Exploring Our Senses (Originally Written for Kindergarten)
Theme: Students explore the garden through sensory awareness activities and garden projects such as digging, planting, watering, and harvesting.
Science Explorations: Students gain an understanding of how they can use their senses to learn about the world around them.
Process Skills: Students develop cooperative skills by participating in activities and working together to grow a garden.
In this unit, students explore a variety of activities that focus on developing sensory awareness and on growing plants.
Life Science: Plants have different growing requirements. Work in the garden causes changes that can be described.
Earth Science: Soil can be wet or dry. Tools can be used to dig in soil. Water can wash away soil.
Physical Science: Water has physical properties that can be described.
Science, Technology, and Society: People can grow food. They can eat it raw or cooked. Different tools are used for different jobs.
Step into the morning freshness of a garden, and your senses come alive. A rainbow of colors surrounds you as you listen to the birds chirp, smell freshly-turned soil, and feel the velvety texture of a petal. With little conscious effort, your eyes, ears, nose, and hands have begun to explore the natural world.
Through the activities and free exploration stations provided in this unit, children learn to use their senses to investigate the natural world. The garden becomes a living laboratory, where students can expand their sensory awareness. In future units, students will continue to explore the garden as they investigate water, soil, plants, and animals. Lessons in each unit are either organized as free exploration stations, called Explorer Posts, or teacher-directed activities. Explorer Posts give children the opportunity to freely explore a skill or a material, while the activities present a directed exploration of science concepts and process skills.
Some gardening projects in this unit are ongoing; others are seasonal. All of the information you will need for each gardening activity is included in the lesson or can be found in Gardening KnowHow for the ’90s, by Dick Raymond. Make time for gardening activities, even if your garden consists of a planting box. No matter how small the garden, it will become a focus for learning important lessons about caring for living things and cooperating to achieve a common goal.
This unit marks the start of a year of exploration for you and your students. Use the Planner in each unit to guide your exploration, but feel free to strike out on your own. Choose the activities that best suit your students, your teaching style, and the season of the year. All of the lessons provide opportunities for cooperative learning and challenge students to solve problems and share discoveries.
2- Song: “Take the Time to Wonder”
3- Introduction
4- Student Goals
5- Activity Chart
7- Unit Planner
8- Recommended Literature
9- Parent Letter
10- Hello, Garden (touring the class garden)
13- Explorer Post 1: Through the Looking Glass (exploring magnifying lenses).
15- Garden Shape Search (honing observation skill)
18- Rattling Roundup (developing listening skills).
21- Know Your Nose (developing sense of smell)
24- Mirrors (practicing cooperation skills).
27- Ball Balance (problems solving with a partner)
29- Explorer Post 2: Harvest Time (harvesting and
exploring vegetables).
31- Tools Together (using and sharing garden tools).
34- Explorer Post 3: Garden Store (pretending to market crops).
36- Grow a Garden (sowing seeds in the garden)
39- Alphabet Garden (growing a plant for each letter of the alphabet).
Exploring Soil (Originally Written For Kindergarten)
Theme: Students use their senses and a variety of tools to explore soils and rocks.
Science Explorations: Students become aware of some of the physical characteristics of soil and rocks, and how soil and rocks react with water. Students observe how living creatures interact with the soil.
Process Skills: Students continue to develop observation and comparison skills as they share their observations during investigations.
In this unit, students explore a variety of concepts through activities that focus on the physical properties of soil and rocks, the ways soil and rocks react to water and to various animals.
Life Science: Plants and animals are found in the soil. Their lives depend on properties of the soil.
Earth Science: Soil is composed of a variety of materials derived from living and nonliving sources. There are different kinds of soil. Rocks vary in color, shape, texture, hardness and type of streak they produce.
Physical Science: Soil and rocks are changed by water.
Science, Technology, and Society: How people treat the soil affects the lives of plants and animals. Rocks can be used for writing and drawing.
Go to the garden and work with the soil. Feel it between your fingers (and maybe even your toes). Breathe in the earth’s aroma. Think back to when soil was something to play in. Did you throw dirt bombs? Dig to China? Jump off piles of mounded soil? Bake mud pies or build mud walls and tunnels?
Your memories will enrich your students’ explorations in this unit.. As students play with worms, “cook” mud pies, mix dirt soup, and collect soil, they will be using their senses to investigate the physical properties of soil. They will also use a variety of tools including trowels, spoons, unglazed tiles, and paper clips to explore soil and rocks. In the process, they will learn that soil is composed of various substances, and observe how the texture of soil changes when it becomes wet. They will discover how rocks and soil are related. In addition, they will find that some rocks can be used as tools for writing. They will explore, too, how rocks break and how worms move through soil.
Your kindergartners will use their fingers, hands, eyes, and ears to make these messy but revealing discoveries. Be prepared for them to get dirty! For many children, the best part of the garden is the soil. Most of the activities in this unit are based on games and play activities that children are likely to do on their own in the garden. They will enrich students’ understanding of their previous experiences with soil. The activities and the Explorer Posts included in this unit provide many opportunities for children to share their ideas and observations. As they take part in the various investigations, they will develop skills in communicating, comparing, and observing.
