Plants in our Midst (Formative Assessment)

 We are now starting a new unit on plants. This week the children began to gather ideas and questions about how plants grow, what they need, and how they help us. Below are the concepts and teacher questions which will guide our thinking throughout this unit.


Key concepts
Form Function    Responsibility

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
  • How are plants in our local area similar and different?
  • How do animals/people use plants?
  • Is it important for us to take care of plants?

We started with understanding the differences between living & non-living things. We used the following criteria to sort out various objects from living to non-living things.
Living things are things that: move, breathe, take space, grow, need food and water and reproduce.

We also went for a walk in the St. George's trail on the Southwest Marine side to observe different features of plants and notice living and non-living things in our forest environment. Here are some of their comments:


Simon: All trees look different.
Aston: The tree bark looks bumpy and smooth at the same time.
Isaak: It smells kinda yucky here.
Pauline: I wonder where the animals are?
Other things they wonder about are berries growing, why some plants have flowers and some don't and if plants grow in the streams.


Based on their questions we will start with exploring the various plants in our immediate environment and their features.

**Please visit Wendy's blog for further activities and children's questions on this concept.


PS
Welcome Pauline & Alfie in the Earth group!







Comments

  1. Kate3 May 2012 at 10:25

    I love that you helped the children move though this process slowly Kathryn and that they had time to be immersed in the forest and followed this with some creative expression related to their experience. This provides the children with an opportunity to reflect on their interests and their learning and we can see a bit of that in the finished products. I'm so glad for colour images...I love the green.

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