Progressive Content

• Identifying what we already know about plants and flowers, as well as what vocabulary we already know and familiarising ourselves with any new terms. 

• Exploring what a plant is, by considering different types of plants, from cacti to the Venus fly trap.   

• Identifying the parts of a plant, including  the shoot, stem, flowers, leaves and roots; as well as learning the function of these parts.  

• Using a microscope to investigate the parts of a plant, developing the skill of preparing a sample to view under a microscope. 

• Explore and learn the different parts of a flower, by dissecting a flower. 

• Investigating transpiration and how water moves through a plant, using small tubes called xylem, by setting up an experiment that covers different parts of a plant leaf with petroleum jelly, leaving one plant clear, to measure how much water is transported by leaves. 

• Growing plants, in different locations, and measuring the water they are given, as well as their starting and finishing mass, to demonstrate how plants gain mass through photosynthesis.  

• Testing the different things plants need to grow by depriving growing plants of these (e.g. sunlight, liquid).  

• Designing an experiment to understand if the type of fertiliser, light and liquid impacts on the plants ability to grow (for example: exposing a seedling to different types of light, including green). 

• Investigating pollination by dissecting a flower and examining the different parts and their function.  

• Learning about the role of bees and other insects in transporting pollen and fertilising flowers.