Explorify at home: Plants

Explorify at home is a special series of science activities for parents and carers of primary school children who are now learning at home. We define activities by age and curriculum topics in Explorify, but these collections are also suitable to do all together as a family of mixed aged children. Or if your little scientist just wants to explore further, pick something from the other age sections for inspiration! Teachers can find out about our full (free!) classroom resource at the bottom of this page.

Parents, read on!

This collection is all about plants. These activities will help your children to learn that most plants need water, soil and sunlight to grow to provide us with food. Let's explore!

BBC Bitesize Daily: You can use these activities along with watching the BBC Bitesize Daily programme on materials that is available from 29th April 2020. Look for the links to watch the 20-minute programmes, with your activities for your child's age. Versions for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can be found on the iPlayer.

For children aged 5-7  

First, watch this video together: Shooting sprouts shows seeds germinating. Encourage your children to talk about what they see happening. The root appears first from each seed, followed by a shoot and the first leaves.  

Hands-on activity: Why not try to germinate some seeds from fruit or vegetables. You could collect a few seeds from some fruit such as a tomato or a melon and make a plant pot by recycling a carton, yoghurt pot or just some rolled-up paper. Make sure you keep any compost moist and that each pot is able to drain water away easily. Keep an eye on your unusual pots and see how long the seeds take to germinate.  

Visit BBC to watch Bitesize Daily. 

Age 7-9 

First, watch this video: Where does the rain go when it falls on a plant? Have a look at this video to explore what happens. How many different leaves can you recognise? What do you notice about the water on the leaves? 

Hands-on activity: Explore any plants you have in your home – or even in the fridge! Can you work out what would happen to any water on the surface of the leaves? Why not test your ideas with a few drops of water (you might want to do this over the kitchen sink or in the bathroom if you cannot go outdoors). 

Visit BBC to watch Bitesize Daily. 

Age 9-11 

Hands-on activity: Flowering plants produce seeds to reproduce. Quite often we eat the seeds of plants. Can you find examples of seeds that we eat in your home? You might not have thought of them as seeds but baked beans are the seeds of the haricot bean. What different types of seed can you find? 

Hands-on activity: If you are able to go outside, have a look for seeds outdoors too. Seeds such as dandelion seeds are blown by the wind to find a new place to grow. Other seeds (berries) are eaten by birds and distributed in bird droppings and some seeds find their way to a new site by hitching a ride on animal fur. Design a seed to get from your house to a new site. What features would help it arrive in the best condition? Can you make a model of it? 

Visit BBC to watch Bitesize Daily. 

That's all for this week!

We hope your little scientists have enjoyed exploring plants this week. We'd love to know how you got on. You can follow us on Twitter or Facebook or email us if you have any feedback on this collection.

Please note that adults should supervise all practical activities, especially if children are handling food items. Please make sure children wash their hands. 

Are you a primary school teacher who has yet to sign up to Explorify?

If you are a teacher who hasn't discovered Explorify before, you can sign up and explore the whole website with over 400 free activities. (It's free, as it's funded by charitable foundation Wellcome Trust. Our mission is to help you enhance your science teaching and get your pupils thinking like scientists!) We provide background science, to help you field questions from your pupils and ideas to take our curriculum-linked activities further. Something to get your teeth into for when you're back in the classroom!