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Seed to Plant Coloring & Worksheet

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PlantLifeCycle
Spring is a fantastic time to learn about the life cycle of a plant!

I highly recommend that you take children out into the garden, plant some seeds and track the results!  There is great satisfaction in cultivating and tending a garden and it will keep their little hands and hearts busy for hours.  Some easy and quick growing plants: Sunflowers, Nasturtium, Peas, Green Beans, Marigolds, Tomatos.

PlantColoringPin

 

HomeschoolClipart.com has some free plant life cycle printables:

Life Cycle of a Plant Worksheet

Life Cycle of a Plant Coloring Page

We’ve even taken small lima beans and “planted” them in the classroom.  Take a wet paper towel and crumple it into a plastic bag.  Place a bean down the side of the bag so that it’s able to absorb the water from the towel, but so you can also see it as it grow.  Close the bag and tape it up on the window.  In a few days your children will be able to observe germination, the first roots, and the sprouting seedling.  It’s a wonderful way to get hands on in the classroom.

 

SeedChart      SeedLabel     SeedNotebook         SeedPartsColoring

 

Parts of a Seed Chart

Parts of a Seed Notebooking Page

Parts of a Seed Label & Color

Lima beans are perfect for dissecting, and allow children an inside look at the anatomy of a seed.  Simply soak the seed for about an hour in some warm water and then provide children with small tweezers and things to inspect.  You can usually pop the seeds open with your fingernails and once open children can find the first leaves, the food and the root.

 

Seed to Plant Sequencing Cards

Plant Life Cycle Sequencing Cards

These plant life cycle cards show progression from seed to seedling.  Children order the different stages of the seed as roots form and  the seedling emerges. We recommend leaving one set intact and cutting the additional set out for playing  pieces.

Flower Themed File Folder Games

These educational games have a flower theme and can easily be incorporated into your unit.

 

Parts of a Flower Chart

 

HomeschoolClipart.com has some free Flower Anatomy Printables

Parts of a Flower Chart

Parts of a Flower Coloring Page

Parts of a Flower Worksheet

 

GardenLarge

Garden Crafts & Projects for Kids

Our garden crafts can go alongside key gardening ideas, such as composting, fertilization, spacing, and plant knowledge in general.

 

Garden Lapbook

For children who take an interested in planting and gardening you might want to print this free Garden Lapbook from Lapbook Lessons.   Children can keep track of what they planted, how quickly it’s growing,  learn about different tools, insects, and more!  Add in some garden science by testing the ph levels of different soil samples around your house.

 

Suggested Resources for a Unit Study:

gardenScience Adventure Garden Kit

Young Scientists will make a terrarium, learn about underground habitats, explore the
different parts of plants, test the soil, design a mini-garden, grow all kinds of seeds,
perform plant experiments, identify bugs and their habitats, make a working sun dial,
and much more.  Click Here

 

 

 

How to Bind your Notebooks…

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This week I made a big purchase.

There has been something on my homeschool “wishlist” for quite some time.

I’ve spent the last year rationalizing away the cost.

Quietly planning all the different projects that I would use it for.

Promising myself that I would get my monies worth.

Do you know what it is yet?

It’s a binding machine!

It does things to my e-books that a stapler NEVER could.

(Oh sweet notebooking heaven)

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get one!

So wondering how it works?

Here’s the deal:

Step 1: Print up your e-book.

Make sure to use cardstock for a cover page, and a back page.
(note: you can get special coverpages at the store if you want)

Step 2: Load your weapon:

This means you put your curly binding comb between the prongs,
pull the special lever to open it

Step 3: Poke all your holes:

For my machine that means entering the paper like so

And pulling down the big handle.

Crunch.

All the papers are stored in a drawer inside the machine. No mess.
(note: my particular machine can handle up to 10 sheets at a time)

Step 4: Start assembling your book.
Slide your freshly punched papers onto the open prongs of your binding comb.
(the black curly thing you opened in step 2)

Step 5: Continue until you have all the pages you want included.

Step 6: Release side lever and the binding comb closes back up.

Step 7: Enjoy your fancy looking notebook!


If your interested here is the machine that I purchased.
It’s called Fellowes Star Manual Comb Binding Machine
I also picked up some different sized combs:

Fellowes Plastic Comb Bindings
Note: Combs come in different capacity…
Some do up to 55 pages, some up to 150 pages.
You want to get a variety, but I use the 55page and 90pages the most!

