Growing Plants Topic

A wonderful picturebook about the desire for control and tidiness, and the wonders that can occur when we accept a little mess and freedom into our lives.

Ana builds a beautiful garden on the edge of her town but is determined to keep the disorderly wild out, so she builds a boundary wall to separate the two. She wants her garden to be perfect, full of only the sweetest-smelling flowers, leafiest trees and tastiest fruit and vegetables. Any seeds that are not absolutely perfect get thrown away into the wild. The plants begins to wilt and both people and animals stop bothering to visit. Until eventually, Ana sees some sunlight beaming from over her wall and decides to climb and see what is on the other side. As soon as she sees the beauty and unrestrained nature of the Wild, helped along by all her imperfect seeds, she decides that maybe it is time to start removing some bricks from her wall.

Previous Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho returns with his well-loved character Luna. This time, Luna is exploring the magic of gardening.

Luna is impressed by the community allotment when she visits with her family.  Luna takes time to wonder about each seed she encounters – where in the world it came from and what it will turn into. With the help of Grandpa and Nana from Jamaica, Luna realises that every new seed planted will have its own story to tell.

This is a really beautiful picture book celebrating nature, gardens, community, the interconnectedness of humanity and the importance of stories. Fiona Lumbers’ artwork is stunning, drawing out the elements that most capture a young child’s imagination with an abundance of colour, while also contrasting the vibrancy of the community garden with the grey, surrounding cityscape.

This wonderful gardening-themed story is an essential story for modern classrooms and home libraries.

This popular picture book tells the story of fussy eater Oliver, who will not eat anything but chips. One day Grandpa sets him a challenge that helps him to learn to try new foods from the vegetable patch and Oliver is surprised by what he finds out.

A picturebook telling the true story of Wangari Maathai, who who encouraged Kenyan women to plant trees to improve their lives and their environment. In time, the women used the branches from their trees to fence their animals, the leaves to ripen their bananas and the fruit to feed their families. As the planting movement spread, slowly the deforested Kenyan landscape became green with trees again. Today, more than 30 million trees have been planted throughout Mama Miti’s native Kenya, and in 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Muta Maathai has changed Kenya tree by tree-and with each page turned, children will realize the power of planting trees as well as their own ability to positively impact the future.

Inspired by his father’s passion for trees, Ken Wilson-Max’s picturebook is a delightful introduction to conservation and care for the natural environment.

Eve is lively and thoughtful, living at the edge of a big, old forest. She loves everything about it, the trees most of all, especially the Baobab, the African “tree of life”. On her birthday, Eve and her parents visit Grandma, deep in the forest, where she gets a magical surprise. Unwrapping the bark from around a parcel that Grandma has carried to a special place, she finds a Baobab seedling to plant and take care of. Following family tradition, it will grow next to the trees that her father, grandma and great-grandma nurtured, connecting her forever with the forest she loves.

The bold, rich colours used to illustrate the book joyfully conjure the heat, the vibrant flowers and the many shades of green to be found in the forest.

This is perfect to share with Early Years and Key Stage 1 classes to help young children understand that everyone can play their part in preserving the natural world. Facts about trees are included are at the end, providing a good starting point for finding out more.

Follow the journey of a tiny sycamore seed as it becomes a sapling and then grows over time to become an enormous tree that houses all sorts of life. This is a gentle and lyrical text with beautiful illustrations.

It’s not easy being the smallest in the family, like Titch. But Titch soon discovers that even something as tiny as a little seed has the potential to grow into a plant that is very big indeed. Titch is a story for anyone who knows what it is like to feel small.

If you’ve ever watched a dandelion seed float away on the breeze and wondered what happens next, Fluffy, Flying Seed by Mary Auld is the perfect book to explore that journey!

This non-fiction book follows a tiny seed as it drifts through the air, eventually landing and growing into a beautiful wildflower. The story is told in the first person, making the seed’s adventure feel even more engaging for young readers. Along the way, key facts about nature and plant life are introduced in a way that’s easy to understand without feeling overwhelming.

A real highlight is the giant fold-out poster at the back of the book, which lays out the entire life cycle of the dandelion in a clear and visual way. Plus, there’s a fun I-Spy activity where children can search for meadow creatures hidden in the pages, prompting them to think about whether these animals are active during the day or night.

This book is a great choice for primary-aged children, whether they’re learning about plants in the classroom or just curious about the world around them.

Ever wondered how fruit starts to grow? This fun, lift-the-flap book guides you through the parts of a flower, how different pollinators support the plant life-cycle and how other parts of plants are used in our food. There is a great mix of scientific detail and engaging story-telling and this book is a great accompaniment to primary science topics about lifecycles and growing plants.

The information is presented attractively in bite-size chunks, making it accessible for children across the primary age-range, and the illustrations are colourful and eye-catching.

This would be a great text to use as a model when writing explanations about plant life-cycles, and there are step-by-step instructions at the end of the book for conducting your own pollination investigation.

This non-fiction book introduces the parts of a plant for KS1 readers. Learn all about common wild and garden plants, including flowering plants, vegetables and trees. Investigate the basic structure of plants (including roots, stems, trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, petals and fruit). This series covers theNational Curriculum programme of study for science at Key Stage 1.