The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 301–304 · Part 2: Part Second

86. Study of a plant

Goal: Your child observes a plant closely, draws it, describes it, and lists the adjectives used.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 7 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
  • A flowering plant in a pot (a geranium is the book's example)
  • Colored pencils

What's in the book

Section 301 asks the class to bring a blossoming plant and study it, with a model plan for a geranium: where it grows, its care, its stem, leaves and blossoms, and what happens if it is turned away from the window. Sections 302 to 304 ask for a drawing, a written description, and a list of the adjectives used.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Look closely

    Put the plant on the table. Go through the book's questions: Where does it grow? What care does it need? Look at the stem, the leaves, the blossoms: size, shape, color, arrangement.

  2. Wonder together

    The book asks: Of what use are the leaves? the blossoms? the seeds? Why might the blossom be brightly colored? What will happen if you turn the plant away from the window?

    Try it: turn the plant around and look again in a few days. (Plants bend toward the light.)

    The common window geranium first came from southern Africa.

  3. Draw it (Section 302)

    Your child draws the plant carefully, as it really is.

  4. Describe it (Section 303)

    Your child writes a description of 6 to 8 sentences: the whole plant, then the stem, leaves and blossoms.

  5. List the adjectives (Section 304)

    Your child underlines every adjective in the description and copies them into a list. Talk about which ones were most exact.

  6. Check it gently

    Compare the description with the plant itself. Is anything not quite true? Your child fixes it. One fix is enough.

  7. What a good result looks like

    Example (written for this guide, not from the book):

    Our geranium grows in a clay pot on the kitchen windowsill. Its stem is thick and a little hairy. The leaves are round, soft and ruffled, with a dark ring near the middle. The blossoms are bright red and grow in a round cluster at the top of a long stalk. The plant leans toward the window.

    Adjectives: clay, thick, hairy, round, soft, ruffled, dark, bright, red, round, long.

Tip

Wash hands after handling plants, and never eat leaves or flowers of houseplants; some are harmful.

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