This is an excellent resource for learning more about how to start a garden that uses an interactive kid-friendly format and is available in Spanish and English. The site is divided into the following categories: garden in unusual places, garden at school, grow veggies, and grow flowers. The site is developmentally appropriate for use with K-4 students, and could be used by anyone wanting to learn gardening basics in a straightforward format. The gardening in unusual places portion provides pictures of about a dozen different types of planters children could create while simultaneously recycling used materials.
Fresh from the World Where your Food comes from: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/food/
A very interactive site geared towards K-3 students that explains where food comes from and the history of certain snacks such as popcorn. The history portion of the site really contextualizes how plants become foods and the collaboration it takes. There is also mythology about the origins of certain foods and plants. Each page of the site provides a colorful image with a sentence or two of written information- some of the text is written at an upper elementary or middle level reading level, but it is scaffolded well because there is audio narrative of the text.
Kids Gardening: http://www.kidsgardening.com/
Kids Gardening is a teacher resource for planning gardening activities with students. There are resources to support teachers in creating school gardens and grants teachers can apply for. There is content on how pollination works, classroom stories, information about hydroponics and greenhouses, ect. Teachers can buy materials from the site to use with students such as worm bins and composters, and the site does not advertise this heavily-there is a lot information that is not simply working to sell goods.
Plants!: http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/plants.html
Plants! provides a wealth or resource links and has won the Lightspan Academic Excellence award. Many of the sites linked are intended to be used by K-5 students and others provide lesson plan ideas for teachers. The Children’s Garden Survey is an easy to use yes/no type checklist to find out about children like to do in the garden.
Plants Grow Children: http://benton-franklin.wsu.edu/mg/children/
What do green plants eat? How old is the tree outside? What part of the plant comes out of a germinating seed first? How do peanuts grow? What’s safer to catch with your bare hand – a Lepidoptera or a Hymenoptera? How do earthworms reproduce? Plants Grow Children is an organization based out of Washington State University where Master Gardeners volunteer to come into K-5 classrooms in Benton and Franklin counties about the basics of plant science. The organization was founded in 1988 and has served over 180,000 children.
House Plants: http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/alpha/d/dpic/plants/default.htm
The house plants portion of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital provides important safety information on plants. Because it is common for young children to eat or taste plants, the Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center offers information about poisonous house plants and suggestions for preventing poisoning in children and pets.
KinderGARDEN: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/kinder.htm
KinderGARDEN provides an introduction to the many ways children can interact with plants and the outdoors. There are many opportunities available for children to become involved with plants, gardens, or the outdoors in general. Some of these opportunities include children's programs at school gardens, botanic gardens or community gardens. This site contains ideas for gardening with kids.
How to Choose Plants Kids Will Love to Grow in Their Classroom Project: http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-choose-plants-kids-will-love-to-grow-in-their-classroom-project
This site explains that it is incredibly important to choose the right types of plants for your gardening project. There are plenty of plants out there that the children will be familiar with, and will also be very easy to grow. The easier to grow, the more involved the child will become. The author provides a selection of plants that are easy to grow with children such as marigolds, oregano, lemon mint, snapdragons, strawberries, lambs ear, lettuce, carrots, ect.
Gardening with Children: http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_gardening_children.htm#b
This small site provides information on crops that work well with children (as well as information about how long the plants take to germinate and mature) and tips for engaging children in gardening. Some of the tips include, recycling an old sandbox by making it into a raised bed, providing children with their own gardening area and tools, making scarecrows, ect. There are also directions on how to build sturdy child-sized wheelbarrows.
The Great Plant Escape: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gpe/index.html
Help detective LePlant and his partners bud and sprout solve plant mysteries to learn more about how plant structures and the importance of specific plant parts. The Great Plant Escape is available in both Spanish and English and the text is written with an upper elementary audience in mind. There are six different missions students can embark on and they can choose what plant structures they want to learn about. The site is very interactive and has won several educational awards.
Cool Science: http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/forkids/vegquiz/plantparts.html
Meet the plant parts! Leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, and roots. We eat them all. Match drawings with the names and build a salad.
Josh and Kate Grow Plants: http://www.ngf/-cymru.org.uk/vtc/factors_plant_grow
Join Josh and Kate in growing Cress seeds! They decided to test whether water, light, and temperature affected whether the seeds grew into healthy plants. Click play to watch the animations on each screen and answer the questions that follow.
The Plant Explorer: http://www.naturegrind.org.uk/plant/parts.html
Working from Plant Explorer, click on the "parts of a plant" icon to view a simple flowering plant. Encourage children to explore the plant with the mouse and name the different parts. Children can click for more information.
Plants You Can Eat: http://funschool.kaboose.com/formula-fusion/games/game_incredible-edibles
Learn about tasty plants with the incredible edibles. This fun food game is a good way for kids to learn about seeds, nuts, leaves, roots, fruits, and grains.
Conditions in Plant Growth: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/plantsgrow.html
Learn about how plants grow by experimenting with different conditions with this great, interactive, site. Using heat and water, see if you can make the plant grow to a healthy size. Too much sun and moisture can have a negative effect on the plant though and be careful when giving it nutrients. Can you take care of the plant for four weeks? Take up the challenge and give it a try.
The Great Plant Escape: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gpe/case1/cqmqa.html
Case 1 of the great plant escape has students matching each clue with the part that it describes. This website has case briefs on plants, facts, mysteries, and activities on plants.
Interactive Growing Plants Game: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/
- ages 5-6: Growing plants interactive activity
- 6-7: Plants and animals in local environment sorting activity
- 7-8: Helping plants grow activities
- 9-10: Life cycles of plants and labeling plant parts
The growth and development of a plant is one of the most spectacular events in nature. Yet, because it happens so slowly, over the course of days or weeks, it is difficult to observe in real time. This video segment depicts plant growth in a time-lapse format, allowing the viewer to observe in just a few seconds, some of the most important life stages of a plant, from germination to the formation of a flwoer, and several phases in between.
Sock Seeds: http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdco2.sci.life.stru.sockseeds
The experiment demonstrated in this ZoomSci video segment- wearing an old sock through a grassy or weedy field, planting the sock, and watching what grows- will not only give young scientists a better idea of the kinds of plants growing in their area, but will also help them begin to think about the evolutionary strategies of plants.
Zoom Science: http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdco2.sci.life.stru.germinator/
In this video segment from ZoomSci, learn how to create a germinator. All you need is a plastic bag, a paper towel, water, and some seeds. In a few days, you'll begin to see your seeds sprout. Experiment by putting your germinator in sunny or shady places. Where do seeds grow faster?
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