Today, I’m sharing a simple version of spring STEM activities for the youngest members of your household. This flower dissection lesson plan is perfect for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
The best part?
It only requires flowers (and a magnifying glass, if you happen to have one handy!), so it qualifies as a no-prep STEM activity. It’s the perfect addition to your spring STEM activities!
Flower Dissection Lesson Plan
This simple science activity encourages scientific exploration during flower dissection. This activity can be done with all ages, but preschoolers and kindergarten kids will have the most fun with this science activity.
Try this in a science center, or set it up for one of your spring science lessons.
What are the Best Flowers to Dissect?
There are a lot of flowers to dissect, but the best flowers to dissect are flowers that have distinct parts and that are not poisonous!
Any flower with distinct petals, leaves, stems, and other parts of the flower are useful for dissecting.
We dissected an oleander flower in this activity, but you can also try dissecting a rose, a tulip, a buttercup, a dahlia, a daisy, a hyacinth, or any other type of flower you can get your hands on.
Parts of a Flower Diagram
The American Museum of Natural History has a detailed diagram of the parts of a flower. Take a look at this diagram before dissecting your flower and compare the parts of your flower with their diagram.
You can even print the flower diagram and use it alongside your flower dissection experiment.
Flower Dissection for Kids
This flower dissection activity works really well as part of a larger part of a flower lesson. You can make this 3D parts of a flower model after dissecting your flower to solidify the knowledge learned in this lesson!
Supplies for the Flower Dissection Activity
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
- Magnifying glass (affiliate)
- Flowers (if you have more than one kind, that is even better)
- Parts of a flower diagram (we used this one)
How to Dissect a Flower
Before starting our flower dissection activity, Bo and I examined the diagram and talked about the parts of a flower.
I didn’t go into as much detail as the diagram with her, as she wouldn’t have understood all of the vocabulary. I stuck to fairly simple names for the flower parts, like pollen, stems, petals, etc.
I instructed Bo to take apart the flower (gently) and examine the pieces one at a time. We then compared how our flower was different from the picture.
The biggest difference between our flower and the example diagram was that our flower didn’t have filaments or any visible pollen.
Bo also found out that by rubbing the flowers across the base of the box, she could use the petals as paint. I wasn’t as thrilled with this discovery as she was.
More Ways to Learn with Flowers
Flower Coloring Mixing Activity for Preschoolers
