About This Book. Cross-curricular thematic units found in this book: Plants Seeds Flowers Leaves Trees Fruits and Vegetables

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1 About This Book Welcome to Investigating Science Plants! This book is one of six must-have resource books that support the National Science Education Standards and are designed to supplement and enhance your existing science curriculum. Packed with practical cross-curricular ideas and thought-provoking reproducibles, these all-new, content-specific resource books provide preschool and kindergarten teachers with a collection of innovative and fun activities for teaching thematic science units. Included in this book: Investigating Science Plants contains six cross-curricular thematic units, each containing Background information for the teacher Easy-to-implement instructions for science experiments and projects Student-centered activities and reproducibles Literature links Cross-curricular thematic units found in this book: Plants Seeds Flowers Leaves Trees Fruits and Vegetables Spring Summer Other books in the preschool-kindergarten Investigating Science series: Investigating Science Animals Investigating Science Five Senses Investigating Science Insects & Spiders Investigating Science Taking Care of Me Investigating Science Weather & the Seasons Fall Winter 3

2 Plants Youngsters will give the plant-related activities in this unit a giant, green thumbs-up! Plant-y of Parts (Making a Booklet, Plant Parts) c d Background for the Teacher Plants are found in almost every part of the earth, including oceans, deserts, polar regions, and mountains. Plants provide oxygen, food, and shelter, which are necessary elements for human and animal survival. Flowering plants have four main parts: roots, stems, leaves, and flowers. Plants make their own food from air, sunlight, and water through a process called photosynthesis. Pullin Together Plant-y of Parts Alex By Put them The parts of a plant will grow and grow! Books That Will Grow on You together, and what do you know? flower From Seed to Plant by Allan Fowler Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds by Joanna Cole Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert leaf roots stem 5 Introduce youngsters to the study of plants as they leaf through their own plant parts booklet. In advance, copy pages 9 11 for each child and gather a supply of small seeds, a brown crayon, green paint, green and pink tissue paper, and green and brown yarn. To begin the activity, read From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons and discuss with youngsters the illustrations showing the parts of a plant. Then help each child follow the directions below to create a booklet. Send the booklets home for youngsters to share their new plant parts knowledge with family. Directions: 1. Write your name on the cover. Glue on thin strips of green tissue paper (vine). Then press on green thumbprints (leaves). 2. Color the soil brown on page 1. Glue on small pieces of brown yarn (roots). 3. Color the soil brown on page 2. Glue on one piece of green yarn (stem). 4. Color the soil brown on page 3. Press on green thumbprints (leaves). 5. Color the soil brown and the stem and leaves green on page 4. Glue a small piece of pink tissue paper (flower) on the stem. Glue small seeds around the flower (seeds blowing in the wind). 6. For page 5, write or dictate the parts of the plant (flower, leaf, stem, roots) as shown. 7. Cut out the booklet pages, sequence them, and then staple them together along the left side.

3 Veggie Sort (Sorting, Classifying) Classification skills are sure to take root with this sorting activity. To prepare, create a chart with the headings shown and gather a variety of vegetables to match each plant part. Display the vegetables and have youngsters sort them several different ways, such as by color, size, and shape. Then discuss plant parts such as roots, seeds, leaves, flower buds, and fruit with youngsters. Help youngsters classify each vegetable by the plant part it represents. Then record the vegetable names in the appropriate sections of the chart as shown. Then have students draw matching pictures. Later, wash and cut up all the vegetables and then serve them with your favorite dip for a fun plant parts snack. Plant Parts roots seeds leaves flower fruit buds carrot peas lettuce broccoli pepper radish sweet potato corn spinach cauliflower pumpkin cabbage tomato Houseplants (Observing Plant Growth) This little houseplant is just the right size for observing plant growth. In advance, collect a class supply of half-pint milk cartons (with the tops cut off) and plastic sandwich bags, paint, black construction paper, potting soil, and seeds. Ask a parent volunteer to use an X-acto knife to cut a oneinch square window on each side of each milk carton. Invite each child to paint her milk carton to resemble a house. Then have her cut out triangles from construction paper to glue onto the house for a roof as shown. Help her place her bag inside the house and fill the bag with soil. Have her plant a seed in the soil on each side of her house, close to each window. Discuss with youngsters how often to water their plants. Then place all the houseplants in a sunny area. Encourage youngsters to check their houseplants windows daily to observe and compare root growth. 5

4 Growing a Story (Sequencing, Bookmaking) Watch language skills grow as youngsters learn about the process of growing plants for food. Make a class supply of page 12. Then prepare a blank booklet for each child by folding and stapling together four sheets of paper as shown below. Next, write the title and each story line from page 12 on a separate sentence strip. Mix up the sentence strips and set them aside for later use. Read aloud Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert to youngsters and then have students retell the story as you review the illustrations. Next, read aloud each of the prepared sentence strips and help youngsters sequence the strips on a chart as shown. Give each student a copy of page 12 and a booklet. Have each child cut out the cover label and sentence strips and then sequence the strips, referring to the chart as needed. Help him glue the cover label on his booklet cover and then glue each sentence on a separate page of his booklet. Ask him to illustrate each sentence and then share his booklet with a partner. Encourage each child to take his booklet home to show parents how his language skills have grown! Growing a Story Ashley by Growing a Story Plant the seeds. Water the seeds and wait for the sun. Watch the plants grow. Pick the vegetables. Wash and cut the vegetables. Put the vegetables in a pot of water. Cook the soup. My Rule Rules! (Observing Attributes, Sorting) 6 Youngsters choose the rules to follow in this thoughtprovoking activity. To prepare, ask parents to send in a variety of leaves. Divide youngsters into small groups and give each group an assortment of leaves. Ask each group to observe the shape of each leaf in its set and try to decide whether all the leaves came from the same plant. Encourage youngsters to give reasons to support their conclusions. Have each group create a rule for sorting its leaves, such as color, size, shape, texture, or smell. Then ask each group to sort its set of leaves according to its rule. Invite each group to take a turn visiting another group to try to guess the sorting rule used. Then invite each group to share its rule with the class.

5 Pumpkin Parts (Labeling Plant Parts, Art) Make identifying the parts of a plant as easy as pie for youngsters! To prepare, cut a class supply of 6" x 9" poster board and gather paint (brown, yellow, and orange), a pumpkinshaped sponge, green and brown yarn, and green tissue paper. Make a class supply of the labels on the top of page 13. Have each child paint the bottom section of his poster board brown to represent soil. Next, have him press a yellow fingerprint onto the soil for a seed and then glue on pieces of brown yarn to represent roots growing underground. Have him glue on a long piece of green yarn to represent a vine and then glue on tissue paper leaves as shown. Help him sponge-paint a pumpkin on the vine. Ask him to cut out his labels; then help him glue each one in the correct area as shown. Encourage youngsters to describe the parts of a pumpkin to a partner. stem pumpkin Parts of a Pumpkin Plant seed leaves vine roots air sun space to grow Grow, Pumpkin, Grow! (Needs of Plants, Experimenting) This activity will grow on youngsters as they discover the needs of plants. In advance, collect a class supply of soil, pumpkin seeds, and clear plastic cups. Discuss with youngsters the needs of plants (sun, water, air, space to grow) and record these on index cards. Then give each student a cup. Invite her to fill her cup with soil and then plant a pumpkin seed close to the side of the cup so that the roots will be visible later. Help each child water her seed and then place it in a sunny window. Display the card labels as shown. Encourage each child to water her plant and check it for growth every day. Then invite each child to take her plant home to share with her family. water 7