Pssst: Like my garden notebook?
STAY TUNED!!

Dandelion Paint

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It’s April.
The sun is shining (today) and it’s officialy Spring.

And as I stare out my window all I can see are little pops of yellow all over my yard.

Even after mowing.

You see, I’ve recently realized that Spring dandelions are much smarter then Summer dandelions.

Summer dandelions stretch long and tall chasing the sun across the sky.

But Spring dandelions know better.

They stay low to the ground, hidden safely where the mower can’t reach.

But sadly, as they are the very first flower to pop up around here, they are no better off.

There are too many little boy hands,
scrambling around for every last one,
in hope of presenting the largest bunch.

And while dandelions aren’t exactly my favorite flower,
they can certainly be put to good use.

Especially in our nature journals:

There is nothing like a sunny afternoon spent making Dandelion paint.

I too, joined the fun.
painting dandelions with dandelion paint…

And immediately, the structured homeschooler in me thought,
“Yes! We could draw the different stages of a dandelion and color them in with different things we find around the yard.”

But then, I looked down at my little blond babies,
watching their yellow stained fingertips scribble away….

and I realized that today we were only meant
to do nothing more then paint the sun.

Here are some more dandelion activities to try this Spring!

Starting Nature Journals

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Do your children have a nature journal?

Do you?

I’ll admit that I’ve tried them.

But first let me just tell you a little story….

So sit back……grab your coffee,
and enjoy my failure for a moment.

A few years ago when I first decided to homeschool,
I was introduced to the idea of Nature Journals.
There were so many amazing examples online of what
could be included, so many beautiful watercolors paintings
amid pressed flowers and texture rubbings of important things.

It was overwhelming.
But I like a good challenge

I decided that I would create (see the problem here)
lasting memories of a happy, outdoorsy childhood, spent
among wildflowers, babbling creeks, white tail deer that stood
still for hours.

Ha.

So I set out with my then 2 children
I packed up our watercolor pencils, sketchbooks,
apple juice boxes and peanut butter crackers.

I drove for a half hour, to a scenic viewpoint,
one I was sure would inspire my children to create magic.
We hiked for 20 minutes and finally sat down in the Summer
heat to begin our journaling.

So, I’m sure you can imagine,
(or at least infer by the tone of this post)
How it all went down.

And it went Down. Hill. Fast.

Think sticky juice box fingers mixed with expensive sketchbooks
Colored pencils with ever breaking tips. Not a sharpener in sight.
Peanut butter cracker crumbs.
And only ONE green pencil, in a field of green trees and flowers.
682 feet above sea level, Snickering onlookers, and two children coming down
from an Apple Juice high.
(Ooooh I could have just….)

MY DREAMS of inspiring, keepsake worthy nature journals
was shot.

I loaded the children back up in the car.
And drove home.
Defeated.

I haven’t attempted Nature Journals since.

Until Now.

WHY?

Because I had the privilege of hearing This Funny Lady,
speak at a Homeschool Conference last month.

And I was again inspired to try Nature Journaling.

However.

And this is a big However.

HOW – EV – ER
(are you catching my tone here?)

This time I’m going in with little to NO EXPECTATIONS.
This time I understand that I can’t expect a child to draw a bird
while it’s flitting around everywhere.
That it’s OKAY to just sit back and enjoy the creature, and then LATER
*gasp*
look up images and facts about the animal.

So, as you check out the following photos,
DO NOT BE DECIEVED.
There was no magic peaceful moment as we drew them.
It was actually an instructional time for us, sitting around the table
and working hard at where to put little eyes, and beaks, and toes.

But we do spend peaceful mornings together watching these little birds
fly around our yard. We talk about what kind of birds they are, and each time they visit we look for new things to learn about them.

And then later we looked up images and poetry online,
and added them to our nature journals.

And here’s how that all translates:

Didn’t they turn out cute?
Now those are keepsakes!

I was so jealous inspired with how easy things went
that I went out and got myself a sketchbook.

Oh. And colored pencils too.
The good ones.
I just can’t resist an opportunity for new pencils.

And you know what?
I forgot how therapeutic drawing was.

