Lesson 2 of 21
Lesson Title: What do plants need to survive?
AZ Teaching Standard(s):
SG1S1C1PO2: Ask questions based on experiences with objects, organisms, and events in the environment.
SG1S1C2PO2: Participate in guided investigations in life, physical, and Earth sciences.
MG1S2C1PO1: Collect, record, organize, and display data using charts or pictographs.
MG1S2C1PO2: Ask and answer questions by interpreting simple displays of data, including tally charts or pictographs.
Lesson Outcome:
TSW will identify that all plants need water, space, food and shelter to stay alive.
TSW will understand why all plants need water, space, food and shelter to stay alive.
Evidence:
Daily observations of plants resulting in the collection and organization of data in log book entries.
Big Idea: Living things need each other to survive.
Materials:
Jack and the Beanstalk; 20 - 25 beans, absorbent paper towels, four small plant pots or four large baby food jars, self-adhering
labels, and kitchen plastic wrap (for each group).
SubObjective
Teacher Actions
Participant Actions
√for Understanding
TSW draw
conclusions about
the needs of
plants after
listening to a
story.
 Read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk
to students, stressing unusual way the
bean plant grew.
 Questions may include:
1. Is this the way plants grow?
2. Was the plant alive? How do you know?
 Listen to story.
 Participate in discussion.
 Participate in discussion.
TSW justify plants
as living or
nonliving using
critical attributes.
 Questions to ask students:
 Are plants living or nonliving things? How
 Participate in discussion.
 Explain thinking using critical attributes
 Tell a partner the critical
TSW work in
groups to prepare
plants for needs
experiment.
do you know? (answer: they grow and
change over time).
 Tell students that plants, like all living
things, have needs. A need is something a
living thing must have to live.
 To determine the needs of plants, the class
will work in groups to conduct
experiments.
 Have each group label each pot or baby
food jar with one of the following labels:
no water; no sun; no air; has water, sun,
air, soil; no nutrients (soil) - Fold a paper
towel into fourths.
 Each group plants and waters 3-4 beans in
each pot or jar that has been labeled.
Important: DO NOT water the pot labeled:
“no water.”
 Cover and seal the entire pot or jar labeled
“no air” with plastic wrap.
 Place three -four beans inside the folded
paper towel; wet the towel.
 Put each of the jars or pots and the paper
towel in a window sill or sunny place.
 Place the one labeled “no sun” in a closet
or another place where it will be in
attributes of a living thing.
of living and nonliving, when
questioned.
 Pot plants
 Label using criteria
 Make necessary adjustments to pots in
order to fit criteria.
 Completed pots.
darkness.
TSW collect,
record, organize
and display data
in science log
book.
 The students observe the plants at
approximately the same time every day.
 They make observations in their logs and
chart and date the entries on the growth
of each of the plants.
 Have students help in the construction of a
class chart.
 When the plants have had time to grow,
the students speculate about the needs of
each plant. They give reasons for why the
plants grew or not and what the plants
needed. They also explain how they know
that a plant needs all these things.
no water
day 1
day 2
day 3
day 4
day 5
no sun
no air
 Daily observations.
 Collect and organize data.
 Review data and make speculations
and/or predictions.
no soil
has water, sun, air, soil
 Individual log book entry.
 Class chart.