Education for character traits can be challenging. However, Little Pot, the main character in the lesson and a fruit-bearing vessel created by the potter brings clarity and simplicity to the task. Additionally, in these seven FREE lessons, children learn the fruit-bearing cycle and how to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Likewise, the activities perfectly blend fun and learning with understanding. The sixth lesson in this series is about the flower and how we can bloom knowledge that produces the fruit of the Spirit. So, let’s jump into Little Pot’s sixth lesson and continue learning about education for character traits.Read more: 7 Free Lessons in the Education for Character that Blooms Knowledge.
Why you should use Little Pot in education for character.
First, let’s discuss why Little Pot is the perfect tool for teaching character traits. The seven lessons illustrate complex concepts in a way that’s easy to understand. Little Pot’s fruit-growing cycle can teach character traits such as identity, humility, integrity, relationships, and knowledge. Moreover, Little Pot is a tangible reminder of the creator’s love and care for us. Likewise, it symbolizes how God nurtures us, wants a relationship with us, and helps us grow into the people He wants us to be.
When you use Little Pot’s method of fruit growing, you’re helping others understand that character is not fixed or innate but something God cultivates and develops over time. Therefore, using this character education curriculum as a teaching tool develops the skills and attitudes needed to become the vessels God designed us to be. Each week, we will discuss one of the following lesson plans.
- Lesson Plan 1: Identity
- Lesson Plan 2: Humility and How to Contain It
- Lesson Plan 3: Planting the Right Seeds
- Lesson Plan 4: Strong and Upright Integrity
- Lesson Plan 5: Fostering Healthy Relationships
- Lesson Plan 6: Blooming Knowledge
- Lesson Plan 7: Producing Fruit of the Spirit
If you prefer to buy the entire curriculum with all the lesson plans, worksheets, posters, and activities included. Click the green button.
Review the previous lessons covered in our Education for Character.
Review the information in the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth lessons. Before a flower blooms, many steps take place. We began with who we are, a vessel created by the potter. It is important to know our identity. Then, we filled ourselves with humus, the Latin word for humility. Next, we planted the right seed. Fourthly, a strong and upright stem grew, representing our integrity. That stem supports strong healthy relationships. Finally, those relationships lead to new knowledge and information that blooms and will eventually produce the fruit of the Spirit.
Lesson Plan 6: Bloom Knowledge
In this lesson, Students will learn the parts of a flower and gain an understanding of pollination. Likewise, they will connect pollination and how our minds bloom with new knowledge.
Listen to wisdom. Try with all your heart to gain understanding. Cry out for wisdom. Beg for understanding. Search for it as you would for silver. Hunt for it like hidden treasure. Then you will understand what it means to respect the Lord. Then you will begin to know God. Only the Lord gives wisdom. Knowledge and understanding come from him. -Proverbs 2:2-6
What does a flower do?
Under a flower are hard petal-like structures called sepals. The sepal protects the flower. Inside a flower are long tubes with a fuzzy ball on each end. This is called a stamen. The tube part of the stamen is called an anther, and the fuzzy end is called the filament. The stamen makes pollen. Therefore, flowers create a sugary liquid called nectar that pollinators (bees, butterflies, and other insects) love to eat.
The pretty colors and wonderful scent of the petals attract the pollinators. When the pollinators come to eat the nectar, pollen gets stuck on their bodies, and then they carry that pollen to the carpel (or pistil) of the flower. Next, the pollen gets inside the carpel (or pistil).
The top of the carpel (or pistil) is called a stigma. It is tacky, causing the pollen to stick. The pollen then travels down inside the carpel (or pistil) in the part known as the style. When that happens, a seed forms in the bottom of the carpel (or pistil) in the part known as the ovary. Some flowers have only one carpel. Some have hundreds. The following video explains the process well.
The complete curriculum comes with worksheets where students can show their understanding of the functions of the flower.
Connecting Pollination to Growing the Fruit of the Spirit
We have learned that pollination is when pollen is transferred from the stamen to the stigma to reproduce. We now see that a flower’s job is to attract pollinators and form seeds inside new fruit. When God grows the fruit of the Spirit through us, He essentially does the same thing. The knowledge we bloom through our humility, God’s Word, integrity, and relationships will transform into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. The following chart provides a comparison between pollination and knowledge.
|The flower attracts bees, butterflies, and other insects.||When we have knowledge on a topic, we attract others.|
|Insects search for nectar in the flowers.||Just as Proverbs 2:2-6 tell|
us, we are to search for knowledge.
|Pollen lands on the insects as they come and go. It gets left wherever the insects go.||Knowledge lands on us as we humbly read God’s Word, have integrity, and commune with others in relationships. We can leave that same knowledge wherever we go.|
|The Stamen produces the pollen but needs the other parts of the flower to make seeds and reproduce.||We are not able to gain new knowledge on our own.|
|Flowers share their pollen with other flowers.||It is important to share your knowledge with others.|
|Pollen propagates the development of the seed inside.||Our knowledge should propagate the seed of God’s Word|
|Flowers pollinate during different seasons and at different rates and times.||We each gain new knowledge in different seasons and at different rates and times.|
In conclusion, have students share the knowledge and information they have learned from others. They can illustrate what they’ve learned on a flower picture to remind them they are always blooming knowledge.
In the next lesson, we will learn more in-depth about the fruit the flower helped produce. The fruit has important functions to protect and spread the plant’s seed. However, If you can’t wait, purchase the complete curriculum here for just $10.25.
In the meantime, I hope you will sign up for the Fruitful Friday emails and Little Pot’s seven fruit-bearing steps below.
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