Botany
updated July 13, 2024
Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!
This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.
This page has helpful links and LOADS of free resources to help you plan your fifth grade year. Enjoy!
Mission Statement - Consulting Services - Lending Library
Botany I & II
for Class 5/6
Pinterest - Renee Schwartz My curated collection of visuals! Browse sample main lesson book pages, watercolor paintings, chalkboard drawings, etc. for
Botany.
There is a lot of content to cover in Botany, so this is can be done as one block or two. If you prefer one block, I would suggest only using
my first block's notes (below). If you prefer two blocks, you can use the Thomas Elpel
materials to go into more detail. This second Botany block can be done in 5th grade or 6th. Please do note that these resources are for teaching Botany in North America.
FREE eBooks at the Online Waldorf Library Excellent resource! Published Waldorf curriculum books provided here in PDF format for you to download, keep, and read... for free!
Sample Lessons and Free Curriculum
Other Helpful Links
BLACKBOARD SKETCHING book
by
FREDERICK WHITNEY (1908) available online for free - with step by step directions and illustrations
How to Bind a Main Lesson Book
Science Teaching in a Rudolf Steiner School: The Task and the Method
article published in Child and Man, Volume 1, #7, June 1949 (England)
Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools: Classes 1 to 8
by Thomas Wildgruber has painting suggestions for the following:
Bulb plant, p.239
Annual flowering plant, p.240
Mushrooms, p.241
Ferns, p.242
Larch and fir, p.243
Pines, p.244
sample chalkboard drawing to introduce the Botany block
if you're in Southern Illinois, check out this blog post from Illinois Botanizer (Chris Benda) about
7 Amazing Spring Wildflower Hikes in Southern Illinois,
with links to PDFs
Luscious Books About Plants
my blog post - brainstorming resources
A Seedy, Late-Night Adventure
(podcast, 34 minutes)
Science Vs
the Beale Seed Experiment, one of the longest-running science experiments in the world!
How Rebuilding Forests Helped Pangolins, Orangutans and People
The New York Times - Jul 12, 2024
The Boy Who Grew a Forest: The True Story of Jadav Payeng
by Sophia Gholz
it would be a lovely project to help with reforestation, instead of always starting a garden, for Botany
Books to Buy
A lot of options here, but I strongly recommend going with Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac's Keepers of Life: Discovering Plants through Native American Stories
and Earth Activities for Children, plus Thomas Elpel's excellent plant identification resources: Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification,
Shanleya's Quest, and the
Patterns
in Plants Card Game.
for block I
for block II
For an all-year round option, that begins in the fall, I strongly recommend New Eyes for Plants: A Workbook for Observing and Drawing Plants
by Margaret Colquhoun. It is simply incredible! Very Waldorf-y. Rigorous, yet beautiful.
Donna Simmons's original Botany block suggests that you purchase her book,
plus Eric Fairman's Path of Discovery volume 5: Grade 5, Keepers of Life, and The Living World of Plants: A Book
for Children and Students of Nature by Grohmann, although she notes that this book may seem strange to some since he is an anthroposophical botanist.
She also provides
a sample four week schedule for this main lesson block -- and mentions some additional resources -- as follows:
Week 1 - What is a Plant?
Day One - General introduction to plants - similarities and differences; relationship to light (sunflowers); need for moisture; draw
a plant; Steiner's poem (plant and butterfly); Grohmann
pp.8-10 and 104-111; soak beans in preparation for observing and drawing their growth
Day Two - Choose 'tree friend' to observe and write about; watercolor painting of a flower; plants and the environment; write up 'Plants'; simple overview
of photosynthesis - draw picture; poem 'Kind Hearts'
Day Three - Talk about plants, animals, and people; read aloud The Corn Spirit (Keepers of Life,
pp.3-4); write about 'tree friend'; independent reading (my son
read the section on 'Prairies and Wetlands' from Nature Smart
by Stan Tekiela); observe bean and draw (keep it moist!)
