“Good things take time and effort.”
The same way a diligently nurtured acorn grows into a mighty oak, we can instill a powerful sense of responsibility to carefree children if we exert the time and effort to teach them well.
Helping children get into the habit of caring for plants can wipe away their nonchalance and replace it with dependability and management. However, textbooks are not the best solution if you want to teach kids about plants.
Children learn best via experiential learning, a.k.a. “learning by doing.” Getting to experience plants themselves is the ideal way to cultivate their passion for plants.
If you’re seeking ways on how to teach kids about plants, we have 6 tips for you!
6 Ways To Teach Kids About Plants
1. Create Plant-Related Arts & Crafts
Nothing stimulates the mind more than beautiful things.
Using plant materials for art projects or creating plant-inspired crafts can help your child understand the usefulness and beauty that plants possess. Plus, doesn’t it stir up happy thoughts when children proudly produce something from their imagination?
Engaging in plant-related craft activities also inspires children to be creative and value the things that burst in artistry — like plants!
Here are three fun plant crafts for teaching kids about plants:
Pressed flower card-making
In this hands-on plant activity, kids will make cards decorated with pressed flowers and flower parts.
-
Ask children to pick out flowers and leaves that they find beautiful.
-
Insert the flowers in between pages of newspapers.
-
Sandwich the newspapers with heavy books and leave for 1-2 days (or up to a week, depending on the moisture of the flowers). This will squeeze out the moisture found inside the flowers.
-
Take the flowers out of the newspapers and paste them as decorative pieces when making a card.
Recycling plastic bottles
During this plant activity for kids, children will use plastic bottles and paints to create their desired flower!
-
Grab some water or soda bottles lying around the house.
-
Using a pair of scissors, cut around the bottle (about 4 inches from the cap) to retain the funnel-shaped part of the bottle.
-
To create the petals, make several cuts starting from the mouth of the funnel and going to the bottle cap. Ensure that the distance between each cut is balanced to make a uniform-looking flower head.
-
Using some paints and a brush, design the flower based on the child’s desired look, then leave it to dry.
-
For the stem, you may glue the flower onto some popsicle sticks.
Bubble hydrangeas
Hydrangeas are some of the most beautiful flowers out there. In this activity, kids will get to make their hydrangea art using paint, dish soap, and some water!
-
Mix 1 part of desired acrylic paint color, 1 part of dish soap, and 2 parts of water into a plastic cup, then gently mix the ingredients.
-
Using a straw, slowly blow some air into the solution until bubbles form and protrude from the cup's rim.
-
Using a clean sheet of paper, gently press one side onto the protruding bubbles to absorb the colors.
-
You’ll be greeted by a hydrangea-looking bubble art which you may further accentuate using colored pens.
2. Explore the great outdoors
As mentioned above, experiencing flowers themselves is the best way to instill a child’s passion for greeneries.
A simple day spent in your background garden or strolling around the park can be a fruitful learning experience, especially teaching kids about plants.
To make the most out of their experience, ask kids to slow down and breathe in the scent of nature. They can miss out on so much detail by moving around too quickly. They can also create a nature journal where they write their observations and express how they feel spending time in nature.
You may also get the STEMscope portable microscope as your child’s exploration companion while they stroll traverse the park.
3. Read kid-friendly plant-related books
Textbooks are not the best materials to introduce kids to plants. They need vivid pictures and vibrant plant images to take their minds to a plant-dominated imaginative bliss.
Science books teach them about the science of how plants work. But creative books encourage plant imagery that makes children appreciate plants for their beauty and impeccable value to mankind.
Here are some awesome books to teach kids about plants:
• The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Teaches the fascinating story of a flower’s life cycle through dramatic text and colorful images.
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
The book features an array of collages following the lives of a mother and daughter as they plant seeds that grow into a beautiful rainbow-colored arrangement of flowers.
• I Can Grow A Flower by Dawn Sirrett
This lift-the-flap book is perfect for introducing flowers' enchanting beauty and life cycle to young children. The theme is simple to show how flowers grow creatively and encourage children that they also can grow flowers.
4. Engage in Mind-Blowing Plant Experiments
Indeed, plants are not all about beauty and functionality. But there is an overarching science governing everything that happens in plants. That’s why the next tip on how to teach kids about flowers is by doing plant-inspired science experiments.
The online space is a wonderful source of various plant activities for kids. Feel free to visit our dedicated article on plant science experiments that features 5 exciting activities children can do at home.
But if you’re looking for a perfect kit that packs the complete tools, instructions, activities, and lessons to make 10 exciting plant experiments, you may want to check out the PlantExplo science kit!
5. Do some actual gardening
Books can only do as much to ignite a child’s curiosity and imagination about plants. But the real lesson is learned when they pick up a shovel, sow some seeds, and feel the dirt in their grip.
Getting kids into the habit of raising plants they’ve sown is one of the best ways on how to teach kids about plants. You impart a solid sense of accountability to care for other living things apart from themselves.
Moreover, gardening helps in the holistic development of children:
-
Improve locomotor skills when digging the soil, carrying tools, and watering the plants
-
Support cognitive development as they predict outcomes and ask relevant gardening questions
-
Train their literacy skills as children engage in active communication with their parents and remember the names of each plant
-
Develop stronger emotional and social skills while children bond with parents in a moment of togetherness
6. Go camping
On top of visiting gardens and strolling around parks familiarizing themselves with different plants, camping is a deeper opportunity to get kids close and personal with nature.
A time away from electronics and toys will compel children to explore the woods, get creative, and grow a whole new appreciation of nature, not only teaching kids about plants.
If you want, you can always buy toys or gadgets for outdoorsy kids to get their adventurous gears running.
What is the Value of Teaching Kids About Plants?
Learning about plants is not merely a pastime to get kids off the couch and do something active. But the National Geographic gave credence to how gardening imparts vital life skills to children.
Here are the benefits:
1. Teaches kids about responsibility
We’ve repeated this line many times throughout the article. But responsibility is more than giving children a role to fulfill. It’s about making them feel empowered and confident, especially when choosing between right and wrong.
2. Cultivates empathy
As kids realize that plants are living things in need of love and care, they can develop a level of thoughtfulness not typically observed among children. They learn to show empathy that reflects how they treat others and themselves.
3. Builds their self-esteem
Gardening is not all beautiful blooms and butterflies. There will be countless trial-and-errors involved that will shape a child’s ideation on how to care for plants best. This strengthens their confidence, especially when making decisions.
4. Improves their patience
As the first line of this article goes: Good things take time and effort. Some plants may take more time than others to grow. But the bottom line is they all need a child’s tender love and care. And when children fulfill their end of the bargain and wait patiently, they’ll see the beautiful harvest after.
Teaching Kids About Plants is A Must!
Plants are more than just oxygen spewers and aesthetic enhancers. They’re living creatures that need people to care for them, especially in this highly urbanized and techno-dependent era.
There are countless ways to teach kids about plants, and we hope these tips be a source of great lessons for you and your budding gardener.
Conducting experiments is undoubtedly one unique way to impart plant lessons, and if you’re looking for a complete kit, we recommend the PlantExplo science kit. Feel free to check it out and our other science gadgets too!