Kindergarten Plant Unit: An Inquiry-Based Approach

Inside: Discover how to use an inquiry-based approach to teach your traditional preschool, kindergarten, or first grade plant unit.

The Plant Unit Kit Arrives

Every April, the kindergarten plant kit arrives from our science department. Our plant unit includes traditional lessons, but I wanted to use a more inquiry-based approach, so here’s what I tried.

I began by placing the plant kit in the center of the carpet and gathering children around it. “Look what came today,” I said. “I wonder what is inside?”

The children made predictions. Some of their guesses included:

school supplies
rocks
science materials
plants (this child read the label)
lip “glosses” (LOL!)

Unpacking the Plant Unit

Next, I opened the box, took out each object, and asked, “What is this called?” for each item inside.

Once all the items were revealed and named, I asked, “How do these objects go together? What do you think we are supposed to do with them?” Each of their responses had something to do with making a garden or planting seeds.

I then asked if the box included everything we would need to “make plants,” and we made a list of what plants needed. They came up with dirt, seeds, soil, water, sun, and heat. When we listed dirt AND soil, I asked if they were the same. Most children said, “yes,” so I took note that this might be a good question to research.

There was also some discussion of how plants get sun that included talk of where we should put the plants – indoors or outdoors. I noted that this might be an experiment we could do to further explore the best growing conditions.

So in that first exploration, we did some predicting, vocabulary development, classifying and listing. I was able to determine what they already knew about what plants needed to grow and to identify 2 questions for research and experimentation. We were off and running!

Making a Garden

Even though the children had shown me that they knew what seeds needed to grow, we needed to define the planting process and sequence the steps into a logical order.

This was a good opportunity to integrate our plant unit with procedural writing. Since this writing was unfamiliar to kids, we co-created a “How to Plant Seeds” book together.

Our plant kit included a variety of seeds, so the children were able to choose what they wanted to plant.

Once they chose their seeds, we followed the steps in our how-to books to plant our seeds.

Growing Responsibility

Once the seeds were planted, I asked, “Who will help me take care of these seeds?” Luckily, their response wasn’t, “Not I!” This began a conversation about whose job it would be to take care of the plants.

We talked about what it meant to be responsible (one of our social studies key concepts) and what that looked like when caring for a plant.

We read The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and examined each character’s responsibility to his plant.

We then identified good times for watering and explored solutions for days we were absent or school was closed.

Growing Scientists: The Inside vs. Outside Experiment

While we waited for sprouts to appear, we grew our thinking around plants by doing a little experiment around ideas that came up in our initial exploration.

This experiment was designed to answer the question, “Do seeds grow better inside or outside?” To find the answer, we used identical seeds, amounts of soil, and pots, and placed one inside and the other outside.

Plant Experiment - Where do seeds grow best?

Children made predictions and gave a reason why.

Two days later the outside pot was missing! The children thought it must be the animals that took it because they couldn’t read the note the children had left.

So we set it up again and got some surprising results.

The inside plant didn’t sprout at all, while the outside plant was thriving. We reviewed what was the same about these two plants (the pots, the seeds, the soil) and what was different (the amount of sun and water). The children wondered why some of them were able to grow a plant inside, while this one did not sprout at all.

We read The Empty Pot by Demi and the children realized that not all seeds were exactly the same and there might be some seeds that just would not sprout.

What I liked about this experiment, is that it expanded children’s thinking beyond what plants needed to grow into some beginning work with variables.

Growing Researchers: Dirt Vs. Soil

To explore the differences between dirt and soil, we read Dirt: The Scoop on Soil by Natalie M. Rosinksy and Soil Basics by Mari Schuh.

In the first book it said, “Dirt is another word for soil.” Yet, in a video we watched, the gardener differentiated between the two and stated that “dirt is what you find under your fingernails, while soil is used for planting.”

So, I gave them dirt/soil to explore to see what they could find out on their own.

They described it as cold, tickly, soft, smooth, squishy, dark, black, and brown. They also discovered grass, leaves, sticks, roots, and “white stuff,” in the mix.

We then compared dictionary definitions of the words. One big difference was that soil contained a mixture of organic remains such as clay and rock particles, while dirt did not. I started to think it was a little like soup, where you have the broth (dirt), and then you have soup that includes vegetables, meat, noodles, etc. (soil). This seemed to help them understand it better.

We then went back to what we had used to plant our seeds and I asked, “Is this dirt or soil?” They all agreed that it was soil because they had found other “stuff” in it and we talked about how this “stuff” provided food or nutrients for growing plants.

At this point our work with dirt and soil began to merge with another project that had been ongoing for most of the year. Find out how, by reading about The Pumpkin Project.

How Does Our Garden Grow?

When we returned from Memorial Day weekend, many of the plants had sprouted! The kids were very excited and a crowd gathered at the window.

Plants sprouting in kindergarten science center

Over the next few days, I sent some plants home to be transplanted outdoors. When we were left with many “sproutless” pots, I gathered the class together and we talked about how their plants were doing.

They shared their successes and failures and gave reasons why their plants didn’t sprout. Most believed it was due to too much or too little water. I suggested that the “fun” of the spray bottle may have played a part in their plants getting too much water and many agreed that they may have give a few too many “squirts.”

So we revisited the term, “responsibility” and how they had been charged to take care of a living thing. I asked if any would like to try again and learn from their first experience. Several of them took me up on this and planted a new seed.

The children were very engaged in caring for their plants right up until our last days of school. It was messy with dirt spills and overcrowding and stuff other than plants being sprayed, but they were learning about taking turns, patience, and caring for living things.

With one day left of school, a little girl said, “I didn’t get a plant.” I asked her why she thought that was and she said, “I overflowed it.” She was taking personal responsibility for this. She was learning through failure. We talked about what she might do differently next time and I sent her home with a packed of seeds.

I must confess that there have been many years where the children planted seeds and I took care of them. Where was the learning in that? I realize now all that they had missed. When using a plant unit, I taught “about” plants through read alouds, worksheets, and booklets, rather than allowing experience to be our teacher.

Plant Unit vs. Inquiry Reflections

Teaching through inquiry vs. a traditional plant unit brought about richer learning opportunities. This approach felt simpler, more authentic, and responsive to what children understood and misunderstood about plants.

Opportunities for research and experimentation unfolded naturally from children’s thoughts, ideas, and misconceptions. It allowed us to go deeper into the content than the traditional lessons as many children had experiences with plant basics in preschool. Also, learning about plants didn’t just happen from 2:30-3:00 during a science block. Noticings and wonderings happened throughout the day as is the way with project work.

Seeds planted - Kindergarten Plant Unit
If there is anything I would change about this project, it might be to start a little earlier to give us more growing time (the kit arrived in April, but we didn’t begin planting until May). We could easily begin in March and continue learning about plants throughout the spring. I would also eliminate a few of the seed choices, as some brought better learning opportunities than others (beans vs. grass) and a bigger WOW factor in the children’s eyes.

If you are wanting to try an inquiry-based approach, a plant unit might be a good place to start. Here are a few more resources that might help you as you give children experiences with plants.