Day Four - Seeds - Talk about seeds; collect 10 different kinds of seed - don't forget spores on mushrooms and ferns; talk about rhizomes (irises)
and bulbs (tulips, garlic) - then label, glue on card, put in folder; correct child's piece on his tree; draw 'Parts of a Plant'; independent reading
(suggestion: One Day in the Alpine Tundra by Jean Craighead George)
Day Five - How Plants Grow - finish any work left over; observe new growth on trees and bushes; talk about annuals, biennials, and perennials;
look at tree rings - talk about and draw; take a week walk - observe how dandelions grow in different environments; observe bean and draw
Week 2 - Seven Plant Families
Day One - Talk about what you did last week; draw bean; draw 'tree friend'; independent reading from
Discover Nature in Water and Wetlands by Elizabeth P. Lawlor
and Pat Archer on wetland mammals
Day Two - Present seven plant families; read Grohmann
pp.34-62; copy list and illustrate; talk about this
Day Three - Fungi, Lichens, and Algae - make spore prints; make clay mushrooms; take a walk and look for
lichens and mushrooms in the woods; independent reading: Nature Smart section on mushrooms; copy 'Fungi'
and 'Lichens'
Day Four - Bryophytes and Ferns - look at pictures in books; make a sunprint with ferns; make a terrarium; independent
reading: Discover Nature Close to Home chapter on lichens
Day Five - Finish up anything left over; draw bean; copy 'Mosses' and 'Ferns and Horsetails'
Week 3 - Trees
Day One - Review what you did last week; Conifers - Observe different conifers (How are they the same, how different?);
collect 5 different kinds of conifer needles; draw a conifer; collect pine cones and examine different patterns. (Look at Conifer Excursion
in Keepers of Life
Day Two - Finish up from yesterday; copy 'Conifers'; independent reading: Discover Nature Close to Home
"The Pine Family"
Day Three - Other trees (angiosperms) - Make different bark rubbings, including from 'tree friend'; collect leaves; look
at silhouettes and bark - take a field guide and identify as many kinds of trees as possible; read from any books about trees
Day Four - Copy "Trees" by Coleridge; independent reading: Nature Smart
"Woodlands"; put leaves into flower press; arrange bark
rubbings and any sketches or notes from this week's observations into folder
Day Five - Trip to botanical gardens (you might want to combine some of the above with this trip)
Week 4 - Focus on flowering plants: vegetables, herbs, wild and cultivated plants
(read the relevant sections from Grohmann)
Day One - Review last week - Monocots and Dicots - Talk about and give examples; talk about grasses - collect different
examples of grasses in seed; talk about wild and cultivated plants; talk about all the kinds of plants which have been cultivated and which
your family uses; independent reading: One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest
by Jean Craighead George. Written assignment
to research: 'How Plants Reproduce'
Day Two - Flower families - talk about cruciferae, umbelliferae, compositae, and rosaceae as four of the important kinds of flower families; find examples and draw
Day Three - What is a Flower? - Grohmann
pp.11-18 and p.63 on; parts of a flower - talk about and draw - cut sunflower
head in half (down the middle) and examine; independent reading: Discover... Wetlands "Butterflies"
Day Four - How do flowers reproduce? - Oral report drawn from written assignment about this; draw; look at bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects
Day Five - Copy over 'How Plants Reproduce' - Finish everything up; get folder in order; correct any work; look through the Kingfisher science book
at section on 'The Plant Kingdom'; have a plant scavenger hunt
Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!
This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.
Read Aloud
A perfect read-aloud for this block is The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly.
Poem
Lovely poems to memorize, or to add to the MLB, are "Trees" by Sara Coleridge, p.135 OR "Plants" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, p.138, both of
The Waldorf Book of Poetry.
List of Stories - Block I
Story #1 - Honey
(our first three stories were designed to overlap with my other group doing the 8th grade Organic Chemistry: Food and Nutrition block)
if you do this in 6th grade and you've already done the Geometric Drawing block, the hexagons / honeycomb geometric drawing in Barbara Dewey's book, figure 11, would
be very pretty for a MLB page or simply use this 12 x 12 inch
hexagon stencil by Heidi Swapp
The Bee Book by Jakob Streit
available FREE online from the Online Waldorf Library
chalkboard drawing for the honeybee
another one
and one more
example of a chalkboard drawing & poem
another beautiful example of honeybee art
Day 1 (introduce):
Drawing from the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek
"The Honeybee" text and illustrations, pp.53-59
"The Buzz on the Bees" article, comprehension questions, and graphing activity about Colony Collapse Disorder - for HW
Day 2 (review from yesterday, extend):
work alongside beekeeper from Dayempur Farm
Day 3 (review from yesterday, extend, summarize, add to MLB)
foam brush - paint gold over hexagon / honeycomb stencil for MLB page background
draw a bee with colored pencils using Dennis Klocek's directions
9 Hive Jobs of Honey Bees article by Hobby Farms
Bee Hive Hierarchy and Activities article by Big Island Bees
look at honeybee mouth parts slide under a microscope
from our set of 25 prepared microscope slides
eat some honey straight from the honeycomb!
