Differentiating Scientific Classification SC020402

Differentiating Scientific Classification SC020402 Unit 3: The Life Cycle of Plants

Lesson 2: Plants

Big Ideas of the Lesson  Plants are living things that make their own food.  A plant cannot move from place to place like an animal can, but it can move on its own as it grows.  Most plants have leaves, stems, and roots.  Leaves make food for the plant using light, air, and water.  Stems bring water and minerals from the roots to the leaves and also carry food from the leaves to the roots.  Roots take in water and minerals from the soil and also anchor the plant in the soil.  Three kinds of plants are flowering plants, conifers, and ferns.  Flowering plants have leaves that are broad and flat.  Conifers have leaves that are usually needle-like.  Seeds are how the plants produce young.

Abstract In this lesson children learn that plants, as living things, are like animals in many ways but have the important difference of making their own food. They compare three plants to discover that all plants are made of the same three parts but can look very different. Children examine each plant part; the leaf, the stem, and the roots. They then classify the leaves as coming from a flowering plant or a conifer. The lesson ends with a plant identification nature walk.

Grade Level Context Expectation(s) Children will:  identify characteristics of plants (e.g., leaf shape, flower type, color, size) that are passed on from parents to young (L.HE.02.13).  make purposeful observations of plant needs and plant growth using appropriate senses (S.IP.02.11).  communicate and present findings of plant growth and function observations (S.IA.02.13).

Key Concept(s) basic needs characteristic plant

Instructional Resources Equipment/Manipulative Bucket of water Cone (1 per group, from conifer, ideally fresh with seeds inside) The Oakland Schools Curriculum Page 1 of 5 scope.oakland.k12.mi.us June 29, 2009 Differentiating Scientific Classification SC020402 Unit 3: The Life Cycle of Plants

Crayon – without wrapper Cups (bathroom size) Flower (1 per group) Fruit (with seeds inside, cut in half, one per group) Leaves (5 per child different kinds including conifer) Paper (plain, 1 per child) Plants (3 larger, different kinds from nursery center) Safety cutter (for teacher to cut boxes) Seeds (fast growing such as radish or Wisconsin Fast Plant ©) Shoebox with lid (1 per group) Soil (commercial sterilized potting soil, enough to fill 1 bathroom cup per group) Tree branch (1 per group) Twist tie (3) Ziploc bag (3, gallon size)

Student Resource Gibbons, Gail. Tell Me, Tree. All About Trees. New York: Little, Brown Inc., 2002.

Hewitt, Sally. Amazing Science: Plants. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2008.

Kalman, Bobbie. ABC’s of Plants. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2008.

---. The Life Cycle of a Flower. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2004.

---. The Life Cycle of a Tree. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2002.

---. Plants are Living Things. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2008.

---. What is a Plant? New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2000.

Miller, Debbie S. Are Trees Alive? New York: Walker & Co., 2002.

Sweeney, Bernice, and Juliana Texley. Supplemental Materials (SC02040201.doc). Teacher-made material. Waterford, MI: Oakland Schools, 2009.

Teacher Resource Greenaway, Theresa. The Plant Kingdom. Austin, TX: Steck-Vaughn, 2000.

Sweeney, Bernice, and Juliana Texley. Grade 2 Unit 4 Teacher Background (SC020400TB.doc). Teacher-made material. Waterford, MI: Oakland Schools, 2009.

Sequence of Activities Advance Preparation: Ask each student to bring in five different kinds of leaves. Cut a hole in the end of each shoebox, and keep the lid. Start a quick growing plant such as a radish or Fast Plant© in a cup of soil for each group, so that the seedling will be at least 1 cm tall but will still fit inside the shoe The Oakland Schools Curriculum Page 2 of 5 scope.oakland.k12.mi.us June 29, 2009 Differentiating Scientific Classification SC020402 Unit 3: The Life Cycle of Plants box. This needs to be done about a week before the lesson. (Fast Plants © are relatives of cabbages that were specifically developed for school experiments. They germinate in a few days and flower within two weeks. They are sold in school supply catalogues, or can be found under Fast Plants on the web.)

Collect slightly different plants to compare. Cacti, mosses, grasses, and broad-leaved plants are all in the Plant Kingdom. Note: Cacti do have leaves—they are the spines. The stem is very thick to store water. Mosses technically do not have leaves, because there are no veins in the rootlike hairs and little leaflets that catch the sun, but they look and act like roots and leaves. Mushrooms and other fungi are not plants. You can get great flowers by calling a funeral home, if you are willing to wait until the material for your lesson is available.

Make an overhead transparency of the “Alike/Different” chart found on the Student Pages or copy on chart paper for group discussion.

Safety Precautions: Some plants are poisonous and should not be used in class (including but not limited to yew, mistletoe, oleander).

1. Say: “Plants are a large group of living things. They are different from the animal group because they make their own food. They are like animals in other ways because they are both living things. What are the ways plants and animals are alike?” [They both need air and water, they both move, they both grow, and they both produce young. Note: It is also accurate to say that both require food, since plants make their own.]

2. “ A plant cannot move from place to place like an animal can, but it can move on its own as it grows.” Remind children of the photo of the responding plant (in Teacher Background) which was mentioned in Lesson 1 to introduce them to the “Moving Towards the Light” Activity in the Student Pages. In this activity each group will be given a very young plant. They will place the plant in a box where all of the light comes from one side. Little by little, they will observe that the plant turns in the direction of the light source. In radishes this will take approximately three days. Make sure that children do not turn the plants when they add water. (The children will also observe when they grow plants in a later lesson that roots always move towards the ground as they grow.) Note: Most animals move because of the action of nerves. Plants move primarily because of hormones. In dim light, a hormone makes the cells on the shaded side of the plant grow longer and push the plant over. (This is a good time to break the lesson and continue another day.)

