Art activities are well-suited for kindergarten students who are just learning the fine motor skills necessary to paint, draw or cut out small shapes. Invite students to use colored construction paper to cut out the shapes of the sun, raindrops, grass and flowers and glue them onto a large piece of poster board to display all the needs of a growing plant. Or give oversized pictures of flowers with at least three petals. Ask children to fill in each petal with a picture of one need of the plant. For example, one petal might have raindrops and another might have a picture of a sun.
Circle time is ideal for story-telling and singing songs, but it can also be a time to explore the science of plants' basic needs. Choose songs that describe the basic needs of plants and teach the songs to the students as a way to reinforce knowledge. For a more interactive circle time activity, ask students to act out the process of plant growth from seed to flower using their bodies or props around the classroom. If you have a felt board, cut out and display felt props like raindrops or soil while you read a plant-related story like "From Seed to Plant" by Gail Gibbons or "Jack's Garden" by Henry Cole.
For kindergartners just learning to read and write, creating their own story books is an engaging way to build language arts skills and reinforce knowledge about the basic needs of plants. Build-your-own story books in the shape of a flower might contain pages with fill-in-the-blanks regarding the needs of a plant. The first page might read, "A plant starts with a... " and children fill in the word "seed." On another day, help students create a class poem about how plants grow. Use a simple rhyming format and challenge students to brainstorm rhymes for key words like seed, rain, plant and grow.
Observing how a plant grows is a first-hand way for students to learn the needs of plants. To demonstrate how plants use water, invite students to place white carnations or stalks of celery into cups of tinted or dyed water. As the plant pulls up water, the dye will stain the stem or petals of the plant. Or create an experiment in which students plant seeds in small cups. Place some of the cups on a window sill and others in a closet; give some cups water each day and others only once a week. Ask students to talk about why some seeds grew into healthy plants and others didn't.