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Student plants growing. You can also see our butterfly garden of various plants, but you cannot tell them apart yet because they only have their "first leaves" so far!

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Plant Unit Document File


Unit Overview


Unit Plan Title: Plants

 

Curriculum-Framing Questions

         Essential Question: What are plants?

         Additional Questions: What are seeds made up of? How does a seed become a plant? What are the parts of a plant? What do plants need to grow? How does a plant change through its life cycle? What does heredity mean? Why do people need plants?

 

Unit Summary: Students learn about plants as living things through reading, drawing, and classroom instruction. Students will trace the life cycle of their own plants in the classroom. 

 

Subject Area(s): Science, Language Arts

Grade Level: K-2

 

Targeted State Frameworks/Content Standards/Benchmarks:

         Life Science (Biology) PreK-2

              Standard 1: Recognize that animals (including humans) and plants are living

              things that grow, reproduce, and need food, air, and water.

              Standard 3: Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life

              cycles vary for different living things.

              Standard 4: Describe ways in which many plants and animals closely

              resemble their parents in observed appearance.

              Standard 7: Recognize changes in appearance that animals and plants go

              through as the seasons change.

              Standard 8: Identify the ways in which an organism’s habitat provides for its

              basic needs (plants require air, water, nutrients, and light; animals require

              food, water, air, and shelter).

 

Student Objectives/Learning Outcomes:

         Identify the pats of a seed.

         Define the terms “germination,” “first leaves,” “true leaves,” and

         “photosynthesis”

         Identify the parts of a plant.

         Describe how a plant grows.

         Explain basic plant needs. 

         Discuss the importance of plants to people.

 

Procedures: (see calendar on next page)

 

 

Week 1: Seeds

 

 

 

 

5-Mar

6-Mar

7-Mar

8-Mar

9-Mar

"What I already know about plants" (pre-assessment)

What is a seed? Create seed diagram classroom display

Look inside a seed: Lima bean experiment

Comparing Seeds

Counting seeds

KWL Chart

Parts of a seed worksheet

Students will see the parts of a seed first-hand

Different seeds, different plants

Students dissect fruits and chart the number of seeds

Introduce plant journals

Put lima beans in water to soak over night

 

 

Chart student predictions and findings using a double-bar graph

Week 2: Parts of a Plant

 

 

 

12-Mar

13-Mar

14-Mar

15-Mar

16-Mar

"What Makes a Garden Grow, Grow, Grow"

What are the different parts of a plant?

What do roots do?

Make observations

How does water travel through a plant?

Class discussion of what a plant needs to grow

Collage your favorite plant and label the stem, roots, leaves, and flower

Observe roots (dig up a weed and let students notice what the roots look like, dirt, etc)

Students should make a long journal entry on future observation days, allowing for details

The stem is like a straw activity

Plant our seeds

 

Paper towel and cup of water activity

 

Carnation & food coloring experiment

Assign plant monitor jobs

 

 

 

 

Week 3: Plant Life Cycle

 

 

 

19-Mar

20-Mar

21-Mar

22-Mar

23-Mar

Make observations

First leaves

Make observations

Photosynthesis: The importance of leaves

Make observations

 

students will compare a large group of freshly planted seeds that have sprouted

 

2 plants, remove the leaves from one plant, place both in the sun

 

 

cannot really tell the difference because these are "first leaves"

 

Make a prediction about what will happen to the plant without leaves

 

Week 4: Plants in Every Day Life

 

 

 

26-Mar

27-Mar

28-Mar

29-Mar

30-Mar

Why are plants so important to people?

Plants are food!

Make observations

Final assessment and reflection

Debreif

Discuss oxygen and carbon dioxide in photosynthesis

Plant eating party and group discussion

 

 

 

 

 

Assessments:

         Students have a pre-assessment asking for prior knowledge of plants

         Plant journals will function as formative assessment throughout the unit

         Final assessment test and reflection will be the summative assessment (all attached)

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