Plants in our Midst - Formative week

Transdisciplinary Theme: How we share the planet

Central idea: Plants play a unique role in our lives and the lives of animals

The Formative week is the first week of our new unit. This week helps teachers find out what the children already know, understand and can do in order to plan for further learning and growth. 

The children showed a vast knowledge when it came to PLANTS IN OUR MIDST.  The forest play time we have every morning helps the children get familiar with the plants in our surroundings and some ways that people and animals use them. 

We deepened our conversation and focused on the importance of being RESPONSIBLE towards plants and our environment.

The question: "Is it important for us to take care of plants?",  led us into a discussion about living and non-living things. One can show responsibility in caring for plants by understanding that when plants are picked up (removed from their source of feeding), they stop reproducing and gaining nutrition which leads to becoming a non-living thing. 

The Children recognized a few attributes of living things: they breathe, they grow, their size can change, and they need food and water. From this inquiry, we will deepen our exploration into how plants grow, reproduce and survive and the way plants are used by people and animals.