Teaching Together, Plant Fun {February 2016}

Welcome to Teaching Together #5!
As a home school mom of two, this year has been full of challenges. Like the fact that I am still trying to get the hang of teaching two kids on two very different levels simultaneously. I have been trying to do better and I know it will be even more important when Emily starts Kindergarten in the fall. This months post is an example of what learning together currently looks like in our home. Marissa is working through the plant section of her science book and today I am going to share a few activities I've added to make things pre-k friendly for Emily.

Identify the parts of a plant

What better way to learn the parts of a plant than with a craft?!

You need:
blue & green construction paper

cupcake wrapper

seeds

pipe cleaners

scissors

glue

I'd explain how to put it together, but I think it explains itself pretty well. 

You can also label the parts if you wish.

Roots, stem, leaves, flower & seeds. 

Read some books on plants

Books are always a great way to reinforce what you are learning about. 

We like these:

The Tiny Seed

The Little Gardeners Guide

From Seed To Plant

Observe different kinds of seeds

I have quite the seed collection so we looked through my packages checking out the different sizes, shapes an colors of the seeds.

If you don't have seeds on hand you could always check out a seed display.

Most stores have all kinds of seeds out this time of the year. 

Plant some seeds

We are working on sprouting bean seeds.

It is easy to see by the look on her face that the idea of beans does not impress her. 

To easily do this moisten a paper towel, lay the beans on it, fold the paper towel over the beans, put it in a sandwich bag and leave in a sunny window. You need to keep the paper towel damp. After a few days they will sprout and you can observe the different parts of the growing plant.

We also planted a bean in the dirt and a few carrots too.

Waiting on her plants to grow.

Learn with music

Emily is quite the song bird so any time we can incorporate some music into our learning we do.

This one is pretty catchy and cute which typically also translates to "gets old fast" in mom talk. But she loves it.

Our lessons on plants came just in time. We are about a week away from starting our seedlings for our 2016 summer garden. With a little luck and some more training, learning and practice I might just have a couple of green thumbed girls on my hands. So even if Emily never learns to eat her veggies, at least she will be able to grow them :).

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