The Mystery Garden and Construct a Plant

Grade Level: K and Cycle One (Grades 1 and 2)

Provincial Curriculum Links: Quebec (but fits with all elementary curriculum)

Subject: Science

Keywords: germination, plant identification, gardening with the senses, food gardens

Description

This is a great project for March or April. Students plant unidentified seeds in small pots and then observe their growth for one week. Students will need to use all their senses to identify the young plants. Hint: the taste will unlock the mystery!

Associated activity: Construct a Plant helps children understand plant parts while reconnecting the students to the foods they eat.

Curriculum Framework

Intellectual competencies: to use information, to solve problems, to exercise critical judgment, to use creativity.

Pre-school competencies: to recognize ways to ensure his/her well-being, to adopt good posture and practice relaxation, to identify healthy living habits and respect safety rules.

To construct his/her understanding of the world: to exercise thinking in a variety of contexts, to observe, explore and manipulate, to ask questions and make associations with ideas, to make and test predictions.

Science and technology competencies: to propose explanations for or solutions to scientific or technological problems, to make the most of scientific and technological tools, objects and procedures, to communicate in the languages used in science and technology

For the Teacher

Children today are disconnected from where their food comes from. Providing youngsters with the opportunity to see first hand how vegetables grow will foster a sense of wonder and respect for the natural world. At the same time, students will be tasting and getting excited about healthy food.

Materials

• beet, radish and lettuce seeds (preferably organic and heritage)
• 1 bag of triple mix or potting soil
• magnifying glasses
• an assortment of vegetables, including broccoli, celery, potatoes, lettuce, fruit and cinnamon sticks (for the "construct a plant" activity)
• a sunny windowsill
• enough beets, radish and lettuce to make veggie wraps for the class if desired

Vocabulary

Germination
Mystery
Clues
Senses

Procedure

• Gather the class for an initial discussion and brainstorming about the plants we eat. Start with the questions: Who has eaten plants today? This often results in some snickers as the children imagine eating the potted plant by the window without realizing that of course they eat plants every day—from apples to kiwis, from carrots to broccoli. Write down all the responses on a flip chart sheet.
• Group the vegetables and fruit the students have named into different categories that correspond with the part of the plant we eat. For instance spinach, lettuce, cabbage and swiss chard can all be grouped together because we eat the leafy part of the plant.
• Challenge students to come up with more examples of fruits and vegetables and continue classifying them by plant part.
• Have the students then name all the different parts of a plant from roots all the way to fruits.

Construct a Plant

• Break the group up into smaller groups of four or five and have each group "construct" a plant by placing various fruits and vegetables on the table.
• To add a creative edge to this activity, have the students come up with a name for their weird and wonderful "plants" and take digital pictures of each "super-plant". These can be printed and posted, along with the name, as a plant exhibit.

Mystery Garden

• place seeds in small glass or transparent plastic jars and discard the packages so as not to divulge the identity of the seeds
• have the students examine the three different kinds of seeds with magnifying glasses
• discuss with the group what the differences are (eg. this one is larger or this one is bumpy and that one is smooth)
• prepare small containers such as yogourt pots—have students fill the pots 2/3 full with soil
• demonstrate to students how to sprinkle seeds on top of the soil and then sprinkle soil to just cover the seeds (can discuss with the class why one should not push the tiny seeds deeply into the soil)
• using a spray bottle generously wet the pots and place them by a sunny window; keep the pots moist and watch them grow!
• you should have good sprouts by the end of one week
• examine one of each of the three types of seedlings (they will look quite different from each other at this point)
• discuss with the class which of the five senses they could use to differentiate the plants: do they smell different, do they look different, do they taste different?
• show the students the beets, radishes and lettuce you have brought in and challenge them to match each sprouted plant with one of the vegetables
• celebrate your gardening success with a small snack of cut up beets, radish and sprouts from your seedlings on lettuce leaf wraps!
• do not try to transplant the seedlings in the outdoor garden but do sow your leftover seeds directly into the soil as soon as the last risk of frost has passed.

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