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With summer coming to an end, teachers everywhere are getting their classrooms ready for the upcoming year and working on new ways to engage their incoming students. This often includes incorporating 'realia,' or real-life objects, as part of dynamic lesson planning.
Orchids have fascinated writers and artists for centuries and we know your students will love them too! You can quickly transform your school or home classroom into a tropical oasis of learning with limitless potential. Here are a few ideas on how to incorporate mini orchid plants into your next lesson plan.
1. Learn About the Science of Plants
Assign a mini orchid to each of your students and instruct them to keep a plant journal tracking the care and growth of their plant.
Since each plant is different, your students can compare when buds bloom, when the flowers fall, and how the overall health and appearance of their orchid changes over time.
This science experiment can continue throughout the entire school year as your students learn about the orchid's lifecycle and how different variables — sunlight, watering and fertilizer — affect the growth of their plant.
2. Enhance a Discussion of Geography and Climate
The Phalaenopsis orchid is native to countries like China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.
Providing your students with their own mini orchid plant can add some intrigue and authenticity to your next geography unit as you discuss the climate, traditions, culture and plant life in other lands.
3. Have a Unique Craft Project
In tandem with your science or geography lesson, you can also make time for a fun craft that allows your students to express their artistic side.
Encourage them to decorate their mini orchid pot in whatever fashion they feel best represents them. By making their pots their own, your students will be inspired to take on even more ownership and responsibility for their plants.
4. A Unique Spin on the ‘Class Pet’
Class pets are great for teaching children how to care for a living thing. But keeping a guinea pig or hamster in your classroom can cause unnecessary complications with allergies or worse if something happens to your students’ beloved critter.
Giving each of your students a mini orchid plant can help impart the same important care lessons, while also giving them something they can take home to keep as their very own. (Save money when you order your mini orchids in bulk!)
You can continue the lesson throughout the school year by having students report back on the changes they’ve seen in their orchids.
We hope you find inspiration from this list. We'd love to hear about which ones you tried as well any new ideas you came up with for incorporating mini orchid plants into your lessons!