Story #2 - The Plant Kingdom
Story #3 - Photosynthesis
sample chalkboard drawing of the Sun
sample chalkboard drawing for Photosynthesis
and another one
Day 1 (introduce):
I have a favorite lesson for this already: Dancing the Relationship Between Photosynthesis and Respiration (PDF)
here (word-for-word) is how I adapted it to a smaller homeschool group, and our science experiments
for Photosynthesis: Hands-On Photosynthesis Lesson blog post
start soaking the dried pinto beans for observation and dissection
we thoroughly wet several paper towels, laid 20 pinto beans on them, folded them in half, and put them in a quart Ziploc bag and wrote the start date on the bag with a Sharpie
Day 2 (review from yesterday, extend, summarize, add to MLB):
check on some of the stickers from the experiment, leave others in place
You can also make a design (or write your name) on a grassy lawn by cutting large shapes out of cardboard, placing
them on the grass, and weighting them down with stones. Leave undisturbed for a few days and then lift them up. Your design
should be "written" in yellow.
Don't leave
the shapes on for too long, though, or you'll kill the grass!
Story #4 - The Circle of Life and the Clambake (Wampanoag - Eastern Woodland)
Algae, Ocean, Seashore, Freshwater, Estuary, Uses of Algae, Plants as Source of Energy for Life on Earth,
Photosynthesis, Energy Flow, Interrelationships, Ecological Principles, Acid Rain, Stewardship of Aquatic Environments
sample MLB page for Algae
and another one
*NEW* Coral Reefs: A Journey Through an Aquatic World Full of Wonder by Jason Chin is an excellent
addition to a conversation about algae; follow with the Coral
Reef Habitat Mat
Coral Reefs
by Jason Chin
Day 1 (introduce):
Keepers of Life:
story (pp. 57-58), independent reading (pp. 58-66), and the
17 comprehension questions (p. 66)
which form the basis of her MLB bullet points/summary
Day 2 (review from yesterday, extend, summarize, add to MLB):
Drawing from the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek
"The Algae" is on pp.102-103 of Algae, Fungi, Lichen, Ferns, Chapter 12
figure 12.1 - Bull Kelp, Fucus (also called "Rockweed")
look at Chlamydomonas slide under a microscope
from our set of 25 prepared microscope slides
"Flagellum Flail" on p.73
We probably would have done "Alluring Algae" except that we didn't need to. By sheer luck and outrageously good timing, we had just spent two weeks setting up an aquarium,
collecting pond water and plant life and tadpoles,
and watching the drama of an ecosystem unfold in our living room. We only expected to find the tadpole-frog metamorphosis interesting
but actually all that was going on in our tank -- plant and animal -- was fascinating!
Dennis Klocek gives suggestions for crayon, watercolor paint, construction paper collage, and modeling beeswax. I had Becca use golden modeling beeswax
to make a Rockweed before drawing it in her MLB.
An Ocean Garden: The Secret Life of Seaweed
Story #5 - Fallen Earth's Stars
(Cheyenne - Plains)
Fungi (Including Mushrooms) and Their Relatives, Lichens, Soil and Nutrient Cycling, The Soil Community, Recycling and Stewardship of Used Resources
sample chalkboard drawing for Fungi
and another one
and one which focuses specifically on mushroom anatomy
another great image of mushroom anatomy!
sample MLB page for Fungi
and another one
sample watercolor painting for Fungi
and another one
sample chalkboard drawing for Lichens
and another one
Day 1 (introduce):
Keepers of Life:
story (pp. 75-76), independent reading (pp. 76-81), and the
14 comprehension questions (p. 82)
which form the basis of her MLB bullet points/summary
Day 2 (review from yesterday, extend, summarize, add to MLB):
Drawing from the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek
"The Fungi" & "The Lichens" are on pp.104-106 of Algae, Fungi, Lichen, Ferns, Chapter 12
figure 12.2 - Fungi, Lichen
look at Penicillium slide and Rhizopus Sporongia slide under a microscope
from our set of 25 prepared microscope slides
make spore prints - we tried this and it DID NOT WORK at first we used king trumpet, portabella, brown beech, and skiitake (all from the grocery store) and got nothing, but when we picked a mushroom from the wild it made a beautiful print!
look at the soaked bean seeds; some of them should have sprouted
observe/draw, dissect/draw, leave some to continue to grow
Story #6 - Koluskap and Malsom (Passamaquoddy - Eastern Woodland)
Mosses, Ferns, and Related Plants; Wetlands; Bogs and Carnivorous Plants; Evolution and Adaptation of Land Plants;
Wetland Values and Stewardship; Fossil Fuels; Energy Conservation; Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming
sample chalkboard drawing for Ferns
sample chalkboard drawing for Mosses
sample MLB page for Mosses
and one which focuses specifically on the life cycle of the moss
cool moss art project!
