Plant resources for teaching & learning

Planning for plant activities

Planning based on categories in this planning framework with explanation see also blank framework.

Created by - Courtney Maas & Jennifer Thomas

Topic - Plants

Focus question - What are characteristics of plants?

Perceptual Response

• See - observation - location, shape, color, size
• Feel - texture, sharp, light, hard, fragile, soft, fuzzy, and smooth while others are
• Thorny and rough
• Smell - sometimes have a good smell, some not so good or bad
• Taste - can eat some plants
• Hear - leaves rustle, needle clack

Properties

Flowering plants

• Seeds have a seed coat, embryo (baby plant) and cotyledon (stored food)
  
• Flowers have petals, stamen, pistol...
• Stems
• Leaves
• Needles - cones
• Roots

Non Flowering plants

• Ferns - leaves, fronds, spores,
• Mosses

Relationships and concepts

• Plants are living
• Create energy from sun for food
• Plants reproduce
• Fruits and vegetables can grow from a plant.
• When you plant a seed in good soil, water it, and provide sunlight, a plant will grow from it.
• Plants have leaves, stems, petals, roots, flowersPlants have a life cycle
• In order to get plants, you need to have air, water, soil and sunlight.
• You plant watermelon seeds and take care of them so that they grow into watermelons. Then you can eat the watermelon
• You plant the seeds from the watermelon you eat and grow more watermelon - life cycle of a seed.

Observations

• Plants can be different colors, shapes, & sizes.
• All flower parts - look, feel, taste, smell, hear
• Seeds can be all different colors, shapes, & sizes
  • A bean seed is kidney shaped and white
  • Lettuce comes from a little tiny seed and tastes good
• A rose smells good, has thorns on the stem and comes in many colors
• Some seeds are edible and taste good and some seeds are just for making something that tastes

Transformations

• Drawing pictures of plants - label parts
• Make a chart and list plant parts across the top - leaf, stem, flower, root, other use store and labels to classify under column
• Seed collection with labels ...Go to store - collect different plant parts take back cut apart - count seeds, dry seeds, plant seeds...
• Chain story - Watch seeds grow... Draw pictures, measure growth, communicate what is happening with a chain story. When we plant a seed for sweet corn, it grows into a corn plant. We need soil, air, & sunlight for it to grow. After it grows, we can pick it and eat it. The cycle can then start all over again.

Tasks or Activities

• Hand out bean seeds for the kids to observe and talk about
  • Open up a seed to see the inside. Fill out parts of a seed chart
  • Compare different types of seeds - for what purpose?
• Plant a seeds and put one in the dark & one in the sunlight.
• Go on a field trip to a greenhouse to learn about different plants.
• Go on a nature walk to look at different types of flowers & plants on a nearby walking trail or in the neighborhood to explore different types of plants
• Go to a grocery store to learn about all of the different plants we can eat. - collect different plant parts take back - classify, cut apart - count seeds, dry seeds, plant seeds..
  Collect different plants parts take back - classify, cut apart - count seeds, dry seeds, plant seeds...
• Plant a seed

Real World Value Application

• We eat all kinds of plant parts - flowers, stems, roots, seeds, fruit,
• Plants that we eat are good for us and give use energy, vitamins, and minerals
• When you plant a garden, you can provide food for your family and friends
• Gardening is a hobby
• Flowers make your yard look pretty
• Plants can be good for the soil
• Make mulch, fertilizer
• I can understand the world
• Understanding the world gives me.... power
• Plants make our world beautiful.

Classroom atmosphere

• Hands on real life activities motivate and empower learners to explore and learn about their world.
• Working in groups to explore plants encourages cooperation; and sharing learning experiences creates positive learning experiences and positive attitudes for science and achievement.

Assessment levels

• Upper level - Plants have many different properties, but all have the ability to use energy from the sun to grow and store it for them to use and other animals touse.
• Lower level - Plants grow, but don't move from place to place.

Instructional assessment

• Learners ask questions and participate in the activities.

Plant kingdom

Leaf attachment & shapes

Leaf margin

Leaf shape

 

Leaf attachment top

Leaf attachement bottom

Fruit types

Root types

Trunk anatomy

Spirals in plants examples of Fibonacci sequence

Plant cells

 

 

 

• More on cells - their properties & functions ...

 

Plants & water tranportation

Plant assessment sample 1

 

1. ____________________ All plants are divided into two large groups. What are the two groups?
2. ____________________
3. ____________________ What is the name of the group of pants that have tube like structures in them.
4. ____________________ What is the name of the group of plants that doesn't have tube like structures in them?
5. ____________________ Give an example of a nonvascular plant.
6. ____________________ What is a group of plants that is vascular and has spores instead of seeds?
7. ____________________ What is the name for the group of plants that has seeds, but the seeds aren't produced in an ovary?
8. ____________________ What is the name of a group of plants that have seeds produced in an ovary?
9. ____________________ Angiosperms can be divided into two groups, what are they?
10. ____________________
11. How do plants get their food?
    
    
    
    
    
12. What is an annual?
    
    
    
    
13. What is a perennial?
    
    
    
    
    
14. ____________________ List three conditions necessary for plant growth.
15. ____________________
16. ____________________
17. What is the difference between decidous and evergreen?
    
    
    
    
    
18. Why is a dicot more advanced than a monocot?
    
    
    
    
    
19. ____________________What is the name of a scientist that studies plants?
20. Mosses and ferns produce new plants by forming what?

 

 

 

Plant- flower - assessment sample 2

 

1. ____________________ What is the pretty part of the flower?
2. ____________________ What part of the flower is often planted underground?
3. ____________________ What part of the plant grows underground?
4. ____________________ Where is the food made in plants?
5. ____________________ What word best describes the moving of the pollen from the stamen to the pistil?
6. ____________________ What word best describes the process of the sperm celljoining with the egg?
7. ____________________ What word best describes the process of a seed beginning to grow?
8. ____________________ What is the process of plants making food called?
9. ____________________ What is the process of animals changing food to energy called?
10. ____________________ What is the wearing away of soil by water or wind called?
11. ____________________ List two necessary conditions for germination of seeds?
12. ____________________
13. ____________________ List three ways plants may be grown without seeds.
14. ____________________
15. ____________________
16. - 23. Circle the words that have something to do with the male part of the flower.
    fruit, ovary, stamen, anther, pistil, pollen, filamant, bulb

 

24. - 32. Circle the words that have something to do with the female part of the flower.
    stem, pistil, stamen, egg, stigma, style, ovary, leaf, bulb

 

33. - 34. Describe two ways pollination can take place.

 

 

 

 

35. - 39. Tell five different ways plants are used.

 

 

 

 

40. - 48. Circle what plants need to make food.

oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, soil. light, food, starch, sugar, blood

 

49. - 58. Circle what plants make or give off because of photosynthesis.

oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, soil. light, food, starch, sugar, blood

 

59. - 61. Circle what animals need to get energy.

water, food, oxygen

 

62. - 67. Circle what animals get or give off when they undergo respiration.

food, energy, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, sugar

 

Word Bank

pollination	germination	fertilization
respiration	photosynthesis	leaf
flower	petal	style
seed	stem	root
cuttings	bulbs	runners
erosion	fruit	ovary
stamen	anther	ovary
pistil	egg	stigma