Plants, Plants, Plants

 

Like the K4’s, Year 1 have started a new unit on Plants. As inspiration, we introduced the new unit to the children with a prompt of a trip to the BioFarm in Pudong. This trip was a great opportunity for the children to see plants in their natural habitat, to taste a variety of plants, to plant some mint, pick some vegetables and see the food go from field to plate, as the lunch provided was packed with homegrown goodness from the farm.

Afterwards, back in school, the children explored plants in many different ways and used a range of methods to record information. They studied photos of the plants they encountered at the farm and drew scientific diagrams based on those plants. They investigated what a plant needs to grow and decided to carry out scientific testing. They studied the life cycle of a plant and independently decided how to represent the life cycle of a plant, using pictures, songs, creative dance, playdough and other resources.

The children also had the opportunity to sow their own seeds. We have established a Year 1 garden on one of the playgrounds on the roof. The children are responsible for watering the plants each day and monitoring the amount of water used, so that we can use that in our upcoming data collection unit. We look forward to seeing the plants grow and hopefully harvesting the fruits of our labour.

Y1 Leader & Y1A Co-Teacher – Monica GANNON