Plant Block Unit

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Plant Block Unit

• Coro Wilbur
• EDUC. 303
• Final Exam

Teacher Resource Page
Block Plan
2
Teacher Resource Page

• Introduction
• References/ Resources
• Standards Of Learning

3
Block Plan Plants
DAY ONE
DAY SIX
DAY TWO
DAY SEVEN
DAY THREE
DAY EIGHT
DAY FOUR
DAY NINE
DAY FIVE
DAY TEN
DAY ELEVEN
Click on a day to see what will be taught, plus
any documents or links needed for that day.
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DAY ONE

• ACTIVITIES
• KWL (done as Class, on large butcher paper) and
  Class Discussion
• Plant Seeds to be grown, and introduce Growth
  Chart for measuring
• RATIONALE
• The KWL on the first day of the lesson
  encourages students to simply start thinking
  about plants. It allows the teacher to gather
  information about what students already know, and
  what subject areas they may need to spend more
  time on. In a class discussion type format such
  as this, the KWL chart becomes a valuable graphic
  organization tool, so that as students share
  their ideas, the teacher can put them on the
  chart in groups such as plant needs or plant
  parts. This allows students to start making
  important connections about the subject matter.
  Also, the plants that students will be working
  with for the rest of the unit will be planted
  today, so that they have time to grow. After
  planting the seeds/seedlings, the teacher will
  hand out the chart students will use for the
  remainder of the unit to chart the plants growth.
• Note Scroll down on the Enchanted Learning site
  to find the growth chart.

5
DAY TWO

• ACTIVITIES
• Plant Part Dissections (this activity includes
  basic plant parts, as well as a dissection of the
  parts of a flower).
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• This activity is also part of the introductory
  phase of the unit. By dissecting a simple plant
  (one that shows roots, stem, leaves, flowers) as
  well as a simple flower (to show the stamen,
  pistil, and sepal), students get a chance to
  discover in a hands on way what the parts of a
  plant look like, and how they all fit together.
  These dissections will be done in partners, so
  that everyone has a chance to get up close and
  personal with the parts of a plant, and as the
  students dissect they will be asked to fill in a
  worksheet that simply shows the parts of the
  plant and will act as a good reference of these
  scientific names as the unit progresses. Finally,
  the flower dissection activity leads into the
  next day of the unit, which covers pollination
  and reproduction of plants.
• Note Scroll down on the Enchanted Learning
  Website to find the Parts of a Flower Labeling
  worksheet, and the Parts of a Plant Labeling
  Worksheet.

6
DAY THREE

• ACTIVITY
• Smithsonian pollination exercise
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• Building on the previous days activity where
  students dissected a flower, the pollination
  exercise allows them to understand how all of
  these parts that they just learned the
  terminology for, work together. It also gets
  students to see how plants use these parts in
  conjunction with other animals, like insects, or
  other processes, like the wind, to pollinate and
  reproduce.

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DAY FOUR

• ACTIVITIES
• Watch a plant sprout
• Dissect alfalfa sprouts/bean sprouts
• Class discussion regarding the seed and its job
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• To start this lesson, the students will have a
  chance to visit a website and watch some great
  time lapse movies of plants sprouting and
  beginning to grow. This will build off of the
  previous days activity that showed the parts of
  the plant that are responsible for reproduction,
  and allow students to connect these jobs to the
  production of a seed and the way that a seed
  begins to grow. Following the video, students
  will get a chance to look at alfalfa and bean
  sprouts up close (depending on the class, food
  allergies and the teacher, students can be
  encouraged to sample the sprouts!) Along with
  getting up close and personal with sprouting
  plants, this activity will also ask students to
  label the parts of the sprout on a worksheet
  (embryo, sprout and seed). This day lends itself
  well to start asking questions about the role of
  the seed, and introduce terms like dormancy and
  protection.
• Note Scroll down on the Enchanted Learning
  Website to find the Parts of a Sprout Labeling
  worksheet.

