Plants Life Cycle Activities and Easy to Use Digital Resources
Your typical plant life cycle activities aren’t always that interesting.
You have big words like photosynthesis and kids have to learn that plants breathe the opposite of how we breathe! It can all be so confusing.
Sure, presentations, read alouds and activities can make a plant life cycle unit more fun.. but there have to be hands on plant life cycle activities that get kids excited to learn!
I created these Plant Life Cycle Research Projects to facilitate learning in the classroom.
Students love the no prep flip flap books, the cute pictures and the simplicity of the activities.
I’d love to share them with you and your students so your plant life cycle experience can be just as amazing as mine!
What Comes With The Plant Life Cycle Research Project?
The Plant Life Cycle Activities included in this research project help students visualize and understand the steps of the life cycle as well as any new vocabulary.
The project is wrapped up in a cute flip flap book! The printable gets cut and folded so that students can easily see the parts of the plant life cycle, facts about plants and even write their own opinions about plants.
Also included is a digital version of the flip flap book that comes in Google Slides. Students can use this in the classroom or at home as a review activity.
How To Use The Plant Life Cycle Activities
I like to print the flip flap books onto colorful paper. The kids really get excited to be handed a bright pink, green or blue paper instead of plain white!
In a way, I set myself up to always use colorful paper. If I show up with plain white paper, there’s always one student who makes a comment about how boring it is!
We like to read The Amazing Life Cycle of Plants by Kay Barnham to start off our unit. It’s a fun story to introduce students to the wide variety of plants, how they grow and how they change.
As a class or independently, students research the life cycle of a plant. We use websites like Smart Class for Kids to find facts.
On their flip flap books, they record facts about plants. They write the steps of the plant life cycle and label the parts of a plant. They also fill out CAN, HAVE and ARE statements about plants.
Finally, they get to write facts vs. opinions about plants. They always love sharing their opinions and seeing how their answers differ afterwards.
These flip flap books can be stored in students desks while you finish your plant life cycle unit. Students can refer to them as needed for writing activities and more!
Other Ways To Reinforce The Plant Life Cycle
To further build on their knowledge of plants and the plant life cycle, you can include fun, hands-on manipulatives in the classroom. My kids seem to enjoy these Toy Models that represent the life cycle of a bean plant.
These would be a great addition to a sensory area, morning work tubs, or an “I’m all done” center.
You can also use fun videos that can be found online to show students how cool plants really are.
This video, How Does A Seed Become A Plant, takes students through the stages of a plants life with fun images. Since students are so visual, they always love watching a brief video!
Benefits of Using A Research Project
Using a fun research project not only means that students are learning, it means they are having fun.
Sure, laying a worksheet down in front of them to read provides them with a learning opportunity, but a boring one.
I can picture it now, students with their head in their hands, trying to focus on the plain white page.
Using a colorful Plant Life Cycle Research Project, flip flap book or digital Google Slides gives them something hands-on, engaging and FUN to look forward to every time you have a new science unit.
Plus, it’s hardly any prep for you!
What grade level would you use these Plant Life Cycle Activities with?
