Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Language Arts Extension
Idioms
Two peas in a pod and Sweet as a peach are
two idioms based on plants. Make a list of plant idioms and their
meanings.
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Foss Structures of Life Extensions:
Investigation 1
Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Math Problem of the week
Ray and Sandy were in charge of snacks for the math club party. They
decided to make a nuts mix. (Did you know nuts are the seeds of trees and
shrubs?)They made small samples of three nut mixes. Each nut mix included
peanuts, almonds, and cashews.
Can you figure out how many of each kind of nut the put into each
sample?
Nut Mix #1
 There are three peanuts.
 There are three times as many cashews as peanuts.
 The total number of nuts is 15.
Nut Mix #2
 There are twice as many cashews as almonds..
 There are twice as many almonds as peanuts.
 There are 12 cashews.
Nut Mix #3
 The peanuts and almonds add up to 11.
 There are three times more peanuts than cashews.
 The total number of nuts is 14
Foss Structures of Life Extensions:
Investigation 1
Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Begin by estimating what you think the mass is for 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 lima bean
seeds. Write your estimate in the given box. Then, use the Foss balance to weigh
the lima bean seeds. Write the actual weights in the boxes next to your estimates.
Lima bean seeds
5
10
15
20
25
?
Estimated weight of mass
Weighed Mass
Compare your estimate to the actual weighed mass. What did you discover?
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Foss Structures of Life Extensions:
Investigation 1
Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Explore the ways fruits arrive at grocery stores and find out where they come
from. Write a story about it and share with your class.
Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Social Studies
Investigation 1
Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Dry the seeds collected from Part 1.
Create a design on stiff paper or a paper plate. Attach
the seeds with white glue.
Foss Structures of Life Extensions:
Investigation 1
Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Seed Dispersal
Seed
Dispersal
maple tree seed
pine tree seed
birch tree seed
oak tree seed
Foss Structures of Life Extensions:
Investigation 1
Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Language Arts Extension
Take two copies of Bean Life Cycle and cut them apart
to play Concentration. Pairs are only kept if you can
name the plant structure.
Foss Structures of Life Extensions:
Investigation 2
Bean Life Cycle
Name _________________
Date _____________
Willie’s class had one bean. They planted it, and six bean pods grew
on the bean plant. They counted the beans in each pod and made a
histogram.
1
2
3
X
X
X
X
X
X
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1. What was the most common number of seeds they found in their pods?
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2. What was the total number of seeds their plant produced? ________
Next year Willie’s class is going to plant all the seeds. They predict that the average
number of seeds in each pod will be five.
3. If ten of them grow into bean plants, how many wsweeds will the plan
produce?
a. close to 50
b. close to 100
c. close to 300
Write a letter to Willie. Tell him how many seeds his plants might produce next
year. Explain how you solved the problem.
Foss Structures of Life Math Extension: Growing Further
Investigation 2
Name ___________________________
Date ________________________
Materials:
2-liter plastic soda bottle
plastic foam meat tray
sicissors
houseplant ferilizer
seedlings
Take the empty 2-liter bottle and cut the top half off. You will be using the bottom
part as a container to grow your seedlings. Take the meat tray and cut a circle the
size of the inside of the soda bottle. Then cut a hole in the cirlcle ‘float’ for one or
more seedling. Add water with houseplant fertilizer to the bottle container. Place
the circular float on the water. Add seedlings. (The houseplant fertilizer added to
the water will supply the nutrients.) You now have a mini- hydroponic container.
Watch your plants grow and record your observations.
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Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Science
Investigation 2
Name ____________________________
Date ______________________
Comparing Flower Structures
Materials:
A variety of flowers and diagram showing the different parts of a flower.
Activity:
Disect the flowers, look for the variations of flower structures among the
different plants. Record your findings.
Findings:
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Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Science
Investigation 2
Name ________________________________
Date _____________________
Life as a Crayfish!
Write a story about a day in the life of a crayfish. Make sure to include
information about its habitat and eating habits. Be sure to use descriptive words.
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Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Language Arts
Investigation 3
Name ___________________
Date ___________________
Problem of The week
Your class has teamed up with a class in North Dakota as FOSS website penpals. The North
Dakota class just finished recording the movements of their four crayfish in their habitat for 2
weeks. Below is the data they collected and sent. But, as you can see, the data are not well
organized. Your job is to reorganize the data to see if you can predict where each of the North
Dakota crayfish will be on Monday.
