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= = =The Standard our group chose to focus on is: = **Life Science** S1L1. Students will investigate the characteristics and basic needs of plants and animals. a. Identify the basic needs of a plant. 1. Air 2. Water 3. Light 4. Nutrients b. Identify the basic needs of an animal. 1. Air 2. Water 3. food 4. Shelter c. Identify the parts of a plant—root, stem, leaf, and flower. d. Compare and describe various animals—appearance, motion, growth, basic needs.
 * Project 4: Traveling Trunk for Plants **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Since this standard is split into two main elements, we decided to focus on element a., identify the basic needs of a plant. After choosing the standard we wanted to focus on, our group tackled the task of gathering the resources necessary for teaching a unit about the basic needs of plants. Two of our group members are first grade teachers, so they had many of the items available for teaching this unit. They also had wonderful ideas about lessons to include in the unit overall. Below is a list of the different items we decided to include in our traveling trunk, as well as a rationale for how these items can be used to teach about plants.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Inside the Trunk** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">In the traveling trunk, we included several items to teach the concepts of identifying the basic needs of a plant. Included in the trunk is the following:


 * 1) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Printed materials: A list of 10 books about plants
 * 2) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">6 artifacts
 * 3) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Music files
 * 4) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">An audio recording of The __Tiny Seed__ by Eric Carle
 * 5) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">A collection of images of vegetables, plants, and flowers
 * 6) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Poems about plants
 * 7) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Worksheets for teaching about the parts and basic needs of plants
 * 8) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">A list of 10 annotated websites
 * 9) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">A lesson plan
 * 10) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">A PowerPoint presentation to be used with the lesson plan
 * 11) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">A comic strip and instructional activity
 * 12) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">An original student-­created movie

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Printed Materials** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The printed materials included in the traveling trunk are a collection of 9 books about various topics relating to plants. The books vary in topics from seeds, trees, animals and how they contribute to plant development, fruit, and flowers. All of the books can be used throughout the unit to emphasize and demonstrate the basic needs of plants. The teacher could use these books for activities including, but not limited to, learning centers, listening centers, reading activities, writing activities, whole group instruction, individualized instruction, and reading and writing instruction. The books allow the teacher to weave the topic of plants throughout the curriculum, and give the students the opportunities to practice other skills and standards, such as language arts standards, while still maintaining the instructional theme of the unit.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Artifacts** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">There is a variety of artifacts included in the traveling trunk to help give students the opportunity to experiment, explore, and see real life examples of how important plants our to our daily lives. The pots for plants, potting soil, seeds, and beans allow students to complete activities where they can experiment with how plants grow. The Magnetic Plant Board, fake flowers and plants, and fake veggies and fruits allow students to manipulate and practice identifying the parts of a plant. The art supplies, such as scissors, glue, paper, etc., allow students to create versions of plants. The AIMS activities, books, and poems allow students to combine learning about plants while practicing other skills, such as reading and writing. The real vegetables and flowers give students the opportunities to have realia that helps them relate what they are learning about plants to their everyday lives. Each item was chosen to help create interesting, hands on activities that engage students in multiple modalities.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Music and Audio** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">To enhance the students experience while they learn about plants, we have included an audio recording of the book __The Tiny Seed__ by Eric Carle, as well as two songs about plants. The teacher could use these items for various reasons throughout the unit, including them in center time, or teaching the songs in a whole group setting as a way to help students remember parts of plants, what plants need, and how plants grow.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Images** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">There are 16 images included in the traveling trunk. The images range from plants, to vegetables, to flowers, to various parts of plants, such as leaves. The teacher could use these images to create smartboard activities, power points, or other instructional materials for the unit. In addition, the teacher might choose to use the images to create sorting activities, or identification activities for students, so that students have a visual representation of the concepts presented throughout the unit.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Worksheets** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">There are three worksheets in the form of Word documents included in the trunk, but there is an also a PDF that includes 10 more worksheets that can be used throughout the unit. Some of the worksheets include activities that can be used during learning center time, and require students to do things such as categorize plants or recognize how plants are made into common foods. Others require students to write about or graphic organize information they learn about plants and the needs of plants. All of the worksheets are intended to help students practice skills presented throughout the unit. A teacher might choose to use one or all of the worksheets, depending on the needs of their learners and the various concepts that are presented throughout the unit.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Websites** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The list of websites provides the teacher with resources that can be used throughout their plant unit. Some of the websites include games and activities the students can do on a smartboard or individually on a computer. Others include resources that can be used by the teacher, such as lesson plans, ideas for centers, and webquests. As with the worksheets, the teacher can select different websites from the list to help plan instruction and develop activities throughout the unit, based on the needs of the learners, and the resources available to the teacher.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Lesson Plan** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The lesson plan requires students to work in learning centers where they complete various activities related to the unit. Before these centers, the students complete a Smartboard activity based on the needs of plants and the parts of plants. They also watch a United Streaming video about plants. In center one, the students complete a webquest in a small group. They have the support of a volunteer, such as a parent or paraprofessional to help them with this task. In center two, the students create a flower using the materials provided which are: beans, paper, straw, string, glue, tissue paper, and scissors. In center three, the students complete a tree map of the parts of the plant we eat. The students have pictures of veggies and they have to sort the pictures under roots, stems, leaves, flowers/fruit as to what part we eat. In this center they also put together the magnetic flower board with the different parts of a flower and label correctly. In center four, the students answer the question: “Can we grow a plant without soil?”. In this center, students do an activity where they place different beans in wet paper towels and Ziploc bags. The students hang their creations in a window, and monitor their beans progress over the next two weeks to see what happens to the soilless seeds. Throughout the process, the students keep a journal to help them track their seeds progress.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Power Point** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The power point that we created was about what parts of a plant we eat. The students view the power point in this center, and then use the information they used to help fill out a tree map activity. The students also come up with examples of different parts of plants that we eat.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Comic Strip and Instructional Activity** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The comic strip was created about the basic needs of a plant. The comic feature two students discussing the needs of a plant, and how they can remember them for a test. In the comic, a girl sees her friend and he is distraught. He has a test about the need of a plant, and can’t remember them. She helps him remember a plants needs by talking to him. The students are outside, and the girl points out things a plant needs, such as nutrients, air, light and water. She uses examples around her, like the ground, the sun, and the rain to help her friend remember. At the end of the comic, the little boy is able to remember plants basic needs for his test, because he remembers talking to his friend about these things. In addition to the comic strip, there is an instructional activity complete with an assessment for students to do in the unit. The activity requires students to create their own comic strips about the basic needs of plants, and gives students the opportunity to practice technology skills and standards, language arts standards, and the science standard we chose for this traveling trunk.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Student Created Movie** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The student created movie is about the parts of a plant and how plants grow. In the movie, students discuss how plants begin, and what they need to grow. The movie is listed as a resource in the comic strip instructional activity, but teachers could use the movie in any capacity based on how they decide to present material. The strength of the movie is that it is student created, and features young children talking about the parts of the plant and what plants need to grow. Students will love to see other students presenting information about the same topic they are learning in class, and might be inspired to create a movie of their own!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Conclusion** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">We hope that others find our traveling trunk as useful as we will to teach a unit about plant to first graders. All of the items included in the trunk can be used for the lessons included, but can also be used to create further lessons that can be added to the trunk in the future. Due to the volume and variety of items in the trunk, a teacher could also choose to modify lessons based on their own needs and the needs of their students. In the future this trunk will be used to teach about plants by at least two first grade teachers, and can be shared with and added to by others.