Plant Unit Week 3 - What are some different kinds of plants?

April 20th - April 24th, 2020

This week we will explore different kinds of plants. We suggest starting this week by asking your child if all plants are the same? How do you think they are different? You can discuss how some plants can grow very tall, such as trees, and some don’t grow that tall, such as grass. You can also discuss how some plants don’t need as much water as others do, or how some plants don’t make their own food, but catches it instead, such as a venus fly trap.

Prior to reading the foundation text, An Orange in January, brainstorm a list of where fruits and vegetables come from and how they got there. After reading and discussing some of the questions provided, please choose some of the related activities listed below. Incorporating writing and drawing whenever possible will help your child develop fine motor and literacy skills, as well as support your child’s ability to communicate his or her ideas and observations.

Enduring Understandings (what children should understand by the end of this unit) – Plants are living things. Every part of a plant has an important function. Plants grow from seeds, and need water, nutrients and light to live. Plants are all around us. There are many different kinds of plants. Plants are important for many reasons.

Key Vocabulary - bush, cactus, evergreen, grass, herbs, seaweed, succulent, tree, weeds, vegetables, water lily

Foundational Text- This week’s foundational text is An Orange in January by Dianna Hutts Aston (scan attached). This book is about the journey of an orange, starting by growing on a tree at the farm, being picked from the tree by a farm worker, and packed up for its journey on a truck to the grocery store. At the grocery store we continue to

follow the orange’s journey when a boy picks the orange and takes it with him to share as a snack with a friend.

Questions to ask your child after reading – (you do not have to ask all of them)

Where was the orange at the beginning of the book? Where was the orange at the end of the book?

How did the orange get from the tree to the grocery store?

The book says, “The petals fell away and the orange began to grow into what it was meant to be.” What was the orange meant to be?

The boy shared the orange. Why do you think he did that?

How do you think the other children felt when he shared the orange with them?

The illustrator of this book, Julie Maren, used curly lines to show the wind. Why do you think she did that? How would you show wind in a picture?

This book talks about how an orange grows and travels. How do you think other fruits grow and travel?

Activities you can try together –

Your child can create a picture of where they think an orange (or any fruit or vegetable of their choosing) comes from. Then they can draw a picture of what they will do with it.

O is for orange. What other objects can you find that start with the letter o. Draw pictures of what you find.

Your child can continue to journal the results of the plants they planted, as well as the bean in the ziplock experiment.

Your child can use Lego bricks to measure the height of their plants that they are growing.

Your child can continue planting seeds of different kinds of plants (flowers, succulent, and so on) and observe their progress.

Have a conversation with your child about the life cycle of a plant (seed, plant, flower, fruit, seed). Your child can draw and label the life cycle of a plant. They can cut them out and put the pictures in sequence of what comes first, second, and so on.

Your child can create a plant encyclopedia with pictures and names of an assortment of plants that they discover. Children can draw and label pictures of plants that are near the places they live or they can focus on plants that they find interesting.

Your child can rewatch the video of an apple growing. Discuss how this is the same as the orange in the book An Orange in January? How is it different?

https://watchandlearn.scholastic.com/videos/animals-and-plants/plants/an-apple-grows.html

Additional Books:

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss Carrots Grow Underground by Mari Schuh Try reading these together! Both are scanned and attached to the email!

The Enormous Turnip retold by Irene Yates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGw5yTOPTSQ

The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp9F50QzRa0 Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson https://bookflix.digital.scholastic.com/pair/detail/bk0025pr/story?authCtx=U.794217314

Please remember, reading is a daily activity! Choose additional books from your collection at home to practice important literacy skills. Choose books from different genres and about different subjects. Some books are even available on Youtube!

Music Connection:

5 LIttle Flowers by The Kiboomers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFWXPmUg_IQ

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtkPZtBQXgI

Everything Grows by Raffi https://youtu.be/ky5TNR_cGYY