Teaching kids plant ID's

[Cavegirl]

I'd like to teach my little one some useful plant id's, some edible and some medical. I thought it might be fun to do it with easy to remember short poems that say something about the look of the plant aswell as its use.

I wondered if anyone knew perhaps of a book containing these types of poems or had any other ideas for making plant id's fun and easy to remember? Perhaps a fun game that gets them used to looking for and recognising local flora without even realising they're doing it.

 

[TallTom]

Making leaf rubbings with crayons.
Scavenger hunts
ID wheels and other fun recourses for young people is available from http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk
And the repeated use and identification of plants will ingrain that information for life, go eat hawthorn, nettles, blackberries, wild garlic etc, making sure each time you do you get them to help ID it.
I have no poems though, and will be keeping a keen eye on this thread for more ideas
Hope that helps

 

[Cavegirl]

Great ideas TallTom, thanks for those

 

[David LaFerney]

Leaflets three let it be - poison ivy. That's the only one I've ever heard.

 

[Harvestman]

Lots of good resources on the Woodland Trust website.