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Welcome to our “Blast to the Past: An Amazing Prehistoric Plants Week” – an at home week filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to the oh-so-cool, but often overlooked, awesome prehistoric plants!
For this day, we started learning about plants from the Carboniferous period as well as a very important formation during this period – the formation of coal. Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on these revolutionary plants!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
As we moved into the Carboniferous period, we learned about the growth and development of plants and species, while also concentrating on the development of coal as well.
If you’re looking for some more quick facts, check out these great sites:
- Carboniferous Period by Britannica
- The evolution of plants part 3: The Age of Coal by Earth Archives
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- The Evolution of the late Paleozoic Plants by Anthöny Pain (23m)
- The Many Plants of the Carboniferous by CambrianScience (4m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
Since we had planned to perform the FORMATION OF FOSSIL FUELS (Grade Level 5) experiment by Project Noontide, we already had some extra cereal on hand. So, after performing the activity, we munched on what was left 🙂
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- When Plants Took Over the Planet by Dr. Chris Thorogood
- Explorer Plants! By Nick Forshaw (Chapter 3: Plant Planet)
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: PREHISTORIC PLANTS, CARBONIFEROUS, COAL, CYCADS
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Today’s coal comes from plants from the carboniferous period. Write a short story about a world where the carboniferous period never happened. How different does your world look from the one we live in today?
- Plants were much larger in the Carboniferous period. If you time traveled back to this period, how would you cross a field of plants?
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
- Fossils and Coal Formation by Education.com
- FORMATION OF FOSSIL FUELS (Grade Level 5) by Project Noontide
- Continue adding to the Field Journal
THANK YOU
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other prehistoric weeks: Digging Up Dinosaur Discoveries Week and Amazing Prehistoric Sea Creatures – Stunning Sea Monsters Week, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
