FOSS at Home FOSS at Home ® Trees LETTER TO PARENTS The FOSS® (Full Option Science System™) program offers a number of ways to get parents involved in their child’s science education. Included here are short descriptions of several ways to bridge from classroom to home. Dear Parents, Our kindergarten class is beginning a science unit called Trees. We will be observing and comparing the trees in our schoolyard. We will also be caring for a live tree in the classroom and planting it in a few weeks. Your child may come home with lots of information and questions about trees and their parts. You can join in the tree study by taking your child for walks in your neighborhood to observe trees and to compare how they are alike and how they are different. For example, see if you can find two trees of the same kind. How were you able to tell they were the same kind? Which trees lose their leaves in the fall and which keep them all year? Look closely at the leaves. What shape are they? Do the trees have buds, flowers, fruit, or seeds? By making this close examination of trees, you might notice things about trees that you never thought about before. Your child’s homework assignment is to gather some tree leaves to press at school. Please help your child gather six or eight leaves. Put them in a small plastic bag to keep them fresh on the way to school. Thank you. Sincerely, Letter to Parents. The letter to parents can be sent home at the start of a new science module. The letter describes what children will be learning and ways that parents can enrich the science-learning experience. Dear Parents, Our kindergarten class is beginning a science unit called Trees. We will be observing and comparing the trees in our schoolyard. We will also be caring for a live tree in the classroom and planting it in a few weeks. Your child may come home with lots of information and questions about trees and their parts. You can join in the tree study by taking your child for walks in your neighborhood to observe trees and to compare how they are alike and how they are different. For example, see if you can find two trees of the same kind. How were you able to tell they were the same kind? Which trees lose their leaves in the fall and which keep them all year? Look closely at the leaves. What shape are they? Do the trees have buds, flowers, fruit, or seeds? By making this close examination of trees, you might notice things about trees that you never thought about before. FOSS Science Stories. FOSS Science Stories is a series of original books developed to accompany and enrich the FOSS modules. The books for grades K–2 are written in an expository format that presents factual information in a clear and concise manner. The books are designed around instructional photographs that directly relate to the No. 1—Teacher Sheet text, calling attention to particular details, suggesting comparisons, and directing students to think critically about the images. Your child’s homework assignment is to gather some tree leaves to press at school. Please help your child gather six or eight leaves. Put them in a small plastic bag to keep them fresh on the way to school. Thank you. Sincerely, FOSS Trees Module © The Regents of the University of California Can be duplicated for classroom or workshop use. Investigation 1: Fall Trees No. 1—Teacher Sheet Here are some suggestions for using FOSS Science Stories at home. • Expository Readings. The expository readings provide excellent opportunities for students and parents to discuss the science content students are learning in the module. Families can reread the articles together. Specific articles include My Apple Tree, Orange Trees, and Maple Trees. • Extending the Story. See the Science Stories folio in the Teacher Guide for suggestions on how to extend the stories at home. For example, after students read Where Do Trees Grow?, you might assign students one of the following landforms: mountains, valleys, rivers, oceans, or deserts. They can then draw a picture of one or more trees growing in the assigned environments. Students and their families can review the characteristics of different landforms and allow students to look at the photos in the story for reference. Students can then write on their picture, “Trees grow in” or “near” and the name of the landform. Trees 1 Trees TREE-PART BOOKLET Student Sheets and Products. Throughout the module, students conduct various investigations relating to the topic. They complete student sheets and centers where they are asked to draw, color, and/ or cut out things, along with creating various products to explore; they also write or dictate descriptions and observations to accompany drawings. Students should bring the sheets, and/or their science notebooks, and the products they’ve assembled home for families to review and discuss. For example, student sheet number 10, Tree-Part Booklet, is a good opportunity for students to explain and review with parents that a tree has identifiable structures, such as leaves, branches, roots, and a trunk. Investigation 1: Fall Trees No. 10—Student Sheet FOSS Trees Module © The Regents of the University of California Can be duplicated for classroom or workshop use. No. 10—Student Sheet Name ______________________________________ HOME/SCHOOL CONNECTION INVESTIGATION 1: FALL TREES Read this out loud with your child, then do the activity together. Think of a place near your home where there are trees. This should be a place where there are trees, but not too many trees to count. Your