At the weekend, we planted a super fun miniature garden*. Not a real (outdoor) garden; it’s a transparent planter, so you can observe the plants’ root and stem growth. However, it’s captured our imaginations and we really love our mini vegetable garden already!
Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden botany kit.
Vegetable Garden; Growth Tracking
Three days after planting, we had our very first seedling. Usually, it takes ages to see any real action when planting seeds. Unless you opt for cress, of course. Seedling numero uno is a radish; these typically take 4 to 7 days to sprout. The next lot of seedlings should be the spring onions. Last, it will be the carrot seeds – assuming everything grows as expected. That’s a lot of seeds. It’s important for kids to see some fast results or they can quickly lose interest. Therefore, we’re delighted that our efforts are already showing results.
Six days growth in our mini garden!
As part of our planting activities, we’ll be keeping a plant journal. Daily log entries are too much; we’ve tried that in the past and have always lost the initial enthusiasm. Instead, we’ll be tracking weekly progress. This should give a better range of journal entries and keep boredom at bay. We’re using a free Plant Journal by Hola Bilinguals. I love the vocab boost and the simple tracking format – you colour the yes or no for each type of growth. For example, the smiling face for “peudo ver las hojas,” has been enthusiastically coloured in now that we have our first seedlings!
Vegetable Garden; Plant Vocabulary
To further build on Spanish vocabulary, we’ve used a lovely Plant Growth Sequencing cut-and-paste worksheet. The pictures help provide context clues for unfamiliar words. It’s also good practice to read new words as part of whole sentences. Twinkl has a lovely range of teaching resources in Spanish. (Tip: Have a look at the EAL resources and anything with the “More Languages” label in the search results. KS1 resources in Spanish are fab for KS2 MFL.)
Plant sequencing and word search.
Finally, to round out our initial plant fiesta, we’ve also used one of our favourite Twinkl resources: a plant word search. I love the illustration details, around the edges of the word search. Printing in black-and-white not only saves ink but it also allows you to colour in the pictures yourself! One reason why I love word searches is they are a sneaky way of fostering spelling skills. Whereas, my kids just love word searches because they’re fun puzzles.
Vegetable Garden; Resource Round-up
- El Diario de mi Planta – Plant Journal by Hola Bilinguals.
- Actividad Secundaria del Crecimiento de Plantas Frutales – Plant Growth Sequencing Activity by Twinkl.
- Plants Word Search – differentiated word searches by Twinkl.
- Plants and Growth Mindfulness Colouring Sheets – themed colouring pages by Twinkl.
- KS1 Plants Lesson Plan Ideas – useful suggestions for cross-curricular links by Twinkl.
- Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden – children’s plant kit* by Creative Sprouts.
June 4, 2018 at 7:12 pm
I love Twinkl’s resources and these vegetable worksheets looks fabulous. Your plants do too, we love watching vegetables grow and it is so much more satisfying to eat something that you have grown yourself :o)
#MMBC