Year 1: Plants
This list consists of lesson plans, activities and interactive resources to support the teaching of plants in Year One. It contains tips on using the resources, suggestions for further use and background subject knowledge. Possible misconceptions are highlighted so that teachers may plan lessons to facilitate correct conceptual understanding. Designed to support the new curriculum programme of study it aims to cover many of the requirements for knowledge and understanding and working scientifically. The statutory requirements are that children are taught to:
• identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees
• identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees.
Visit the primary science webpage to access all lists.
Parts of a Plant and Their Functions *suitable for home teaching*
A range of activities are provided which help to familiarise learners with the basic parts of a plant, including growing plants from seed and making models of a plant. Many cards, such as matching pairs, loop cards, taboo, splat, bingo are also included, to identify any misconceptions and develop understanding.
Making a model of a plant will help children become more familiar with the main parts of plant. Try asking them to create different kinds of plants such as: garden plants, wild plants, vegetables and trees. This will help them to see the great variety of plants and could lead to a great plant display of all kinds of plants.
Grow Sunflowers, Make Plant Pots *suitable for home teaching*
What could be nicer than growing sunflowers, the seeds are nice and big for little fingers and the plants grow well and can be measured each week, which is a lovely link to mathematics.
Try observe the seeds and predicting what they may be and if they are living or non-living. Seeds could then be planted in Spring and children could make observations each week by drawing what they see. Many children think that to be alive something must move, observing the seeds as they grow into plants may help children see that even though the seeds did not move they are alive and just 'dormant' awaiting the conditions for growth.
Link to literacy by reading the story of The Sunflower as a class.
Seeds and Plant Growth Discovery Pack
A wealth of activities relating to seeds and plants, use them in a pick and mix way depending on your requirements.
The Eating Plants activity sheet is a great way of ensuring children see that vegetables are plants. Children may think that vegetables are 'vegetables' and not part of the plant kingdom. Children could observe the vegetable plants and identify which part of the plant we eat. This activity could lead to children growing their own vegetables. Radishes are quick to grow and a great favourite of Peter Rabbit. Lettuce, carrots, beans or peas are also all great fun to grow with children.
The Sunflower jigsaw reinforces the main parts of a plant. Children can colour, cut out, re-order, stick back together and label the mixed up diagram of the parts of a sunflower.
Fun with Flowers lets children develop their observational skills whilst they learn about different flowers. Children could count the number of petals on different flowers and record this data.
Plants *suitable for home teaching*
Use slides 1-7 of the presentation to introduce children to the main parts of plants. This could be followed up by a visit to a garden to find and identify flowering plants. One idea could be to take some photographs and have children label them back in class showing the different parts of the plant.
The first page of the worksheet asks children to label and colour the parts of a flowering plant.
Woodland Trust
Lots of ideas and resources for identifying plants and animals in local habitats.
Education Pack: Trees - Vital Statistics, Describing and Measuring Trees
Lots of activities linked to trees including:
Leaf bingo – match leaves to their descriptions
Leaf identification - use a guide to help identify leaves
Measuring trees – take a bark rubbing, measure a tree and calculate its age
Canopy area - measure the tree canopy area
