Plants and photosynthesis

Read Aloud:  Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson

Can you imagine being a tiny mouse and the only thing you have ever done with seeds is eat them?  What an outlandish thought to stick something you have always devoured and put it in the dirt!  Sometimes the Lord asks us to do some outlandish things and by faith, we do.  When we do, the abundance of joy is reaped.
I loved using this book to introduce the parts of a plant as it begins to grow from the seed that Mortimer planted in faith.

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a Leaf Kitchen

To break down the process of photosynthesis, I brought in a toy oven, a 6 space muffin tin, a lightbulb to represent the sun, two different colored balloons, some sugar packets and little cards that have water droplets on it.  I placed the 'ingredients' of photosynthesis in the muffin tin; water, light, and a balloon labeled carbon dioxide.  I placed the muffin tin in the oven and had the students count to five.  I took out the muffin tin, took out all the ingredients and replaced them with what is produced by photosynthesis; oxygen for us and sugar for the plant.  Each student was able to place the ingredients in the tin, place it in the oven and replace the items with the products of oxygen and sugar.

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Parts of a plant to the Muffin Man

I brought in some sunflower seeds for the students to see and hull for themselves.  They could eat them if they wanted to.  I also gave them a handout where they can cut and paste the parts of the plant.  While we did this, we sang the Parts of a Plant song to the tune of Have you seen the Muffin Man.  I found this song here

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Duck Duck Goose Water Cycle Style

To review the water cycle, we played Duck Duck Goose but instead of saying Duck and Goose, we set the four parts of the water cycle; Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation and when we said 'Run off' the students were off...Each student had at least one chance to get up and say the different parts of the water cycle.