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Plant Secrets

Summary
Starting with a seed, shows the cycle to plants, flowers, fruits, seeds. Each stage has a secret, which is the next stage.
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Type of resource
Book
Resource details

Plant Secrets by Emily Goodman. 2009. Published by Charlesbridge.

Notes

Pretty good for the plant cycle. Will keep looking for better.

Mason bees

Summary
Look at mason bee cocoons then place them in a mason bee house installed near early flowering plants.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Materials
  • mason bee cocoons e.g. West Coast seeds product
  • mason bee house e.g. bought or home made
  • an East facing tree or wall, where the house can be placed out of reach
Procedure

Hand out magnifiers and practice using them by looking at fingerprints. Take time to make sure every student is using it correctly.

Tip the cocoons out of their box and place on students' desks, so that they can look at them closely.
Before half an hour is up, return the cocoons to their box, and take outside to place in the installed mason bee house.

Explain how the bees will hatch within a couple of weeks (the males first). Then they will mate, and the females will lay eggs in the tubes of the house. Over the following months, into the Fall, the eggs will hatch, a larva will grow, and eventually make a cocoon to protect it through the winter. The adult bees will hatch out next early Spring. (Cocoons that have been harvested and sold are kept at fridge temperature, so that the bees do not emerge until the cocoons are placed outside.)

Attached documents
animal life cycles summary_0.pdf
Grades taught
Gr 2
Gr 3

Plants interacting with animals

Summary
Study various animals that plants interact with: look at worms, look at a herbivore jaw, make a bird feeder.
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Procedure

Plants are not isolated - they interact with other living things.
Choose a part of this lesson plan.

Plants and worms:
Use magnifiers to closely observe worms. Label a drawing of a worm.
Class discussion on structures of worm (hearts, breathe through skin).
How are worms linked to plants? They make the soil that the plants grow in. Look for dark soil being made in the gut of the worm.

Plants and herbivores:
Plants are tough. Animals that eat them need specialized teeth to crush the tough plant cell walls.
Sit at carpet and look at the teeth in herbivore jaws. Molar means “millstone”.
Show deer skull and jaws fitting closely together to grind the plants.

Show some of the plant structures with plant printing. The xylem and phloem vessels that make the branching patterns have cell walls made of tough cellulose. Cellulose molecules make up all the cell walls of plant cells. Herbivores can’t break down the cellulose. They have to smash open the cell walls to get to the sugars and other nutrients inside.

Plants and birds:
What do birds eat? Seeds. (Reference seeds studied, or seeds planted by the class.)
Make bird feeder with pine cone, lard and seeds.

Notes

with discussion of the Indigenous use of plants would work well at the end of this lesson.

Grades taught
Gr 3
Gr 4
Gr 5
Gr 6

Measuring and estimating plant height

Summary
Use plants for measuring and estimating. I used the butterfly garden at Gordon.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Materials
  • Worksheet (attached)
  • Clipboard and pencil
  • Tape measure or metre rule
Procedure

Students work singly or in groups on the worksheet. Start different groups at different numbers.

Attached documents
measuring_plants_worksheet.pdf
Grades taught
Gr 3

Plants: vessels in plants

Summary
Use a microscope to see the cells that transport water up the plant. Print with plants, which highlights the vessels.
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Procedure

Discuss how plants get water to all parts of the plant (via the xylem vessels) and how food moves from the leaves to the rest of the plant (via the phloem).
Do the activities in any order, maybe rotate through stations.

Grades taught
Gr 3

Plant xylem vessels under the microscope

Summary
Use microscopes to view the xylem vessels that transport the water up the plant.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Materials
  • Celery that has been in blue food colouring for an hour
  • Razor blade, or sharp blade
  • Microscope
  • Water and dropper
  • Slide and coverslip
Procedure

We will look at the part of the plant that takes the water from the roots to the leaves and the rest of the plant.
See the blue spots in this stem - this stem was sitting in food dye for the last hour and the water moved up the stem and so did the food dye. The dye shows us where the cells are that take the water up the stem.

Make thin-as-possible slices of celery across the stem, to include one or two blue spots per sample.
One slice on a slide.
Add a coverslip.
Add drops of water until there is water under the whole cover slip.
Look at under the lowest magnification of the microscope first, then increase the power to see the xylem vessels in detail.

Draw the cells.

Grades taught
Gr 3

What do plants need to grow?

Summary
Find out what conditions plants need to germinate and grow, then plant seeds knowing what they need for successful growth.
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Needs of Living Things (grade 1)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Procedure

Look at the results of what seeds need to germinate and how gravity affects seed germination, and summarize what plants need to germinate and grow: the seed needs water, air and darkness to germinate. Once the leaves are formed the plant needs water, air and light. Seeds send their roots down and their shoots up through responding to gravity.

Students plant seeds in soil. They can look after them knowing that they need water to grow. They have darkness as they are under the soil. They get air through the spaces in the soil.

Students dissect a seed to see where the plant comes from.

Grades taught
Gr 3

Seed study

Summary
Dissect a large bean seed to find the embryonic root and shoot.
Look closely at a dandelion seed with its attached parachute.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Needs of Living Things (grade 1)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Materials
  • Large seeds e.g. broad bean seeds, soaked overnight before use
  • Tiny seeds on parachute e.g. dandelion (pick from dried head for each student)
  • Optional: paper and pencil to draw observations
Procedure

A day or two before the class drop a bean per student into a shallow dish of tap water, so that the coat softens and the seeds swell (and the root will even grow a but). Dry on paper towels before handing to students.

Students pick off the seed coat, and split open their seed. Look for the tiny root sticking out (more visible when the seed is pre-soaked a day longer), and the tiny leaf next to it. (Older students: the root and shoot make up the plant embryo)
The other parts are food for the growing plant, until it has leaves and can make it's own food. (Older students: the cotyledon where the plant gets it's food from as it germinates.)

Time lapse of a bean seed sending out roots and its shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w77zPAtVTuI

Give students one dandelion seed (with an intact parachute).
Have them look really closely at the seed hanging from the parachute, and how they get carried in the wind.
Video on the recently understood aerodynamics of a dandelion seed and why they stay aloft for so long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2UbaDV9O9Q
(Good segue into Wind blown seed design activity.)

Notes

Page 10 from the resource book has a good image of the inside of a seed.

Grades taught
Gr K
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3
Gr 4
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