Captain Planet Foundation
Adopt-A-Plant
Note the way that plants change during the season by adopting a plant on your school campus. After your class chooses their plant, they research the plant's needs, how it differs from other plants, find ways to support their plant's...
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a activity highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
Captain Planet Foundation
Predicting Whether the Weather is Good for the Garden
Can your class predict the weather? Show them how they can come close with a lesson about creating weather instruments, including weather vanes, barometers, wind socks, anemometers, and thermometers. Kids research weather patterns and...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Plant Phenology Data Analysis
Scientists monitor seasonal changes in plants to better understand their responses to climate change, in turn allowing them to make predictions regarding the future. The last activity in the series of six has scholars analyze BudBurst...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Seasons of a Plant
The third in a series of six lessons is an engaging three-part activity defines that discusses phenology, focusing on the cyclic seasons of plants. Pupils then observe phenology outside before determining how climate change can...
Curated OER
Making Community Measurements: Which Plant Part?
Students identify a plant in a given community and make a variety of measurements. They determine how a plant meets its basic needs. In addition to identifying plant parts, they observe seasonal change and compare plants within a community.
Curated OER
Season of an Apple Tree
Students identify how seasonal changes affect plant growth. In this agricultural lesson, students read The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree and are shown pictures of how apple trees blossom through the seasons. Students match each picture...
Curated OER
Adopt a Tree
Students adopt tress on their school campus for scientific observation purposes. In this tree science lesson, students adopt a tree at their school, observe the season changes for the tree, and create a PowerPoint presentation about the...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Preparing for Project BudBurst
Male deer growing antlers to begin the breeding season is an example of a phenological event. First in a four-part series is an activity requiring individuals to collect phenological data on their campus. Classes discuss phenology, the...
Minnesota Department of Natural Resoures
Tree Life
The life of a tree is the focus of a packet consisting of several activities all covering a different subject. Second graders measure shadows, make pinecone critters, write poems, count rings, complete a word search, play tree tag, and...
Curated OER
Cities and Seasons
Students explore how satellite images show seasonal changes in seven cities in North and South America. Through a sequence of images, they study the green-up and brown-down of the seasons and how seasons change over time. Afterwards,...
Starry Night Education
The Year and Seasons
Turn your classroom into a live demonstration of how the earth and sun interact to create the four seasons. Using a globe, a light source, and a series of constellation cards, super scientists discover how the...
Curated OER
Building a Butterfly Garden
Students examine the habitat and life cycle of a butterfly. In this early childhood lesson plan, students identify the parts of a butterfly, as well as the stages of the butterfly life cycle. Students also plant a garden in which they...
Curated OER
Signs of the Seasons
Students closely observe the natural world, record data, and notice patterns as the seasons unfold, they build a deeper understanding of seasonal change! The definition of phonology is the focus of this lesson and how it changes...
Curated OER
Planting Seeds Around the World
First graders discuss the book The Lorax and research what living things need. In this environmental lesson, 1st graders investigate how humans affect the growth of plants. Students conduct an experiment with sunflowers.
Curated OER
Look At Those Leaves!
Students explore botany by researching plants in class. In this tree identification lesson, students examine a group of leaves and list the different characteristics before guessing what types of trees they came from. Students read about...
Desert Discoveries
Creating a Garden Journal
Youngsters create science journals which are used to record observations from the school garden. The goal of this activity is to help kids tune into nature by making daily observations on the growth of the plants, and also to take note...
Curated OER
Predicting the Greening of Spring With Red Emperor Tulips
Learners examine seasonal changes by watching tulip plant growth across the continent utilizing the Journey North website. They develop hypotheses as to why the plants emerge and grow where they do.
Curated OER
Our Lives and the Four Seasons
Learners compare and contrast the four seasons. Using this information, they determine the plant, animal and environmental activities that can be enjoyed in each season. They discuss why the seasons must change and how humans adapt to them.
Curated OER
Building a Butterfly Garden
Learners plant a garden which will become the habitat for butterflies as they go through their life cycle. In this life cycle lesson, students grow plants that attract butterflies and feed caterpillars in order to observe the...
Curated OER
Making Weather-Tracking Tools
Students build tools to help track the weather. For this weather lesson, students follow directions to build a rain gauge, barometer and hair hygrometer.
Curated OER
Prairie Mural Project
Seventh graders construct a large mural of a praire showing plants, and animals that would live there.
Curated OER
Global Greenup
Students utilize satellite images to track the life cycle of vegetational growth over a large area. Animal migratory patterns are compared to this cycle.
Curated OER
Forest Food Webs
Learners consider the interdependency of life in a temperate forest by studying selected organisms from an Asian temperate forest and creating a food web.