Create blooming fantasy

Inspired by old herbarium collections, we create beautiful fantasy plants from simple shapes and objects in Keynote. Discover the blue shoe gerbera, pink snake's labiates or the sparkling diamond dandelion. Let your learners create their own fantastic plants and be surprised by the countless new discoveries they will make. This inspiring lesson is perfect for both primary and secondary school. 

Start with an introduction to the many characteristics of the plant families and, if possible, show some pages from an old herbarium. This analog or digital introduction will give learners a comprehensive understanding and arouse their curiosity. 

Example of an imaginative herbarium of plants with shapes assembled in Keynote.

The aim of this lesson is for learners to merge their knowledge of the characteristics of flowering plants with their own imagination and fantasy. This not only boosts their creativity, but also helps them to develop new approaches that can later be useful when creating detailed graphics, logos and much more in Keynote.

Start by familiarizing the learners with assembling and cutting out figures and making their first attempts in Keynote. They can then start designing a plant. In the example below, you can see how the side view of a flower is cut together from different parts. We recommend using a new slide in Keynote for each new plant.

For the side view of the labiate, parts of a flap, a hat, a lady's shoe, an oval, two keys and parts of an art form were used.

In a final step, the plants are put together to form a herbarium page or a bouquet of flowers. Add labels to the plants and show detailed views of the flower or leaves. There are many more creative ways to showcase the plants you have created. 

There are many ways in which the plants created can be showcased in addition to a herbarium.

The concept of observing something and then reproducing it with abstract shapes gives free rein to the imagination and encourages the creative development of learners.

Field with various plants - made from shapes.