Washington Native Plant Society: Education Activities for First Grade

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Education Activities for First Grade

Theme: Observing plant and animal characteristics

Activity	Description	Materials (PDF)
The Magic Glasses Story	This activity teaches proper outdoor etiquette and precedes going into the habitat area. Students hear a story about children who ran and shouted all the way to a wildlife habitat area, excited to see wildlife but saw none. The children learn about ‘Magic Glasses’ and good behavior. This is followed with a walk in a habitat area to observe wildlife.	Q&E Activity Story Images
Magnifier Walk	Students go on an unstructured exploratory walk in the habitat area while practicing their outdoor etiquette skills. Students use magnifiers to freely observe natural objects they encounter on the walk. This allows students to practice using magnifiers, and to familiarize themselves with the many interesting things in their habitat, prior to other activities.	Q&E Activity Image
Creepy Crawly Story	Students go to the habitat area where exploration stations are set up. Using plastic cups and spoons, students collect ‘creepy crawly’ invertebrates they find in the soil duff. Students try to identify these tiny animals using an invertebrate identification sheet and share their finds with other students. Students return the animals to the soil duff or use them in the ‘Organisms’ science kit terrarium.	Q&E Activity Story Images Wand
Creepy Crawly Exploration	Students go to a habitat area and use their senses to learn about the plants and animals they studied during the Nature Detective Discovery activity. They learn about ways to identify these plants and animals using their senses of touch, sight, smell and hearing. They may also use the sense of hearing to discover birds or other animals while going on their walk.	Q&E Activity ID Sheet
Bark & Leaf Rubbings	This activity serves to reinforce knowledge about the parts of a plant, and helps students recognize that different plants have different characteristics. Students make leaf and bark rubbings from four different plant species in a habitat area and then use these rubbings to sort by characteristics. The rubbings are also used to find the plants again, using the characteristics as ‘clues’.	Q&E Activity How-To-Do Image
Plants & Animals: Same/Different	Students consider the commonalties and differences between plants and animals in the habitat area. Their observations are recorded using a classroom-size Venn diagram that distinguishes between characteristics that are different, and those that are the same, between plants and animals.	Q&E Activity How-To-Do Poster Overlay
Maple Seed Mix-Up	This interactive game helps students understand the combination of basic environmental conditions necessary for a seed to sprout. Students role-play a seed or one of its needs (sun, soil and water) in a game similar to cake walk. Where a ‘seed’, ‘water’, ‘sun’ and ‘soil’ have landed together on a ‘base’, a seed can sprout. Students then evaluate outdoor areas that may or may not provide those same needs.	Q&E Activity How-To-Do Q&E Activity Cards Leaves
Plant and Animal Interaction Hike	This activity connects the previous activities by asking students to use their observation skills to explore the relationship between animals and plants. Students learn to find wildlife sign, then to recognize how plants are being used by wildlife. Students use picture cards to help find and identify these wildlife and plant interactions.	Q&E Activity Images Cards
Drawing for Reflection	Students draw a picture of an animal and plant interaction from their observations made during the Plant and Animal Interaction Hike. While best done in the habitat area, drawing may be done in the classroom from memory. These drawings can be used for assessment, classroom presentations and/or displays.	Q&E Activity

The native plant education materials provided on this page were developed by Starflower Foundation.