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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 Devonian period – plants that started growing larger & larger, forming the very first forests! 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 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.
If you’re looking for some more quick facts, check out these great sites:
- Devonian Period: Climate, Animals & Plants by Live Science
- Devonian Period from Plant Evolution & Paleobotany by (Website by Jamie Boyer, Ph.D.)
- The evolution of plants part 2: Birth of the forests 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:
- When Trees Took Over the World by PBS Eons (8m)
- Devonian: The Little-Known Era When Armored Prehistoric Sharks Dominated the Seas! DOCUMENTARY by Wondody The World of Odysseys (2hr). The first half is devoted mostly to the water and fish life of the Devonian. At about an hour and ten minutes, the documentary switches focus to plants.
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!
We had grandiose plants to create some cookies (inspired by a Fern Leaf Cookie Cutter and Scottish Fern Cakes, a Bakery Classic by Christina’s Cucina) but time got the best of us. We ended up drawing fern leaves (using icing) on some ready to bake cookie mix. It was still fun and admittedly a much easier activity for the day!
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 2: Plant Origins)
- Paleozoic Fossil Plants by Bruce L. Stinchcomb
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, DEVONIAN, FERNS, HORSETAILS
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!
- Ferns emerged in the Devonian period, millions of years ago, and still exist today. Do you have a favorite plant that you would hope would survive millions of years from now?
- Write a short story about a hero who must find a magical fern. Include some challenges where they can only find other types of prehistoric plants!
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.
- Decorate a pot & grow a fern
- Ancient Devonian Reef from National Park Service
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!
- Make a Terrarium: Build a Tiny Plant World! | Science Project for Kids by SciShow Kids
- Continue adding to the Field Journal – Search for ferns
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!
