Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Language Arts for Homeschoolers
A Family-Style Unit Study of Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Language Arts Lessons & Activities
In this Language Arts section of the Gardening & Seeds Unit Study, your kids will uncover gardening and seeds stories and complete fun language arts lessons in grammar, phonics, handwriting, reading, and more!
The Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Language Arts lessons and activities have 3 main levels of difficulty to help you meet your child at the level they are currently working, instead of some arbitrary grade level.
The Early Learners lessons are generally for learners working at a Preschool, Kindergarten, or 1st & 2nd grade level.
The Upper Elementary lessons are generally for learners working at 3rd to 5th grade levels.
The Middle to High School lessons are generally for learners working at a 6th to 12 grade levels.
This Gardening Language Arts Unit Study uses Living Books, Read-alouds, and Independent Readers, along with activities and lessons for Poetry, Vocabulary, Grammar, Phonics, and Spelling.
Don’t forget to check out the Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Unit Study History and STEAM sections, too!
Some links in this post may be affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, I may make a tiny commission, at no extra cost to you.
Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds English Language Arts
The following books are about gardening, seed science and dispersal, and the plant life cycle.
Many of these books should be available at your local library. If not, try looking on YouTube for a read-aloud video of the book.
Read Aloud Living Picture Books
Early Learners
A Seed is Sleepy by Diana Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long Absolutely beautiful watercolors and mesmerizing text. Don’t skip this one!
Seeds Move written and illustrated by Robin Page, Caldecott Honoree Looks at many different seeds and the many ways seeds can be dispersed around the world.
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle Learn how seeds are dispersed and how some don’t land in the right locations for them to grow.
The Dandelion Seed by Joseph P. Anthony and illustrated by Cris Arbo. The book not only tells about a dandelion’s life cycle, but also deals with the social-emotional concept of letting go or trying something new, even when we’re afraid.
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert Bold colors and bold text show the process of growing vegetables. Be sure to check out the companion book, Planting a Rainbow, also by Lois Ehlert.
Vegetable Garden by Douglas Florian Simple rhyming text and bold watercolors make this perfect for your youngest ones.
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner and illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal. Part of the Up/Down series by Messner. You can feel the cool dirt between your fingers while you read this book! Very descriptive language! If your kids have never gardened before, this is a must-read.
Elementary and Upper Elementary
In the Garden by Emma Giuliani. This oversized, lift-the-flap book is gorgeous and full of vocabulary and information. It’s not for toddlers like most lift-the-flap books, but rather for elementary and middle school. Highly recommend for your visual, hands-on kiddos!
Family Read Aloud Books
The VanderBeekers and the Hidden Garden by Karina Yan Glaser This is the 2nd book of the Vanderbeekers series, but it’s okay if you haven’t read it yet. This family only has 19 days to turn an overgrown lot into the best garden in Harlem. You’ll laugh and cry while listening to this story and then you’ll love the uplifting ending! This wholesome series is right up there with The Penderwicks!
Or, if your family hasn’t yet read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, check out this amazing audiobook narrated by Carrie Hope Fletcher. Also available on Kindle.
Independent Readers
Upper Elementary
The Mystery of the Traveling Tomatoes (Boxcar Children Mysteries) created by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Middle-High School Level
George Washington Carver: Man’s Slave Becomes God’s Scientist by David Collins A biography in a novel form of one of the greatest seed scientists ever. And the inventor of peanut butter!
Writing
Grammar
Copywork and narration are real-life ways to work on grammar skills. Use the FREE Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Copywork and Narration pages from the Free Resource Library.
There are Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Copywork and Narration sets for Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle/High School. Each set has 4 days of work: 2 narration and 2 copywork. Select the set that is best for your child’s ability.
After your child has written the sentence from dictation, let her see the original to check it with her work. Have her correct her work, so that she knows how it should look. Then have him re-write the selection in his very best handwriting using the printable.
Research Writing
Gather a few beans seeds (just dried beans from the grocery store will work just fine.) Lay your seeds on some moist paper towels in a sunny location. Be sure to dampen the paper towels every day. Once the seeds have sprouted, plant them in some potting soil.
Have your kids use the Gardening Discoveries with Seeds: Seed Observations Journal to record the daily changes they see in their seeds and sprouts. You will find 3 different levels of Seed Observations Journals in the Free Resource Library.
Critical Thinking Writing for Middle & High School Level Students
Have your student research GMO (genetically modified organism) and non-GMO seeds. Then have them write a 7 paragraph paper that outlines the differences between the two, and have them include their opinion on whether GMO seeds are worthwhile or not.
Poetry
Early Learners and Upper Elementary
Have your kids learn the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. Some sources say that this rhyme was originally about England’s Queen Mary I (also known as Bloody Mary), but other evidence points to it being about Mary, Queen of Scots.
Original 1744 Version
Mistress Mary, Quite contrary,
Tom Thumbs Pretty Song Book
How does your garden grow?
With Silver Bells, And Cockle Shells,
And so my garden grows
Modern Version
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
Public Domain
Middle & High School
This poem by Muriel Stuart (1885-1967) gives us a lovely vision of the life and potential inside of seed.
HERE in a quiet and dusty room they lie,
Faded as crumbled stone and shifting sand,
Forlorn as ashes, shrivelled, scentless, dry –
Meadows and gardens running through my hand.
Dead that shall quicken at the voice of spring,
Sleepers to wake beneath June’s tempest kiss;
Though birds pass over, unremembering,
And no bee find here roses that were his.
In this brown husk a dale of hawthorn dreams;
A cedar in this narrow cell is thrust
That shall drink deeply at a century’s streams;
These lilies shall make summer on my dust.
Here in their safe and simple house of death,
Sealed in their shells, a million roses leap;
Here I can stir a garden with my breath,
And in my hand a forest lies asleep.
Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-seed-shop-by-muriel-stuart
Spelling
If you don’t have a regular spelling word curriculum, use the Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Vocabulary Cards from the Free Resource Library for your kids’ spelling this week.
Early Learners
Thread letter beads onto pipe cleaners to practice spelling your words this week. You can use big letter beads or small letter beads.
We have these lowercase letter beads at our house and they are a great size for younger fingers. The small letter beads are readily available at craft stores in the kids’ craft & bead section.
Vocabulary
Use the Gardening: Discoveries with Seeds Vocabulary Cards. You will find them in the Free Resource Library. There are 4 levels of cards in the Free Resource Library for all of your learners: Preschool, Early Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle & High School. Use the level that best fits your students.
Folktales
Jack and the Beanstalk is a famous folktale about a boy who sells the family’s only cow for some “magic” beans. The first published version of this folktale was called The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean. There have been many variations of this story; Edna St. Vincent Millay even wrote a poem about it (The Bean-Stalk).
Here are a couple of different ones:
Jack and the Beanstalk by Paul Galdone
Jack and the Beanstalk by Steven Kellogg
Waynetta and the Cornstalk by Helen Ketteman and illustrated by Diane Greenseid
Jack and the Beanstalk and the French Fries by Mark Teague
Or watch the classic version from Children’s Best Stories on YouTube
Many of the printables for our unit studies are available for FREE in the Free Resource Library as INDIVIDUAL downloads for subscribers. As a convenience for you (and to support my ability to continue to create more resources for you), you can also get the printables in ONE Download from the WCH Resource Store.
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Product on saleFamily-Style Gardening Unit Study Bundle (Discoveries with Seeds)Original price was: $25.00.$15.00Current price is: $15.00.
More Ideas for Your Gardening Unit Study:
Get this Huge Gardening Activity Pack from my friends over at The Art Kit.
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