One of a series of booklets written to support plant science in the Primary Curriculum.

This booklet includes activities that children can do to find out more about plants, focusing on ways that children can grow their own plants. Several of the activities are set out as investigations, to support children developing their approach to investigations in a scientific way.

The introduction of the Planning Plant provides a means of developing children’s approach to investigations in a scientific way. They can investigate, for example, whether plants need water, light, soil and mineral salts. They can design a seed packet (with appropriate instructions for growing a newly discovered plant), find out how strong plants are and how water travels through a plant. Then they can wrap this up in two different games (new plant versions of ‘Snakes and ladders’ and ‘Happy families’) that are fun but help reinforce their understanding.

A section on having fun growing plants gives opportunities for children to gain a wider experience of plants and, as the activity suggests, have fun!

Following on from the earlier booklets in this series, this third booklet encourages a wider range of approaches. Children are able to develop greater independence, for example, in carrying out investigative work, in devising tables to record results or using IT to draw a graph. In several activities, suggestions are made as to ways that IT can be incorporated. Digital photography can provide a useful tool for recording events and sharing results with others in the class. Both photography and drawing are valuable and can be used as appropriate in several of the activities in this booklet. Teachers should also be aware of opportunities offered in the different activities for development of skills in literacy, numeracy, investigative work and strategies for assessment.