street, block, yard, or neighborhood park might be good choices. Without looking, estimate how many trees there are. Ask everyone in your family to guess the number of trees. thinks there are __________ trees. _________________thinks there are __________ trees. _________________thinks there are __________ trees. _________________thinks there are __________ trees. _________________ Next, go outside together and count the trees. Look at the kinds of trees you find. Compare the bark, the leaves, and the shapes of the trees. Answer these questions. • How many trees did you find? • How many different kinds of leaves did you find? • Do you find any animals living in the trees? • What do you find around the trees? Record what you saw. We counted __________ trees. We found FOSS Trees Module © The Regents of the University of California Can be duplicated for classroom or workshop use. Home/School Connections. Home/School Connections are activities developed specifically for the whole family to enjoy at home. For example, in Investigation 1 (student sheet number 33), students survey their family members to see how many trees each of them estimates to be in their yard, block, or local park. When all the estimates are in, they can take a walk with their family to make an actual count. Interdisciplinary Extensions. Each investigation has suggestions for art, language, math, social studies, and science extensions. These are good family activities. For example, after Investigation 2 students can make rubbings of pressed leaves they have collected as they did with bark in Investigation 1. FOSSweb (www.fossweb.com). FOSSweb is an interactive website where families can find instructional activities and interactive simulations specifically designed for each FOSS module. Investigation 1: Fall Trees No. 33—Student Sheet No. 33—Student Sheet NOTE: All student sheets, including the Letter to Parents and Home/ School Connection, are available in FOSS Teacher Guides and online at www.fossweb.com. They are also available in Spanish. See Teacher/ Parent Info Section: Home/ School Connection on page 4 of this folio. 2 NOTE: Pages 3 and 4 of this folio can be photocopied and sent home for parents to read. Those pages provide information on the resources for students and their families on FOSSweb. full option science system FOSS at Home FOSSWEB (WWW.FOSSWEB.COM) The FOSS program maintains a resource-rich website for students and their families and friends. To explore the resources available for the Trees Module, first enter www.fossweb.com in your browser. The FOSS website requires plug-ins for your browser. We recommend that you click the “Test Your Browser” link at the bottom of the home page before you begin to ensure your computer has the minimum requirements. Click the grades K–2 icon to get a menu that links to each of the K–2 modules. There you can choose Trees and travel to a wealth of information and activities specific to this module. ACTIVITIES In the Trees Module, you’ll find an activity called Who Lives Here? Students match cards to find out what kinds of animals live in different types of trees. Before introducing children to the FOSSweb activity, you might ask, • What kind of animal do you think might live on or around a redwood tree? A pine tree? A tree in a rain forest? • Do you think a turtle could live around a tree? A squirrel? An ant? Why or why not? At the computer, have children help you match cards. When you match two cards, you get information about where in the tree the organism lives. Show children the tree choices: cypress, redwood, and Douglas fir. As you do the activity, help children keep a list of the organisms they find for each tree. When you make all the matches, you get a list with information about all the creatures that can be found on the three trees. Once you have been successful together, have children try again on their own. You might encourage children to find out more about the trees and organisms as an extension. Trees 3 Trees PHOTO GALLERY In the Photo Gallery section, you can view images of trees and the wood that comes from them. You can use the images to compare the trees and wood. Ask students if they have observed any of these trees in their neighborhood or if they have seen the wood used in furniture and other objects. MOVIES The Movies section includes people working with wood in various ways, such as carving, building structures, or making furniture and other wooden objects. WEBSITES The Websites section includes links to sites that can extend and enrich children’s experiences with the Trees Module. Teacher/Parent info Section VOCABULARY In the Vocabulary section, you will find the glossary words and definitions used in the Trees Module. They are provided in English and Spanish. Resources This section includes an annotated list of books, videos, and software recommended for the Trees Module. You should be able to find many of these titles at your local library. HOME/SCHOOL CONNECTION The Teacher/Parent Info section includes the Home/School Connection that describes ways for families to do science together. For example, in Investigation 3, families can monitor the changes to trees in their neighborhood throughout the seasons. They can look for signs of life in trees, and watch for the emergence of leaves, fruit, and seeds. Look in this section for a downloadable PDF file, including the Home/School Connection files and a letter to parents. 4 Copyright The Regents of the University of California full option science system 1014218