Plant Studies

 This was just a fun little experiment to wrap up our studies about plants in first grade science this year. I only have one hour per week with this group to get all the standards taught.  We did this toward the end of our unit, so there were more oral observations than written ones.  The kids really enjoyed seeing what would happen to the plants that didn't have all three things they need to live.  (Air, water, and light)

This wasn't really a surprise to anyone.

This was interesting, because at first, the plant started to grow and looked fine.  Then, we noticed that the bag got puffed up, even though it was completely sealed.  We talked about this and wondered why it had "air" inside the bag.  We had talked just a bit about photosynthesis and some of the students knew that the plants put out oxygen as a byproduct of the process.  We thought maybe it was a result of that.  Later, the bag deflated and started to turn a bit brown.

This one was interesting as well.  We noticed how light in color everything was.  The plants didn't look green at all.  Just shades of white to yellow.


We did this over several weeks.  The kids would look at them each time they came into my room for science, and some would pop by at recess time, as well, to check on them.  Here are a few of the comments that I heard from our little scientists:

"Water is the most important thing."

"The one with no air looks like it is dying."

"The one with no light is almost white."

"It's not doing too good."

"The one with everything it needs has a little flower!"

"It looks really good."

"It is growing out of the bag!"


I have done lots of plant experiments in the classroom before, but the staples were a new idea.  I saw it on Pinterest, of course, but I didn't pin it.  When I went on to try to find it, I found LOTS of other seeds growing in bags, in the same way.  I guess it is not such a unique idea.   But, thank you anyway to the home school mom who first put this out there.  It was a great way to observe the plants growing.  I just took it a step further  by changing the variables of each and using a control group.  This is a simple experiment that can really be appropriate for many age levels. 

Happy teaching!