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DAY FIVE

• ACTIVITIES
• Seed dispersal Scavenger hunt
• Examine spore plants
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• To open this lesson, students will have a chance
  to go outside and search for different types of
  seeds (note the teacher must have already gone
  out on school grounds to ensure students will be
  able to find the seeds they are looking for if
  not, students can do this activity online or by
  looking through books, or play Seed Bingo with
  specimens the teacher has gathered instead).
  After finding the seeds that they need, the
  students will classify them by how they are
  shaped, and how this allows them to travel.
  Following the completion of this worksheet,
  students will have a chance to look at a fern
  leaf, and the teacher will lead a class
  discussion of spores and how they allow a fern to
  reproduce as compared to seed-bearing plants.This
  connection allows them hands on experience,
  discovery of the different types of seeds, and
  builds on the previous lesson where they looked
  at a sprout/seed up close and watched it grow.
  Finally, this lesson leads into the following
  lesson on photosynthesis as students will next
  learn how plants get energy to grow.

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DAY SIX

• ACTIVITIES
• Discussion and observation of plants that the
  class has been growing
• Look back to KWL chart from first day
• Photosynthesis video
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• This part of the unit builds off the base that
  the student now has of the parts a plant has, how
  it reproduces and begins to grow. The next
  question is, how does a plant get energy to do
  all of this? Photosynthesis is a difficult
  concept, so to begin, look at the plants that
  have been growing since the unit began. Ask
  students about where they were placed in the
  classroom, and compare the differences among the
  plants (are some bigger, smaller, greener?) Next,
  compare this discussion to the KWL chart from the
  first day, and build on what students already
  knew about what a plant needs to grow. Finally,
  after this discussion, allow students some time
  on the computer to look at an introductory video
  on photosynthesis from which provides a clear and
  simple illustration of the concept.

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DAY SEVEN

• ACTIVITIES
• Chromatography experiment
• Discussion/Review game of terms
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• Being that photosynthesis is a difficult
  concept, it is important to review the terms as
  the unit progresses. This lesson starts off with
  an experiment, where students would be split into
  groups of four, and asked to complete the
  chromatography experiment that demonstrates the
  fact that the pigments in a leaf are always
  present, we just cant always see them. This
  expands a students understanding of a
  particularly abstract concept. Following the
  experiment would be a simple discussion of the
  terms that students learned yesterday, as well as
  some review questions (which could be turned into
  a trivia game, like Around the World or
  Jeopardy).

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DAY EIGHT

• ACTIVITIES
• Plant Adaptations WebQuest
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• This WebQuest brings together most of the
  information that students have been learning
  throughout the unit. It focuses on the ways in
  which plants adapt to a given environment, and
  how these adaptations are manifested through
  things like reproductive cycles and physical
  construction. The WebQuest is one of the longer
  activities, so students should be given two days
  to work on it. They can do the activity in pairs,
  but ideally the worksheet acts as an individual
  assessment of a students understanding of the
  main concepts, and their ability to apply them to
  the creation of their own plant. The worksheet
  and grading rubric are provided as well.

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DAY NINE

• ACTIVITY
• Continue WebQuest
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• As stated earlier, this WebQuest is designed to
  be comprehensive in that it asks students to
  complete a wide variety of activities and apply
  most of their previously gained knowledge, and
  for that they should ideally have two days to
  complete it.

13
DAY TEN

• ACTIVITIES
• Review Day- discuss plant growth charts, finish
  up any work that was unable to have been
  completed previously.
• Review game (Around the World or Jeopardy)
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• Because the plant unit contains so much
  vocabulary and so many new concepts, it is
  important to allow students ample time to review
  these ideas and ask questions if they need to.
  This final day is included because it has been my
  experience that students often work at different
  paces, and this day allows everyone to end on the
  same level. Students who were unable to finish
  previous activities will have a chance to go back
  and complete them, while students who have
  finished early can review things and extend their
  knowledge through either a trivia game (Around
  the World has always been successful- simply
  compile a list of questions regarding vocabulary,
  or concepts. Jeopardy works great too.)SOL based
  review questions are great here too!

