Effective instruction requires continual assessment of student understanding to identify and redirect misconceptions. This is particularly important when dealing with topics that seem straightforward to the teacher but may go beyond the personal experience of many students, such as the life cycle of flowering plants. Life cycles are a core topic in the K-4 national science education standards and are included in many state science standards. This article demonstrates a quick and fun assessment teachers can use to check student understanding before and after studying plant life cycles. (Contains 3 figures, 2 resources and 1 online resource.)