This activity was carried out in conjunction with our Term 3 topic: “Plants Around Us” to reinforce the children’s learning about parts of a plant. After learning about the different parts of the plant, the children explored ways to make use of the flowers and leaves they picked up from the school garden to create their own artwork.

Objectives

Through this activity, children were given opportunities to:

• identify the different parts of a plant;

• use their senses to explore the plants in the school garden; and

• develop their creativity through using elements of art to express their ideas in their artwork.

#1 Recalling parts of a plant

Children recalled the parts of a plant that they had learnt in the previous activity. They came forward to label the parts of the plant by pasting ready-made labels into the correct boxes.

This is a leaf.	This is the seed.
Children recalled and labelled the different parts of a plant.

#2 Application of Knowledge

To encourage application of knowledge in the real world, the children went to the garden and played the “I Spy” game. In this game, the children used their observational skills to look for parts of a plant that they had learnt. For example, when they saw a plant part that they could identify, they would say, “I spy with my little eyes… a flower!” They were able to apply their learning by identifying the various plant parts as they looked at real plants.

I spy with my eyes... a flower!	There are so many leaves!
This leaf is so big!
The children explored and identified the different parts of plants found in the school garden.

After that, they decided on the parts of the plant that they wanted to use to create their artwork. To show care for the plants, children were asked to pick up plant parts on the ground for their artwork.


The children collected leaves and flowers for their artwork.

The satisfied children had acquired their flowers and leaves for the craft activity.

After picking what they needed, the children went back to class to express their ideas through the creation of their artworks.



The children created their plant part artworks using various craft materials.

#3 Reflection on experiences and sharing of artwork

To conclude the activity, the children reflected on their experience at the school garden and shared how they looked for leaves and flowers in the garden for their artwork. They showed their artwork to their friends and talked about the materials and parts of the plant that they used to create their artwork.

"This is a person. I use the flowers for the head and the round leaf to make the body."	"I cut the leaves. I even drew a basket and put the flowers on the basket and I even put the flowers on the girl."
"This is a girl. She has flowers in her hair and she is holding the leaf."	"The person is trying to get the flowers and the leaf."
The children's creations.

The outdoor learning experience had allowed the children the opportunity to apply their knowledge learnt in a real world context. Through quality interactions with their peers in the garden, they were able to make use of their senses to see, smell and touch the real plants in their immediate environment. The open-ended activity also encouraged children to use plant parts in various and creative ways to represent their ideas in their artwork.

Contributed by:

Tan Hui Yin & K1 Mozart (AM) (2018)

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