And I love that I can use my journal to document the “real life”
that causes us to add something to our journals in the first place.

I’m feeling pretty good about nature journals,
And this time around
I think we’re off to a great start!

Checking out the Garden

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Today we wandered around the backyard checking out our garden.

We don’t have a whole lot of room for gardening,
but we are blessed with three beautifully old peach crates
that make perfect “square foot” gardens.

Here, take a look:

Box #1 Contains:

Grapes (in 2nd year…will we get fruit?)

Strawberries (Wowza, doing good!)

Blueberries (new this year, but some fruit!!)

Box #2 Contains:

Pumpkins & Zucchini.
These are Bubba’s, and he’s convinced he’s going to have a prize winner this year.

And finally Box #3 Contains:

Tomatos, Basil, Carrots, Cucumber.

Yeah.
This is my experiment box.
I’ve never done carrots.
I’ve never done cucumber.
And I’ve never done basil……(right.)
Take a look at how evenly I sowed my seeds.

*snicker

And I actually DID sow these in neat little rows.
But ten minutes after planting them I saw a flash of curly blond leaving
the scene of the crime, (plastic shovel in hand)
and knew I was in for a surprise come sproutin’ time.

So in an attempt to spread things out a bit I transplanted 8 cucumber plants:

And, well….

What’s the deal with spacing out plants?
It said to sow them close together for pollination, then to space them.
Maybe they have TOO MUCH space and they are lonely?
Hmmmmm?

And of course I had to plant a little bit of herbs to liven up my windowsill
you can see that the basil is coming up strong!!

Garden Crafts: Plant Markers

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It’s here!

It’s Here!

Well, at least it WAS.

Garden Crafts

I guess I missed the postman, because my Amazon order of The Christian Kids Gardening Guide had arrived, but apparently I was to busy taking my 3 year old to the Doctor to pick up the package.

So it’s here…..at the post office I assume…..
waiting for me to come get it.

But that didn’t stop our Gardening Fun today, as we had a fantastic time making little Garden Markers to label all the plants in our flower bed:

Garden Marker Craft

Popsicle Stick Garden Markers

Clay Pot Garden Crafts

Clay Pot Saucer Garden Markers

These turned out fantastic, and we had a blast adding them to our gardens!


You can find all of our Garden Crafts so far on this page!

And stay tuned we’ve got lots more coming!

(BTW…Something is eating our Zucchini? See that little leaf with all the white markings? Someone wanna clue me in here?)

Button Flowers for Mom

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Mother's Day Crafts

Just a quick little tutorial on how to make these cute little button flowers. Kids can make these themselves and give to Mom for mother’s day!

And don’t feel sheepish showing your children how to make them, believe me, they are more then proud to hand a bouquet of these handcrafted beauties right back to you. Just show them how, give them the strips of paper and leave them at the table a while so they can “Surprise” you.

Trust me, They love it!


Click Here for the Photo Tutorial
(These are really easy!)

Flower Pot Mosiac

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Since we’ve been busy in the garden, planting all of our seeds, and working on our Gardening Lapbook, I realized that we better throw in a little bit of Garden Crafting too!

Kids Garden Crafts
I found this amazing book called
“The Christian Kids Gardening Guide”
and I just had to order a copy for our homeschool classroom, what better way to start learning about gardening, then by learning God’s word right alongside it!

(Here are some sample pages to check out….looks really neat doesn’t it! (Now to try and wait patiently for it to arrive…..that’s the hard part.)

Anyway, as we’re learning all about the different flowers and vegetables that will be gracing our garden this year, we started out by adding a bit of flair to some regular old clay pots.

You can do this craft with any old flower pot, so check out the Goodwill, Freecycle, and Garage sales because they’re much cheaper then buying new pots at the craft store.

And since this is a “Hot Glue” craft be sure and follow your gut as to whether or not you’re child is ready to try this one! (I’ll tell you that my 6 year old did just fine, but my 3 year old wasn’t so keen to keeping his fingers out of the glue….but he just didn’t want to quit making it either….LOL, he is his Father’s son)

Flower Pot Crafts

Click Here for Full Photo Instructions

We’ve been real busy with our Flower Pot Crafts, so stay tuned for some more fun Gardening ideas! Don’t forget to subscribe (on the left) if you want email updates!