Janik Coat's Rhymoceros has
a fun illustration for "Mossy" showing Moss Reproduction
Day 1 (introduce):
Keepers of Life:
story (pp. 91-93), independent reading (pp. 93-103), and the
17 comprehension questions (p. 103)
which form the basis of her bullet points/summary
Day 2 (review from yesterday, extend, summarize, add to MLB):
Drawing from the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek
"The Ferns" are on pp.106-108 of Algae, Fungi, Lichen, Ferns, Chapter 12
figure 12.3 - Fern (Fern Prothallium, Fern Prothallium with Green Shoot, Fern Seedling, Rhizome, Old Leaf Stalks, Frond, Root Bud, Root)
and Horsetail (Root, Vegetative Stalk, Rhizome, Spore Capsule)
nature walk to collect ferns - make fern sun prints
if you don't have ferns near you, you can find them at any florist... even at the grocery store
transfer bean sprouts to a jar set up like this one
so that you can continue to observe them growing
Botany is a really good subject for bringing in special guests: grandparents, neighbors, etc.
with knowledge of Horticulture. Becca finished this block with her grandmother -- my mom -- who came to visit us for a week. What a special treat
for the both of them!
We also visited a small new botanical garden near us: the lovely Mandala Gardens in Marion IL.
Story #7 - Why Some Trees are Always Green (Cherokee - Southeast)
Conifers and Related Plants; Coniferous Forests; Trees and Tree Anatomy; Conifer Seeds, Cones, and Needles; Forest Ecology
and Community; Ecological Succession; Forest Stewardship; Solitude and Silence; Fibonacci Sequence
Drawing from the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek
"The Cone Bearing Trees" are on pp.113-116 of Higher Plants, Chapter 13
figure 13.3 - bud whorl (vegetative), branch whorl, spiral placement, scale, sheath, needle, "candle" of new growth, pollen
producing cone (mole), first year immature female cone, second year mature cone (female), winged seeds
figure 13.4 - how to draw the pine tree
look at pine leaf slide under a microscope
from our set of 25 prepared microscope slides
12 x 12 inch Ginkgo Leaf Stencil
Story #8 - The Bitterroot (Salish - Plateau) & Indian Summer (Penobscot - Eastern Woodland)
Flowering Plants and Flowers, Deciduous Forest, Pollination, Seeds, Seed Dispersal, Natural Selection,
Twigs, Leaves, Buds, Bark, Branching, Plant Dormancy, Observation, Sensory Awareness, Forest Stewardship
Leaf Chart - $30.00
Nienhuis Montessori
Drawing from the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek
The Leaf, Chapter 11
figure 11.1 - Willow (also includes terminology: pinnate, lanceolate, cordate)
figure 11.2 - Mallow, Nettle
figure 11.3 - White Oak, Vetch, Clover, Cranesbill, Carrot
Higher Plants, Chapter 13
figure 13.1 - Bean (bean cotyledon, eye, radicle, plumule), Pussy Willow (eye, leaf axil, leaf, pith, cambium, outer bark)
figure 13.2 - Plum (eye, leaf, petal, calyx, pollen, fruit, embryo, pistil)
figure 13.5 - Principles of Tree Growth
figure 13.6 - Branches (lateral bud, leader, terminal bud, dormant basal bud)
Story #9 - The First Basket (Mandan - Plains)
Prairies and Other Grasslands, Grasses, Grassland Stewardship, Grassland Restoration
Summer Prairie Wildflowers and Grasses of Illinois -- we have this coloring poster in its HUGE version, which
Becca colored and then folded up and put in her MLB
this is also where she did a summary of monocots and dicots and added her drawings of her bean as it sprouted and grew
(for this, I also recommend Morning Glories by Sylvia Johnson --
it
has wonderful photographs of a morning glory growing step-by-step)
if you want to sprout a monocot so that you can observe them side-by-side, I recommend corn
look at corn stem (2) and corn root tip slides under a microscope
from our set of 25 prepared microscope slides
look at a grain of rice. can you tell if it is a monocot or dicot? (it's a monocot)
*NEW* Root Systems of Prairie Plants poster ($30)
Story #10 - The Woman Who Lives in the Earth (Chugach Inuit - Arctic) & Waw Giwulk: The Center
of the Basket (O'odham - Southwest)
Plant Survival and Adaptations and Interrelationships, Deserts and Desert Plants, Plants of
