Resource 6: Story wheel of the life cycle of the bean

Teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils

The story wheel is a useful tool because it:

  • shows the stages in the life cycle of plants;
  • helps the pupils work from the known to the unknown, that is, from the children’s stories to the pictures to the labels;
  • provides the pupils with an organising diagram summarising the life cycle of any plant;
  • shows the logical sequence of the stages in the life cycle.

It also shows the pupils that they can start the story at any place in the wheel and follow it through all the stages.

The various stages of the story wheel have been mixed up on the worksheet below. Ask the pupils to cut them out and arrange them in the correct places to test their understanding.

Adapted from: Primary Science Programme – Teaching the Topic Plants

Resource 5: Pupils’ models of animals from scrap

Section 2: A closer look at plants