Heredity in the Garden!

I have been working on ways to incorporate NGSS science standards in the garden. School gardens are a great way to get students engaged in a whole new way. Whether it is container gardens or a raised bed, you can find great ways to get kids learning FOSS concepts....NGSS standards and more!

Here is what we did this week...we asked the questin "How are young plants and animals like, but not exactly like their parents? I told them to look at a partner as I  turned over cards that read...
1. What is your length of eyelashes? long or short
2. What kind of eyebrows do you have? bushy or thin
3. What are the shape of your lips? large, medium, or thin
4. Are your earlobes attached at the end or does it hang down?
5. Do you have freckles?
6. Do you have dimples?
7. Do you have a widow's peak?
8. What color are your eyes?
9. What color is your hair?
10. When you do I love you in sign language...is your pinkie the same size as your pointer?

They have so much fun sharing. Then, we talk about how you get those traits. That those attributes get passed down to us by our parents and grandparents and beyond? I then show them a picture of my sister and I. We have different dads, but have very similar features. I let them tell me how we are alike... then let them know we have the same mom, but not dad. I also share the following picture to let them figure out how animals are also similar, but not the same. We share our ideas.

 Then...I let them know that we are going to go out in the garden and see how one type of plant is similar to the same seed that was planted. We look at our pea plants...our pumpkin plants...then we look at the zucchini. They look very similar? Why? They are both part of the squash family. They are related. We try to figure out their differences to tell them apart. I love that the kids are figuring out how to look at leaf structures and tell the plants apart!

Our Pumpkin plants...

Our cucumber plants...

The sheet that we did together! They can understand heredity and traits!
Here is the freebie to go along with what we did this week!
Download Heredity Freebie Here