WEEK FOUR Science Inquiry: What Can We Use Plants For?
Age: 3 to 5 years
Teacher Guided: Nature Paint Brushes
Teacher to model at first. Children again go out into their
natural environment to harvest flowers, sticks and leaves
to create ‘paintbrushes’. They explore the different
properties of the plants they have collected as they find
each paints in a different way. The softer leaves have a
gentle stroke, while the bristly dried leaves have a rough
stroke.
= fine motor, language. creative, social + emotional
development
Materials:
- harvested natural items for the ‘brushes’
- harvested sticks for the ‘handles’
- rope and twine to fasten the brushes together
- large piece of butcher’s paper stretched along the back
wall of building
- pots of paint for children to test the properties of their
brushes out with
Inquiry Questions:
What part of a plant have you found?
What does it feel like?
I wonder what it will feel like to paint with?
What kind of paint stroke does it leave?
Intentional Teaching: Child Led: Flower Pounding
We use plants in many ways. We breathe Assorted flowers, petals and leaves harvested
the fresh air created by plants, we use parts from the outdoor environment. Teacher to model
of plants to create and build shelters, we flower pounding at first, children to lead after
eat the fruits of plants to stay healthy. being shown how.
Read the story: The Curious Garden by = gross motor, creative, social + emotional
Peter Brown development
Materials:
- white fabric
- wooden board
- old newspaper
- child-safe/child-size rubber mallets
- harvested flowers and leaves
- string and wooden pegs
Method:
1. Gather flowers/leaves.
2. Lay piece of newspaper over wooden board.
3. Arrange collected items on newspaper.
4. Cover with white fabric.
5. Use mallet to pound fabric, careful of fingers
and toes.
6. Observe what happens as you pound the fabric.
Remember the parts of plants? We are 7. Attach to string with wooden pegs as
going to use all of the parts of plants today decorative bunting for the classroom.
to decorate ourselves, our classroom and to Inquiry Questions:
nourish our bellies. What colours can you see?
Are the colours coming off the petals as you
pound?
What is happening to the petals?
Image + idea sourced from:
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/218846863132468380/
Teacher Guided: Flower Friendship Bracelets
Demonstrate to children how to thread flowers into
flower crowns and friendship bracelets. We harvest
flowers keeping the stems nice and long so we can thread
the flowers together.
= fine motor, cognitive, language, emotional, spiritual +
moral development.
Materials:
- flowers harvested with a long stem
Inquiry Question:
How can we use all parts of the flower?
Objective:
We explore how plants are crucial to our
survival and the various ways we can use
plants to enrich our lives.
Learning Intention: We use our new-
found knowledge of parts of plants to
create different things.
Idea + images sourced from:
https://buggyandbuddy.com/spring-banners-from-
leaf-flower-pounding-science-invitation-saturday/
Child Led: Imaginary Play
When we use symbolic representation, our play
turns into imaginary play. We use loose parts
harvested from the garden to enrich the play
worlds we create. Sticks become magic wands or
horses; a flower becomes the crucial ingredient to
break a curse; leaves wound together become a
crown for the Queen of the universe. We play
with part of plants to discover their different uses,
imaginary and non-imaginary.
 = cognitive, language, creative, social + emotional
development.
Materials:
- natural objects found in nature
- our imaginations
- flower crowns
Inquiry Question:
How many ways can we use the parts of plants?
Child Led: Fruit Skewers Conclusion: Ongoing Teacher Guided Observation:
Teacher guided at first. Children are reminded that fruit We sit on a picnic rug outside in nature, Plant Growth with Sunflowers + Bulbs
carries the seeds that grow a new plant. Fruit is also the sharing our fruit skewers, breathing fresh (planted in week 1)
part of a plant that we eat. Assorted fruits are laid out on air from the trees, wearing our flower As children’s seedlings + bulbs continue to grow.
the table with blunt skewers. Children thread the fruit crowns and marvelling at the wonders of = fine motor, cognitive, creative, language +
onto the skewers noticing the seeds and remembering plants and all the magical things they do for emotional development.
back to week 1, when we first explored that fruits produce us. Materials:
seeds. Children create patterns with their fruit skewers - planted bulbs from week 1 (growing taller and
and place on a platter to share with their friends. sprouting leaves now)
= fine motor, creative, social + emotional development. - clipboards with paper
Materials: - coloured paints
- assorted fruits - coloured pencils/crayons
- long, blunt skewers (child-safe) Method:
- platter to place fruit skewers Scribe the parts of the plant children are able to
identify on this week’s observational painting.
Inquiry Questions:
As the bulb/seedling continues to grow:
What can you see under the water?
What can you see on top?
What has the plant started to grow?
Has anything changed?

Assessment & Recording Strategies:

Floor-Book
A form of pedagogical documentation that allows the educator to showcase the voices of the children and the learning taking place. The Floor
Book documents and celebrates learning as it unfolds and can be displayed in the centre for children to show their parents and review their
learning. Photographs of children engaging with plant inquiry, educator scribed brainstorms, transcripts of children’s thoughts and anecdotal
notes of play and children’s engagement with biological science learning are all included.
Inquiry Questions (How, Why + What If?)
Rather than educators focusing on what is “right” or “wrong” and making assessments based on this, educators can observe and encourage a
child’s exploration, questioning and ability to connect their prior knowledge with new experiences, shifting the focus to the questions a child
asks and how they go about discovering the answers. By taking an inquiry approach to learning and how we assess (e.g. what are children asking
+ how are children discovering?), an educator can support the development of scientific skills in the early years that will lay the foundations for
future scientific understandings and discoveries.

Focus Behaviours (ongoing + formative, guidance will be offered)

- Using parts of plants in diverse and creative ways.
- Playing with parts of plants to symbolically represent and enrich imaginary play narratives.
- Exploring the flavours of different fruits and nourishing our bodies with natural produce from plants.

OUTCOME 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Children feel safe, secure, and supported
Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-
dependence, resilience and sense of agency
Children develop knowledgeable and confident self
identities
Children learn to interact in relation to others with
care, empathy and respect
OUTCOME 2: Children are connected with and
contribute to their world
Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and
communities and an understanding of the
reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for
active community participation
Children respond to diversity with respect
Children become aware of fairness
Children become socially responsible and show
respect for the environment
OUTCOME 3: Children have a strong sense of well
being
Children become strong in their social and emotional
wellbeing
Children take increasing responsibility for their own
health and physical wellbeing
OUTCOME 4: Children are confident and involved
learners
Children develop dispositions for learning such as
curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity,
commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination
and reflexivity
Children develop a range of skills and processes such
as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation,
hypothesising, researching and investigating
Children transfer and adapt what they have learned
from one context to another
Children resource their own learning through
connecting with people, place, technologies and
natural and processed materials
OUTCOME 5: Children are effective communicators
Children interact verbally and non-verbally with
others for a range of purposes
Children engage with a range of texts and gain
meaning from these texts
Children express ideas and make meaning using a
range of media
Children begin to understand how symbols and
pattern systems work.
Children use information and communication
technologies to access information, investigate ideas
and represent their thinking