🌱 Year 1 Launches Their New IPC Unit: Green Fingers!

This half term, Year 1 have stepped into the wonderful world of plants as we begin our brand‑new IPC unit, Green Fingers. The children have already shown so much curiosity, teamwork, and enthusiasm — it’s been a joy watching them become little botanists.

🌼 Entry Point: What Do Plants Need to Grow?

We kicked off our learning by exploring the essential things plants need to survive and thrive. Through hands‑on discussion and observation, the children thought carefully about water, sunlight, soil, and air — and then put their ideas into action.

To bring our learning to life, each child planted their own watercress seeds. They carefully sprinkled the tiny seeds, watered them gently, and placed them in a spot where they could get just the right amount of light. Over the next few weeks, the children will be keeping a weekly growth record, observing how their plants change and using their scientific skills to notice patterns.

Already, there’s a real sense of pride as they check on their seedlings each morning.

🍃 Knowledge Harvest: Plant Treasure Hunt

To find out what the children already knew about plants, we headed outside for a plant treasure hunt. Clipboards in hand, the children searched for:

• Plants with five leaves

• Leaves with smooth edges

• Leaves with serrated (jagged) edges

This activity sparked brilliant conversations about leaf shapes, textures, and how different plants can be. The children worked beautifully together, spotting details and comparing what they found.

🌳 Evergreen or Deciduous? Research Detectives at Work

Back in the classroom, the children became researchers. Using books and images, they investigated different plants and trees to discover whether they were evergreen (stay green all year) or deciduous (lose their leaves in autumn).

They loved learning these new scientific words and were quick to apply them when talking about the plants they had seen outside.