Plants and You
Sofia Freites
Interest Center for 1st graders
Unit
• I need my students to learn that:
1. Plants have basic life needs
2. Plants grow, change and produce new
plants like themselves
3. Plants have parts
4. Plants can be really interesting!!
Contents
Audiovisual- #1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=gaNj01DQNhk
#2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nRVZPJdXOo&feature=related
#3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYGwgzehf6c&feature=related
#4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJpgMDOZInA
#5 http://youtube.com/watch?v=lp0VnqiTLxs&feature=related
Plant song http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/plantparts.html
Materials- plants (real/fake)
Soil in a bag
fruits
leaves
seeds (different sizes, colors, textures)
flowers
Tree trunk
globe
Printed Material- pictures
books
magazine
maps (Amazon)
10 Task Cards
• With different levels of difficulty
– Activities:
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Building/Assembling tasks
Reading/Writing tasks
Watching Videos
Measuring and Sorting
Using bar graphs
Handling maps and globe
Listening to music, learning new songs
Gardening
Go outside! Record
how many tall trees we have using a bar
graph.
• Compare the amounts of trees. Do you
think we need new plants in our school?
Why?
• Gardening is when you make and take
care of a garden. Now, design you own
garden for this school. Make it colorful and
use different kinds of plants with or without
flowers.
Name: ___________
How many trees
did you find?
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Do you think we need
new plants in our
school? Why?
Draw your garden here
Make your own plant
Let’s decorate our classroom with flowers!
• Choose your materials: clay, leggos, fuzzy
sticks or popsicle sticks
• Name each part of the plant
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Answer these questions:
Which plant part is underground? Why?
Does the stem grow up or down?
What grows on the stem?
What does this plant need to grow?
Name: ___________
• Which plant part is underground? Why?
• Does the stem grow up or down?
• What grows on the stem?
• What does this plant need to grow?
Making water disappear!
Do you like magic? Well here’s your chance
to prove your powers!! Make water
disappear!
You will need: soil, a spoon, plastic bags,
a large cup, a small cup and water
– Put the bag into the big cup. Spoon some soil into
the bag
– Pour water from the little cup on the soil. Wait one
minute.
– Lift the bag carefully. Did the water leak out?
– Would this soil be good for growing plants? Why or
why not?
Name: ___________
• Would this soil be good for growing plants?
Why or why not?
• Why does a plant need soil?
Killer Plants
Not all plants are the same. Some make fruits, some
give us shade and some can kill!!!
Watch this video and get to know some of them. There’s
also a book on dangerous plants that you should
look at before going into a forest!!!
Now it’s your turn to scare people…
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Make a picture of your own killer plant
Describe your plant. What does it look like?
What does this plant need to live?
Where does it live?
What is your plant’s name?
Draw your killer plant here
Name: ___________
• Describe your plant. What does it look like?
• What does this plant need to live?
• Where does it live?
• What is your plant’s name?
Seeds seem different
• Seeds are plants that haven’t started to grow.
Look at the different kinds of seeds we have.
• Look at their color. Sort them by their color.
• How do they feel? Sort them by their texture.
• Use your ruler to measure them. Sort them
by their size
• How are they the different?
• How are they the same?
Name: ___________
Sorting your Seeds
Sort by Color
Color
Black
Brown
White
5
4
3
2
1
How
Many
Seeds?
Texture
How Many
Seeds?
Take 6 seeds and measure
them using centimeters
Soft
Rough
How are they the seeds different?
How are they the same?
Leaf Art
Look at the different leaves we have
collected.
• Take one and trace it with a crayon
• Look at the different veins each leaf has
• These veins have a very important job
they bring water and minerals from the
roots to the leaves.
• Think about all the fruits that you love
to eat and how yummy and healthy they
are. You would not be able to have
them if not for the trees that make
them.
• Make a book of the plants that make
your favorite fruits and share it with
your friends.
Telling time with trees
• Trees are some of nature's best story
tellers. Their growth layers, the rings in their
trunk, tell us about floods, droughts, insect
attacks, lightning strikes, and even
earthquakes that the tree has been through.
Look at the tree trunk we have here, look at
all the rings it has. The tree makes a new
ring every year.
• Draw your own tree trunk and tell it’s story.
• There are all kinds of plants on our planet, but
the biggest home of plants all over are the
rainforests. Read the book about the largest rain
forest in the world and look at the map and
globe to know where it is located. Answer these
questions:
• What do we need the rainforests for?
• Do you think we have enough?
Name: ___________
• What do we need the rainforests for?
• Why are rain forests special?
• Do you think we have enough?
Look at this
Plants are funny sometimes and
they let us tickle them.
• Watch video number 1 and you’ll see just
how ticklish plants can be.
• Now take a pencil and paper and write a
story about a funny plant doing funny
things. Use the books on the table to write
your story. Draw pictures of your plant!
Resources
• http://www.realtrees4kids.org/teacher.htm
• http://interactive2.usgs.gov/learningweb/teacher
s/globalchange_time.htm
• Science Textbook for 1st grade McGraw-Hill
• http://www.kathimitchell.com/plants.html
• http://www.steveconrad.co.uk/bog/
• http://www.botany.org/carnivorous_plants/
• http://www.edenproject.com/childrens/1226.html
• http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/alphlist.ht
ml#theme
• http://www.ticklemeplant.com/
The Interest Center
The Poster
The Interest Center
has to be something
that catches the eyes
of the students. I tried
to make the poster
colorful and fun, in
hopes that it would
attract their curiosity.
The Tasks
The task cards were
tapped on buckets.
Inside each bucket were
all the materials needed
to complete each activity.
Materials
These are some of the materials that were
placed on the Interest Center. The students
had a mini library with books on the
subject, a real plant, a tree trunk, there was
a laptop with the videos and music ready to
play, and more!
Reactions
These students are engaged. They
listened carefully and launched!
They loved it when they heard
about killer plants and going out of
the classroom to do work kept them
on task, surprisingly so!!
They learned new information…
They had FUN!
These students were amazed at
the opportunity to work on the
tasks. They didn’t mind staying
longer in the classroom, they
wanted to keep going. They
worked on graphs, learned the
plant parts, asked all kinds of
questions and were hungry for
more!