Flower power

Provided Resources

• Teaching and plenary PowerPoints
• List of flower clues
• Instructions for pressing flowers
• Watercolour painting reminder sheet
• Template for flower petals (plenary)

Additional Resources

• A box with a lid (large enough to hold a reasonably large flower)
• A large selection of flowers of different colours shapes and sizes
• Blotting paper (approximately A4 sized) – 1 sheet per child
• Some large heavy books (to press flowers in) 1 for every 5-6 children
• Magnifying lenses (1 per child if possible)
• Water colour pallets and water pots (one between 2 children)
• Mixing pallets (1 per child)
• A range of good quality paintbrushes including some fine ones
• Cartridge paper for watercolour painting (2-3 sheets per child)
• Cheap white paper to lay samples on
• Plenary: for each group of 3 you will need:
  • 6 cotton buds with the bud at one end cut off and 1 with both ends cut off
  • A lump of Plasticine the size of a conker
  • A pair of scissors
  • A4 coloured card folded twice and marked with a petal on one side

Teaching

• Observe a range of different flowers closely using magnifiers.
• Record observations using pencil and watercolour.

Activities

1. Play a guessing game to introduce the new topic and help them understand why flowers are so amazing.
2. Find out some interesting facts about flowers and the people who have hunted, studied and painted them.
3. Learn about the work of the artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
4. Closely observe a variety of flowers with magnifiers and record this in the form of a watercolour painting.
5. Press flowers to preserve them.
6. Create a model flower and begin to know and label the male and female parts within it.

Investigation - observation/analysing secondary sources
Study a variety of different flowers, making botanical paintings. Use hand lenses for close observation. Discover that flowers usually have male and female parts.

Vocabulary
Botany, botanist, botanical, petals, reproduction, male, female, stigma, style, stamens