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! We have definitely had weeks devoted to the prehistoric themes, like the extremely popular and beloved dinosaurs our – Digging Up Dinosaur Discoveries Week, as well as the equally awe-inspiring but slightly less known Prehistoric Sea Creatures in our Amazing Prehistoric Sea Creatures – Stunning Sea Monsters Week! But for this week, we wanted to bring some attention to what many kids think of as an afterthought – prehistoric plants!
For this week, we traveled back in time by first creating the ultimate ‘natural’ learning space by decorating it with leaf and plant backdrops, green streamers hanging from the ceiling, and DIY plant fossils. Then we moved onto learning plants in some of the earliest eras. It was definitely an eye opening experience to study the evolution of plants!
Read through to check out our ideas on ways to decorate your camp area, find links to fun & educational videos, books – fiction and non-fiction, writing prompts or story telling ideas, science experiments, food crafts & snacks, and kid-friendly crafts all themed for the week!
DAY ONE: An Introductory Day
Like most of our at home camp weeks, we kicked off the week by easing into the topic. We started off with setting up the camp area with some plant themed backdrops as well as some images of ferns and cycads – though our backdrop wasn’t 100% accurate, it still helped set the mood. We also created our own “DIY Plant Fossils”. And, like all days, we added in some interesting books and some writing / storytelling prompts to keep them learning! Click here to check out full details of the day!
DAY TWO: Plant Pioneers
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. We read some books, watched a few videos, created some algae of our own, and went on a search for some of the modern versions of these first plants! Click here to check out full details of the day!
DAY THREE: Devonian Plants Day
As we moved along the timeline, this day was focused on plants that developed during the Devonian Period. While there were quite a few spore and seed bearing plants that emerged during this time, we also focused a bit on ferns as we could easily find them around the area. We continued our reading as well as adding to our time line and also created a few terrariums to simulate the time period. Click here to check out full details of the day!
DAY FOUR: Carboniferous Plants Day
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. This time period is particularly impactful as a certain fossil fuel was generated during this time. There’s quite a bit of information out there on this period, so we continued our reading and research as well as performed a few experiments that would help conceptualize the how plants from this era helped form coal. Click here to check out full details of the day!
DAY FIVE: Triassic Plants Day
As we moved into the Triassic period, we learned about the plants that started to develop within this time. While cycads, seed bearing ferns, and other plants grew in this early Mesozoic period, one such tree also emerged that still exists today – gingkos! We picked this one to concentrate on because it still exists – in a similar form – today! It was amazing to take a walk around a find a few gingkos in the area! Click here to check out full details of the day!
FINISH OFF THE WEEK
And while a true time travelling trip back into the prehistoric past isn’t in the cards for us, some museums do have exhibits dedicated in full (or at least in part) to prehistoric plants! If you’re lucky enough to live near one, head over to the museum to check out these amazing plants and fossils!
If you don’t live next to a museum with some prehistoric plants on display, a trip to a garden or natural area would be a great field excursion – look ahead to see if there are any plants or modern versions of plants that you can compare to prehistoric ones!
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!
