This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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 today, we focused on plant pioneers – the very first plants to come to land. Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on the very first land 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
It may be surprising to realize that the plants we know and enjoy today took a very long time to develop. In fact, it took several eras for plants to even leave the water and grow on land, not to mention develop stems, seeds, and flowers! For our first day, we concentrated on algae and then the first land plant plants.
If you’re looking for some more quick facts, check out these great sites:
- Ordovician facts for kids by Kiddle
- The evolution of plants part 1: The first conquerors of land 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 early Plants by Anthöny Pain (22m)
- When Giant Fungi Ruled by PBS Eons (6m)
- How Fungi Made All Life on Land Possible by Wonder Why (10m)
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!
For our snack of the day, we added some green sprinkles to sugar cookies (our version of moss) 🙂 Alternatively, you can dye sugar cookies green and crumble those as well!
We also sautéed some spinach to make it look like seaweed 🙂 And snacked on some actual seaweed!
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
- Dinosaurs & Other Prehistoric Life (Cooksonia pg. 16. First Vascular plant)
- Explorer Plants! By Nick Forshaw (Chapter 1 & 2)
- What Are Sea Plants and Algae? (Let’s Find Out!) by Lynnae Steinberg
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, MOSS, LIVERWORTS
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!
- Imagine time traveling back in time to a period where there were no tall trees or plants as we know them today but only moss and algae. What would you think of that world? How would you survive a day?
- Have you ever encountered seaweed while playing on a beach? What did you think it was?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For our crafts of the day, we gave them a few options that would help them enhance their pretend play or add in some of what they learned.
- 12 Seaweed Activities and Fun Facts by Child’s Play ABC
- NNL Prehistoric Life Coloring Pages by National Park Services
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!
- Grow Your Own Algae! By Teach Engineering
- Continue adding to the Field Journal – Search for mosses & liverworts
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!