Arctic Tundra and Alpine Environments, Plant Interrelationships and Communities, Cacti, Plant Galls
Story #11 - How Fox Brought the Forests from the Sky (Snoqualmie - Pacific Northwest) & The People of Maize (Lacandon Maya - Middle
America)
Temperate and Tropical Rainforests, Rainforest Communities, Values of Rainforests and
Rainforest Plants, Thanksgiving for Gifts of the Rainforests, Rainforest Stewardship, Rainforest Peoples
Story #12 - Waynabozho and the Wild Rice (Anishinabe - Eastern Woodland)
Endangered and Threatened Plants, Extinction, Value of Species, Biodiversity,
Threats to Species Survival, Ozone Depletion, Needs vs. Wants, Recovery of Endangered Species,
Habitat Conservation, Species Stewardship, Native North American Stewardship of Species, Listening to Others
We do not need to highlight Medicinal Herbs in this block because the children in our homeschool co-op have a Medicinal Herbs class every week with the master herbalist at Dayempur Farm.
However, one great resource for this is the cooperative board game Wildcraft... my kids love it!
Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game
I also recommend the excellent books The Healing Power of Herbs: Medicinal Herbs for Common Ailments by Tina Sams,
The Herbal Medicine Cookbook: Everyday Recipes to Boost Your Health by Susan Hess and Tina Sams, and the Herbs with Rosalee website (herbalremediesadvice.org).
List of Stories - Block II
Story #1 - Introduction
"Nature as Wallpaper"
"Story Time"
"The Rain of Time"
"Soup Bubbles"
"The Great Tree"
"Shanleya"
Story #2 - Finding Mint Island (Mint Family)
Story #3 - The Parsley Guardian (Parsley Family)
Story #4 - The Secret Combination to Mustard Island (Mustard Family)
Story #5 - The Pea Islands (Pea Family)
Story #6 - The Island Map (Monocots vs. Dicots)
Story #7 - Navigating the Lily Cluster (Lily Family)
Story #8 - The Grass Islands (Grass Family)
Story #9 - Islands of Fruits and Roses (Rose Family, Plum & Apple)
Story #10 - The Aster Archipelago (Aster or Sunflower Family) and Conclusion
Patterns in Plants Follow-Up Quiz
created by Thomas J. Elpel
There are other botanical families, if you want to continue to explore past the end of Shanleya's Quest.
Some of these are the Borage Family, the Heath Family, and
the Ginseng Family.
Another interesting option is for the teacher to take the online course Learning the Language of Healing Plants,
a 12 session webinar series presented by the Physicians' Association of Anthroposophic Medicine (PAAM). The Year One videos include
Yarrow and Dandelion, Peppermint and Daisy, Birch and Primula,
Pulsatilla and Fragaria, and Chelidonium and Chamomile.
Videos are available separately without one
having to take the entire course. They are approximately
an hour long and are $15.00 apiece. The
Year Two videos will explore Plantain, Horsetail, St. John's Wort, Elder, Lime (Linden), Thistle, Coneflower (Echinacea), Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Rose, Gentian, Arnica and Calendula (Arnica and Calendula will be looked at as a pair). The Year Three
video list has not yet been provided.
The textbook for "Learning the Language of Healing Plants" is Healing Plants: Herbal Remedies from Traditional to Anthroposophical Medicine
by Markus Sommer. The Agriculture Course (available free online at the Rudolf Steiner Archive) is also recommended as additional reading.
If you didn't purchase the Leaf Chart from Nienhuis Montessori
for the first Botany block, you might want to get it now
($30.00).
Another excellent way to spend your 6th grade school year doing Botany is to take up the work in
New Eyes for Plants: A Workbook for Observing and Drawing Plants. Simply use this book as the curriculum for your drawing lessons. Margaret Colquhoun
has written an amazing book which blends Science and Art and takes you through the cycle of one year. Very highly recommended!
My Blog Posts from Teaching This Topic as a Main Lesson in 2017
My Blog Posts from Exploring This Topic in Science Club in 2018
My Blog Posts from Teaching This Topic as a Main Lesson in 2021
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