1. Reorganize the crayfish information in a more useful chart.
2. Make bar graphs of the data.
3. Predict in which house each crayfish will be on Monday and explain why you think so.
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Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Math
Investigation 3
Name __________________________________
Date ____________________________
Compare the Mass of Crayfish
Determine the mass of each crayfish. Reweigh them periodically to see if there is a
change of mass. If you have babies hatch in your classroom, monitor their mass
and length as they grow.
Crayfish
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Crayfish 1
Crayfish 2
Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Math
Investigation 3
Day 5
Name _____________________________
Date _________________________
How much Elodea will your crayfish need for a month? Begin by predicting how
much Elodea the crayfish will eat in one week. Elodea grows in long strands that
are easy to measure. Record the total length of Elodea placed in the tray, and
measure again a day later, and then a week later. Predict how much will be eaten
in a month’s time.
Prediction for 1 week:
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1 day
5 days
1 month
Elodea eaten
Prediction for 1 month:
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Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Math
Investigation 3
Name _________________________
Date _____________________
Problem of the week
Explorers just discovered a new animal in the forests of the Amazon River! Never before has
anyone in the world seen this organism. They have e-mailed the following information to your
class. How do you think the crail looks?
Feet:
In 9 jumps, you can make 18 footprints. (In a jump, all the feet touch the ground.)
The crail can make 27 jump footprints.
Legs:
The crail’s legs are half as long as its tail.
Length:
The crail’s body is three times as long as its head. The crail’s tail is twice a long as
its body.
Toes:
You have an even number of toes. The crail has an odd number of toes. The crail
has more toes than you do.
Eyes:
The crail has the same number of eyes as you do.
Head:
Your head is rather like a circle. The crail’s head is more like a rectangle. The
crail’s ears are the shape of pyramids.
Habitat:
A crail can hide underwater for hours. That’s why no one has ever seen it before.
It can stay there because its nose is twice as long as its legs.
Activity:
1. On a separate piece of paper, draw what you think the crail might look like. Use your
imagination! All crails have to fit the description above.
2. Explain how you figured out what the crail looks like.
Foss Structures of Life Extensions: Math
Investigation 5
Name ________________________________
Date _____________________
a Crail’s Adventure
Now that you have created your crail, create an adventure for it. Remember to keep the
adventure to a day’s time, use descriptive words, and have a beginning, middle and an
ending.
Foss Matter and Energy Extensions: Language Arts
Investigation 5
Name ________________________________
Date _____________________
Activity:
After observing bess beetles, read the following story, it is unfinished. Complete the story by
adding what you know about the care of bess beetles. Include observations you have made
about the bess beetles and/or any questions you have about them.
The Life of Bess Beetles:
Did you know that one out of every four animals in the world is a beetle? Beetles crawl.
Beetles fly. Beetles dig. Beetles live all over the world, except in the very cold Antarctic. Bess
beetles are a kind of beetle that is common in the eastern United States. They can be found as
far north as Canada and south from Texas to Florida.
Bess Beetles are also called betsy beetles, patent leather beetles, and passalid beetles.
Whichever name you choose, they all have the same structures. A bess beetle is an insect, so it
has three body parts: a head, thorax, and abdomen. Each part has a strong covering. Every
beetle has two pairs of wings. The hard, black, outer wings are called the elytra. Under the
elytra are two more wings. These delicate wings fold up neatly when the bess beetle is not
flying. On its head it has a small horn, two long antennae and two strong jaws, called
mandibles. Beautiful gold fringe covers the edges of the body and two of its legs.
Look inside an old log and you might find a group of bess beetles. A rotting stump from an elm
or oak tree is their favorite place to live. Bess beetles are wood recyclers. They chew up the
soft, damp wood, making tunnels as they chew. Then fungus grows on the wood. The beetle
eats the fungus that grows right inside their tunnels. Through this process bess beetles break
down wood.
Bess beetles live in a large group, but the stay in pairs to make a family. Bess beetles begin life
as eggs. The parents carry the eggs through the tunnels in their mandibles. When an egg
hatches, a squirmy larva emerges. The larva looks like a small worm or caterpillar. Both
parents chew wood to feed the young larva. The larva eats and grows and then goes into a
resting stage, called the pupa. After time, a beetle emerges from the pupa. Young beetles stay
with the family to help feed the younger brothers and sisters. A family may live its whole life in
the dark tunnels, never seeing any light.
Bess beetles have lots to say. Turn a beetle over and look closely when it makes sounds. Often
you will see the elytra rubbing against the abdomen. Some sounds warn of danger. Some
sounds help the beetles find each other in the darkness.
Bess beetles are easy to keep in a classroom…
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Foss Matter and Energy Extensions: Language Arts
Investigation 5