With most main lesson blocks, we start with a chalk drawing or two, or three or more! Sometimes it sets the vibe for the lessons that follow and excited the students, and other times it serves as a lesson reminder that’s helpful for the during of the block.

The first lesson in the botany block is on the complete plant. Starting with the whole and moving to the parts is a profound concept found in Waldorf and practiced in each block.

The first lesson, after examining the whole of the plant kingdom with a complete plant, is on fungi and mushrooms. While fungi and mushrooms are not plants, as they are part of the fungus kingdom, they are necessary in botany as both decomposition of plant matter, and the decomposition of rocks into soil would be impossible without them.

The first botany lesson on simple plants is algae, the simplest life form in the plant kingdom, yet absolutely essential to the sustaining of animal life on this planet.

This is an exciting turning point in the evolution of the Plant kingdom: Lichen. Fungi and algae team up to create soil. Together these two organisms form a symbiotic relationship, each serving the other so they can survive together.

Mosses appear delicate but they are surprisingly hardy with the ability to survive periods of drought. Primarily, though, you’ll find them in cool moist shady areas.

We enter the carboniferous time period of earth’s history as we explore the prehistoric horsetails. There was once a time when the towering trees of the carboniferous period were horsetails and ferns.

Still in the carboniferous period with ferns. What’s especially nice about these lessons is that ferns are easy to find as house plants or shady forested areas. Additionally, their rhizomes and spores on the backside of their leave are easy to identify.

Welcome to the world of trees! The towering coniferous forests of ferns and horsetails now has a new member member with hard barks and cone bearing seeds. Forests of conifers now dominate the skies.

Bulbs and lilies are presented as plants that hold life’s forces deep within the earth, storing light and warmth during the dark seasons so they can burst forth with delicate blossoms when the world awakens in spring.

Grains and cereals are introduced as gifts of the sun, standing tall and golden, sustaining humanity by transforming sunlight and soil into nourishing seeds.

every culture around the world has a staple food that is nourishing and calorie dense and is part of the monocot family. Familiar ones will be the grains and cereals, by bamboo, palms and plantains are also monocots.

We added a couple bonus lessons to our Botany Main Lesson Block in the Fall of 2024 to include some lessons inspired by the book Botanicum.

Broadleaf trees are deciduous or evergreen trees with wide, flat leaves that capture sunlight efficiently for photosynthesis. They include species like oaks, maples, and beeches, often producing flowers, fruits, and nuts as part of their life cycle.

Flowering fruit trees produce blossoms that later develop into fruits, playing a crucial role in plant reproduction. These trees, such as cherry, apple, and peach, are valued for both their ornamental beauty and edible harvests.

It's a quintessential rite of passage to grow plants from seeds, and now you can watch the growth of the roots with this Root Observation kit from Nature-Watch.

Grow your own herb garden using supplies you probably already have around the house. This DIY indoor Mason Jar herb garden was easy to do and you can make one, too!

I can't say enough about the Nature-Watch kits we've used so far. They are well designed and take all the hard work out of doing hands-on projects and replaces with simple projects that are easy to do with great results.

One day when I was only five years old, my mom caught me sneaking the sprouts. It was as if I was sneaking chocolate! They were so good, and I kept eating them before they were ready. Fast forward nearly four decades, I'm at it again!

Curious to see what kitchen scraps look like after three weeks in the dirt? It's probably what you'd expect, but each time I turn over soil that's been composted, I'm always surprised and thrilled at the same time.

Growing mushrooms is watching nothing happen for weeks and then suddenly they emerge and grow overnight doubling in size in days. That's what happened with our Mushroom Adventure Grow Edible Mushrooms kit from Gardeners.

There are two ways to compost: The right way and my way ;) I don't compost with the intention of balancing nutrients; I compost primarily to keep our kitchen waste from ending up in the landfill.

Making spore prints turned out to be a really easy educational project that has creative potential. You want to harvest or use mature mushrooms. You may choose to remove the cap or keep it in place.

This project was more time consuming than I expected but it turned out fabulously in the end. I’m using Sculpey Ultra Light Oven Bake clay, acrylic paints and an assortment tools and materials I had on hand to form these mushrooms.

This is the oyster mushroom grow kit. Available by Back to the Roots. This is one of our most enjoyable passive hands-on projects in our botany unit.

Self directed learning never looked so good! We got these samples from a Nature-Watch kit called Forest in a Box. It came with 20 forest specimens enclosed in zipper bags with cards describing each sample.

I can't tell you how much we love the kits we got from Nature-Watch. The one I'm sharing to day is a classroom kit for 25 students called Forever Forests.

For our Botany Main Lesson block, we studied conifers. As part of the lesson activities we decided to weave pine needle baskets.

I'm once again impressed by the kits by Nature-Watch. They are creative, innovative and educational, not to mention environmentally responsible. These seeds are sourced from Costa Rica and are hand-drilled by local artisans.