3. “Most plants have the same three parts; leaves, stems, and roots.” Line up three different plants. Ask the children to observe the way the plants are alike and how they are different. Point out the stems and leaves on each plant. Say: “I am putting a twist tie on the stem at the level of the soil on each plant.” Gently pull each plant from the soil it is growing in. “It is difficult to pull the plants out of the pot because one of the jobs of the roots is to anchor the plant in the soil.” Rinse the soil off the roots in a bucket of water once the plants are pulled from the pots. Observe the similarities and differences between the roots. Choose two plants. Say: “Record the way the two plants are alike and different in the chart in the Alike/Different chart in the Student Pages like you did in the previous lesson with the animals.” Keep the plants in a Ziploc© bag to keep them from drying out. The Oakland Schools Curriculum Page 3 of 5 scope.oakland.k12.mi.us June 29, 2009 Differentiating Scientific Classification SC020402 Unit 3: The Life Cycle of Plants

4. Put the key words “root,” “stem,” and “leaf” on the board. “Let us take a closer look at the three parts of a plant.” Put the children into groups and give each group a variety of leaves. Make sure conifer leaves (needles) are included. Explain: “Leaves are very important to a plant. They make the food for a plant using light, air, and water, that is an amazing feat. Classify the leaves and pick one person from your group to explain why you grouped the leaves the way you did.” Say: “All the leaves from the same kind of plant look similar but leaves from other kinds of plants can look very different. Scientists use these differences to help classify plants.” Collect the leaves. Note: Conifer needles are especially adapted to resist freezing in the winter and have lower transpiration (evaporation) all year. Cactus leaves (needles) are adapted to resist transpiration (evaporation) and to keep animals from attacking the stems to get moisture.

5. Say: “Stems are another part of a plant. The leaves are attached to the stem. The stem brings water and minerals from the roots to the leaves and also carries food from the leaves to the roots. Most stems are above the ground.” Pass out a piece of tree branch to each group and ask them to pull off the leaves. “What you have left after pulling off the leaves is the stem. This is only part of the stem of the tree that the branches were taken from.” Show the children the three plants again. “Remember when I put the twist ties at the level of the soil on each of the three plants before I pulled the plants out of the pots? The stem is the part of the plant above the twist tie that is left after all the leaves are pulled off.” Pull the leaves off of one of the plants so the children can clearly see the stem. “Stems from different kinds of plants can look very different. Some stems of the same kind of plant can have a different shape too.” Make a sharp cut across a soft stem for each group so that they can see the small holes in the stem, and show them that the stem is very much like a soda straw.

6. Say: “The third part of a plant is the root. The root takes in water and minerals from the soil. It also anchors the plant in the soil. Roots are the part of the plant below the ground.” Show the children the three plants again. “The part of the plant below the twist tie is the roots.” A photo of the roots of an overturned tree can be found in Teacher Background.

7. Ask children to draw a picture of any plant, identifying the three major parts (using terms from the board).

8. Say: “Scientists divide plants into three groups. One group has its seeds in fruit that are made by flowers so they are called flowering plants.” Note: Grass and most trees also have flowers, but they are quite tiny. “Another group has its seeds in cones so they are called conifers. Seeds are how the plants produce young. Each seed contains a new plant. You will be learning more about seeds, but that is another lesson. Many other plants have no flowers or fruits. These include ferns and moss.” Pass out a flower, a fruit with seeds, and a cone for each group to examine. “The leaves on plants that have flowers are usually broad and flat. The leaves on plants that have cones are usually needle-like.” Pass out a variety of leaves again and ask the children to put the leaves from flowering plants by the flower and the ones from conifers next to the cone. Check for correct placement, then direct the children to put a piece of paper over the flowering plant leaves, making sure the leaves do not touch each other, and rub a crayon over the paper to record the

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shape of the leaves. Label the paper flowering plant leaves. Repeat the process with a second sheet of paper over the conifer leaves and label it conifer leaves.

9. Continue to talk about seeds. “The seeds of plants with leaves are often hidden inside fruits. Can you name some fruits that have seeds in them?” [Apple, peach.] “There are other kinds of fruits like the samara or ‘helicopter’ of a maple tree, or the nut from a chestnut tree. Not all fruits can be eaten. Some are even poisonous.”

10.Take a short nature walk outside of the school. Point out and identify the names of several plant species. (You may need to look up the names in a field guide.) Ask children to classify each as a flowering plant or conifer by leaf shape. Cones and flowers may not be seen, but make sure the children know that a cone or a flower are there at some time.

11.Return to your experiment with the plants and shoeboxes. After about three days, ask children to remove the lids of their boxes and carefully observe the stem of their plant. Explain: “All living things can respond. You respond to smells, sights, sounds, and vibrations. Plants respond to water, light, and gravity. What did this plant respond to?” [Light.] “How do you know it responded?” [It moved.] Ask children to complete the summary of their experiment on their Student Page.

Assessment Children should be able to classify a given plant as a flowering plant or a conifer. They should also be able to point out the leaves, stem, and root of a plant.

Application Beyond School Children can explore their yards and neighborhood with their families and classify the local plants as flowering or conifer.

Connections Social Studies Children can consider plants that are characteristic of geographic regions.

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