Term 5 - Precious Plants

Our topic this term is Precious Plants.

Big Idea: Let’s be super scientists and go exploring! What can we observe in our local habitat, focusing on plants? Do they all look the same? Can we find any similarities or spot any differences? Can we name these common flowers? Can we identify and group different plants, including trees?  Do we see them all year round? How does the weather and seasons affect how things grow? Let’s look at how they change over the year! This is a great starting point to become junior gardeners and to understand how the world changes around us each year. 

As super scientists we will explore our natural surroundings to identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees and be able to describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees. As aspirational Artists we will develop our observational drawing skills using Vincent Van Gogh as our inspiration. As determined designers we will ask are there plants that we are able to eat? We will consider how we can create a healthy meal and the skills we need to do this. 

Learning Lift off

We had a fantastic learning lift off at Priory Fields Garden Centre, we planted Poppies, Calendula, Nasturium, Morning Glory, Cornflower and Candytuft! The children really enjoyed planting the seeds and it was great to share their enthusiasm for our new topic.

Learning Walk

We also went for a lovely learning walk around our school grounds where we explored the plants around our school and the children shared their impressive knowledge about cherry blossom trees, brambles, cow parsley plants, dandelions and daisies.

Here are some of the fantastic quotes from the children on our walk:

“That’s my favourite tree because it looks good for climbing!”

“Sticky weeds are my favourite because they stick to you and it’s really silly!”

“I like the daisies because they grow everywhere and make the grass look pretty.”

“In Japan, they celebrate the cherry blossom falling by having picnics among the petals.”