Are you about to start a unit on plants with your students? If so, I have you covered. I love how excited my students get when they see their first sprouts!
Start off your plant unit with My Google Slides Intro to Plants. It will make your life so much easier, trust me. The Google Slides resource comes with essential questions and video links…it is literally no prep! I also have two versions of a quiz – a Google Form quiz and a Google Slides Quiz.
Do you want your students to have some tangible activities to go with the digital lessons? Then check out my Plants: Interactive Science Notebook activities. I also sell them bundled together HERE.
Whenever we are doing a theme unit, I like to immerse my students in both nonfiction and fiction books related to that theme. I have curated a list of my favorite plant themed books you can purchase through Amazon. Click HERE or below to check out my plant themed favorites!
Below you can see the book A Seed is Sleepy. It is beautifully illustrated and the writer gives so much information about plants and seeds.
The easiest, cleanest way to plant seeds with your students is to purchase some sort of soil pod kits. I prefer the Jiffy Seed Starting Kits. The kits come with dehydrated soil pods, a tray, and a clear plastic cover. I recommend hydrating the pods the day before you plan to plant with your students.
If you are looking to ask for parent volunteers to help with purchasing items for your plant unit, check out these FREE editable letters.
How to Plant Seeds with Your students Using Soil Pods:
- Place the pods in the black tray of the kit and cover them with water.
- Let sit overnight. The soil pods will soak up the water and puff up.
- Write your students’ names on plant tags or popsicle sticks.
- Give each student one sunflower seed. I like to use sunflower seeds with my students because they are easy to hold in little hands and sunflowers grow fast!
- Have your students poke a hole in the middle of the soil pod with either their fingers or a popsicle stick.
- Have your students drop the seed into the soil pod and cover with soil.
- Place the name tag stick into the soil, be careful not to put it on top of the seed.
- Once everyone has planted their seeds, plant extras in the remaining pods.
- Place the clear lids over the trays and place in the sun.
- Wait for the seeds to sprout. *Some of the students may have gotten seeds that don’t end up sprouting. When that happens, switch them out with one of your extras that has. *I do this before the students come into class.
- Monitor growth in their interactive notebooks or use the From Seed to Plant Observation Logs in the resource linked below.
- Send home the pods when the sprouts get too leggy.
I hope this post encourages you to plant seeds with your students!
TpT Resources You Should Have for Your Plant Unit…
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