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DAY ELEVEN

• ACTIVITIY
• Assessments 3rd and 5th (link to sample SOL
  released test questions. Fourth grade is not an
  SOL year, so the links are to the 3rd and 5th
  grade released questions to ensure that students
  have covered what they needed in the past, as
  well as for the future).
• Record plant growth
• RATIONALE
• This day is set aside for a unit assessment.
  However, this is not the only chance that
  students will have had to demonstrate their
  knowledge throughout the course of the unit. The
  final compilation of their Plant Unit Portfolios
  should include the following items
• Plant and Flower dissection Worksheet
• Pollination Exercise Worksheet
• Seed Scavenger Hunt Worksheet/ Seed Bingo
• Alfalfa/Bean Sprout Dissection Worksheet
• Chromatography Experiment Results
• Plant Adaptation WebQuest
• Plant Growth Chart
• All of these things combined, in addition to a
  final unit test, will serve as the overall
• assessment of student understanding. The final
  assessment can also include SOL based
• questions.

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Resources/References

• The following are all the resources used in this
  Block Unit
• http//www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/plants/p
  rintouts.shtml This website was used for the
  Plant Growth Chart, and the Sprout, Flower and
  Plant dissection worksheets.
• http//www.hrw.com/science/si-science/biology/anim
  als/plantsandanimals/page04.html This website
  was used for the Smithsonian Pollination
  Activity, and the worksheets that went along with
  it.
• http//bellnetweb.brc.tamus.edu/res_grid/elementry
  /seeddisp.htm This website provided the Seed
  Dispersal Bingo Activity.
• http//www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Bota
  ny/BOT0080.html This website provided the
  Flower Dissection Lesson Plan.
• http//plantsinmotion.bio.indiana.edu/plantmotion/
  starthere.html This site contains time lapse
  photos of plants growing and sprouting.
• http//www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html
  This website provided the Chromatography
  Activity.
• http//people.umw.edu/gmeadows/EDUC303/index.html
  This website provided the Jeopardy template,
  as well as the links to the 3rd and 5th grade SOL
  released test items.
• http//www.mbgnet.net/bioplants/ This site
  provided a simple, easy to understand
  photosynthesis video.

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Standards of Learning

• This unit is based on the fourth grade science
  SOL 4.4, Life Processes.
• The student will investigate and understand
  basic plant anatomy and life processes. Key
  concepts include
• The structure of typical plants (leaves,stems,
  roots and flowers)
• Processes and structures involved with
  reproduction (pollination, stamen, pistil, sepal,
  embryo, spore and seed)
• Photosynthesis (chlorophyll, carbon dioxide and
• Dormancy.
• This unit also includes information from 4.1,
  scientific investigation, reasoning and logic, as
  applied to the Growth Charts that students will
  use to plot the growth of their plants throughout
  the unit.

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Introduction

• This unit is based on the principle that students
  learn best by doing and
• through personal discovery. Many of the
  activities in this unit are hands on,
• and allow students to get up close and personal
  with the subject material.
• Also, this unit, while it does include a final,
  traditional unit test, also allows
• for students to demonstrate their knowledge in
  other ways. This is
• accomplished through the compilation of a Plant
  Unit Portfolio, which will
• include all the worksheets that the student will
  have completed throughout
• the unit, through dissections of plants, charting
  plant growth, and an artistic
• depiction of a new plant that they create.
  Before this unit begins, it would be
• useful to have in your classroom, a group of
  books that had to do with plants.
• These will come in handy as the unit progresses,
  and are an amazing
• resource to have at you and your students
  disposal. Also, I have included a
• list of websites that can act as additional
  material for days when students
• finish an activity early, or need more
  information. Finally, each day in this
• unit is structured towards having between 30-45
  minutes to devote to the
• activity, but this may be different depending on
  your schedule or class. Enjoy!

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Around The World

• Around the World is a simple trivia game that
  works great as a review. Have students make two
  rows of chairs, all facing front. Every student
  should have a seat. The students in the first
  front two chairs begin by standing, and are asked
  a question by the teacher. The first student to
  raise his or her hand has a chance to answer. If
  they answer correctly, they take a step back to
  the next student who stands to face off, while
  the student who did not answer is seated. The
  object is for a student to answer all questions
  correctly, and move Around the World. When a
  student answers incorrectly, they must take a
  seat at the point where they gave a wrong answer
  or did not get a chance to answer.

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Jeopardy

• Jeopardy trivia games are a great way to get
  students excited about reviewing. It can be
  played individually on a computer, or as a class
  (if your classroom has the means of projecting
  the computer image onto a Smartboard on a T.V.
  screen). Click on this link to get to a blank
  Jeopardy template, which you can then fill out
  with questions that suit the review needs of your
  class!