Change of plans: teaching about plants!!!

I know I have announced the topic of tomorrow’s lesson to be planets and the Universe, but a change of plans… We will talk about plants instead, consider this to be a biology lesson, :-).

1) We will start with reminding that the weather has become warmer, the sun is brighter. What time of the year is it? How does nature change in Spring?

2) Plants come out in Spring. Plants are all around us. Trees, grass, fruits and vegetables are plants.

3) What makes a plant? Roots, stems and leaves (a green onion as an example) . A PowerPoint presentation will go with this explanation, this will be done to compare how the plants look in stores and in nature.


4) Many plants are edible. We will show the kids different plants (vegetables) and ask them which part of the plant, root, stem or leaves, are edible (green onion, potato, cabbage, carrot, peas, parsley, beets).

5) A story about a cunning man and a silly bear will be read out. In this story, the silly bear agrees to grow plants together with the man. They made an agreement to grow beets in the spring. Since the bear does not know that the roots are eaten in beets, he agreed to take the upper parts of the plant in the Fall. When the bear discovered he was wrong, he decided to take the bottom part of the plants next Spring. The man suggested growing celery next time, so the bear was deceived again.

6) Why was bear so easily deceived? What part of the plant should he take if they grow potatoes next time? Cabbage? Bell pepper?

7) Your Mommies cut edible plants to put them into soup. What shape are cut potatoes, carrots? We will cut these vegetables in different shapes: circles, triangles, rectangles. Yes, we know cooks normally do not do this, but WE do… for fun!

Next, we will read Michalkov’s poem about cooking soup. The kids will be asked to point to the vegetables in the story. Plus, they will "cook the soup" as the story evolves by putting the right kind of vegetables into the pot!

8) Do you know plants are grown from seeds? Seeds can be found in all kinds of fruit and vegetables. We will show the seeds of the bell pepper, tomato and pea plants and coconut tree. Which are big seeds, which are small?

9) Plants grow out of seeds. Seeds need to be put in the soil and watered to grow. Plants need sunshine to grow. Next, each kid will be given a paper cup and we will plant bean seeds. The children will be asked to take their seeds home and watch them grow.