Age 7-8: Darwin's Thinkers
Introducing Darwin's Thinkers
These activities offer a range of opportunities for 7-8 year-old children to think critically. The 'Thinkers' are encouraged to reflect on their findings and pool their ideas. The children will explore how we use plants and investigate how they grow successfully.
Thinkers quick start
- Darwin's Thinkers learning outcomes PDF Word
- Darwin's Thinkers curriculum links (all regions) PDF Word
- Darwin's Thinkers Teachers Booklet PDF Word
- Darwin's Thinkers postcard from Carly PDF Word
- Darwin's Thinkers video download .wmv (68MB) .mov (179MB)
- Darwin's Thinkers video Video
To celebrate 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth, The Great Plant Hunt has been developed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, commissioned and funded by the Wellcome Trust.
What's this?
Teachers need to sign up for a school account - even if you've already registered to get our newsletter.
When you sign up, we'll send you a username and password for your classes to log in with and share photos and data from their Great Plant Hunt activities.
Please use a school email address if you have one - other email addresses will take a little longer to process.
You must log in to:
- Change your details or year group
- Send us your photos
- Moderate photos
- Send in tips and tricks
- Assign teachers to year groups
New visitor? Register here
Photos
Every week, we'll award one stunning image the prestigious 'Photo of the Week' grand title! Winning photos will appear on The Great Plant Hunt home page in the treehouses and in the photo album.
Send us your photos!Sign up for an account to get your school's children uploading photos and entering the competition.
Tips and Tricks
Run a Thinkers assembly
Kick off the Thinkers work with an assembly or classroom presentation! Read the Darwin the Thinker chapter from the storybook and show the Thinkers video of Carly - a real life Plant Hunter who’ll set the children their challenge.
Footprints frenzy
Download and print out as many Thinkers footsteps as you need to get the childrens’ work walking all over the classroom.
Fun with leaves
What we enjoyed this year was collecting the leaves gathered on a thinking walk, pressing them in the plant press and using them to make christmas cards! We might experiment with biodegradable festive decorations next year..
More tips & tricksThinkers activities
Thinkers Activity 1: Thinking Walk
In Activity 1, the Thinkers will go on a walk and reflect on how we use plants. Children will carry out detailed observation, and could record the walk by taking photographs or recording audio.
- Duration: 2 lessons.
Activity 1 Resources
Thinkers Activity 2: Living well
In Activity 2, the Thinkers will discuss what's needed for successful plant growth and test these requirements by observation of real plants grown under certain conditions.
- Duration: 2 lessons.
Activity 2 Resources
Thinkers activities, stickers and games
Thinkers Activity 3: The feel good factor
In Activity 3, the Thinkers will collect examples of and research plant products. The collection could be used to create posters about plant uses and how they make us feel good.
- Duration: 2 lessons.
Activity 3 Resources
- Darwin's Thinkers Activity 3 PDF Word
- Darwin's Thinkers worksheet PDF Word
- Plant uses PDF Word PPT Images
- All about seeds PPT
More fun stuff!
There's stickers and an extra fun outdoor extension activity to do or take home.
The fun stuff
Engage the Thinkers with Plant or Not! and other interactive games! They can be used by children independently or on a whiteboard as a whole class.
- Sunflower Survival
- Habitat Challenge
- Plant or not game
Download The Great Plant Hunt games
You can download the individual games to your computer by clicking on the links below - make sure you choose the correct type of file depending on whether you use a PC or Mac. When the download has completed, you will need to unzip the folder to a suitable place on your computer then, follow the simple instructions included in the folder.
PC users Mac usersPlan and run a Darwin’s Thinkers assembly
Planning the Thinkers assembly
Read the Darwin the Thinker chapter from the storybook to set the scene, then show the children the Darwin's Thinkers postcard and video from Carly to get them going on the classroom and outdoor activities. Other useful downloads include a poster of Darwin (A3 or A4), and more footsteps to add to the school poster.
Thinkers assembly resources
- Storybook Chapter 4: Darwin the Thinker PDF Word
- Charles Darwin poster - A3 PDF
- Charles Darwin poster - A4 PDF
- Darwin's Thinkers postcard from Carly PDF Word
- Darwin's Thinkers name graphic PDF
- Darwin's Thinkers footsteps (A3) PDF
- Darwin's Thinkers footsteps (A4) PDF
- Darwin's Thinkers colour certificate PDF
- Darwin's Thinkers black and white certificate PDF