Leaves and Roots

The motions for the song were the following:  flower–the head, stem–pointing to stomach, leaves–squiggly arms, and roots–feet.  I hope that this makes sense!  The kids all loved this song and it was a simple way to teach the parts of a plant.

The next day, we learned about the life cycle of a plant.  Students planted seeds earlier in the week and read Eric Carle’s book The Tiny Seed.

Megan also made a fabulous chart to accompany the life cycle of a seed.  The clip art is from Carson Dellosa.

Students made their own charts of the life cycle of a seed.  The seeds were sunflower seeds.  A cotton ball represented a cloud.  Students dipped a sponge into brown paint to create dirt.  Next, students dipped their fingerprints in blue paint to create rain.  The sun and flower were clip art and students cut and glue these onto their papers.  Here is a picture of the finished project:

I’ll keep posting all of the fun activities that we are doing within the classroom.  My student teacher, Megan, has done an amazing job with her garden theme.

~Barbara