Try to teach this unit at a time of year when students have plenty of opportunities to participate in garden activities that get them in touch with the earth. It may be a time when they can prepare garden beds, weed, or plant. As in previous units, do not feel you must complete every activity. Choose those that best suit your students, your teaching environment, and your teaching style.
44- Song: “Dirt Made My Lunch”
45- Introduction
46- Student Goals
47- ActivityChart
49- Unit Planner
50- Recommended Literature
51- Parent Letter
52- A Hole Is to Dig (discovering what garden soil
conceals).
55- Explorer Post 1: Soil Sift ( using tools to explore
the properties of soil)
57- Pieces of Soil (collecting and sorting soil particles).
60- Explorer Post 2: Mud Pies (exploring wet soil)
62- Dirt Soup (comparing degrees of change as soil
becomes saturated).
65- Explorer Post 3: Pet Rocks (using tools to explore properties of rocks).
67- Getting to Know You ( closely observing characteristics of rocks).
70- The Write Stuff (comparing the ability of different rocks to make streaks).
73- Rock Hard (comparing the hardness of different
rocks).
76- Explorer Post 4: Worms (getting acquainted with earthworms).
78- Hello, Worm (observing the characteristics earthworms)
81- Worm Race (exploring earthworms burrowing
into soil)
Exploring Water (Originally Written For Kindergarten)
Theme: Students develop skills in handling and using a variety of tools and materials as they explore liquid water.
Science Explorations: Students gain knowledge of such physical properties of liquid water as adhesion, fluidity, buoyancy, and absorption through activities and experiments.
Process Skills: Students continue to develop communication and observation skills, as they are encouraged to make predictions, draw conclusions, and share ideas.
In this unit, students explore a variety of concepts through activities that focus on the physical properties of liquid water and the ways it reacts to other substances.
Life Science: Liquid water affects both living and nonliving things.
Earth Science: Water is all around us.
Physical Science: Water in its liquid state has special properties that can be observed. Some objects float in water, while others sink.
Science, Technology, and Society: Explorations in science help people better understand materials that they use everyday.
Stand in the garden during a rain and watch the water stream, drip, flow, and ripple, constantly seeking its own level. Notice the way the water beads on leaves, stretches into tear drops, and then oozes down the stems. Study the way it coats rocks, sinks into soil, and forms puddles. See the way leaves, sticks, and seeds float down tiny rivers, swirl past rock islands, and eventually settle far from where they started.
In this unit, children explore liquid water’s unique physical properties. Students are also introduced to the effects water has on living and nonliving things. Through open and guided explorations, children will experiment with such characteristics of water as adhesion, fluidity, buoyancy, and absorption. They will experience and define each characteristic in their own terms. In their investigations, students will also use tools, such as medicine droppers, funnels, and sieves. As they develop ideas and questions, children will have opportunities to share their thoughts and observations. The activities will also enhance their communication and observation skills.
As in previous units, the activities may be taught in any order, although free exploration stations (Explorer Posts) are placed in the units to allow students to freely explore a skill or a material prior to a related directed activity. You are not expected to complete every activity. Choose the ones that fit the needs of your students, match your teaching style, and are appropriate for the season of the year.
86- Song: “River Song”
87- Introduction
88- Student Goals
89- Activity Chart
91- Unit Planner
92- Recommended Literature
93- Parent Letter
94- Rain Clouds (watering the garden)
97- Explorer Post 1: Water Jugs (exploring water as it pours).
99- The Shape of Water (examining water in containers)
102- Explorer Post 2: Water Drops (exploring drops of water)
104- Sticky Drops (investigating water that clings).
107- Explorer Post 3: Sink or Float (exploring what sinks or floats in water)
109- Floating Boats (predicting what will sink or float)
112- Explorer Post 4: Out in the Rain (exploring absorbency and repellency).
114- Rain Coats (investigating water repellency)
117- Garden Pools (constructing leakproof tools)
120- Explorer Post 5: Leaks Like a Sieve (using sieves to explore water)
122- Watering Cans (experimenting with water and sieves).
125- Seed Shower (watering techniques)
128- Garden Rain (fresh look at watering the garden)
Exploring Plants (Originally Written For Kindergarten)
Theme: As students explore plants, they continue to practice the use of tools, such as scales and magnifying lenses.
Science Explorations: Students learn that vascular plants are made up of roots, stems, and leaves.
Process Skills: Students continue to develop observation and comparison skills, as they communicate what they observe about plants.
In this unit, students explore a variety of concepts through activities that focus on the properties of plant parts.
Life Science: Plants have different parts.
Earth Science: Plants grow in soil.
Physical Science: Plant parts can be described by different characteristics. They differ in color, shape, and size.
Science, Technology, and Society: People eat different parts of plants.
Kindergarten is a time of exploration. Children explore the various parts of their world, including plants, through play. The stalks of broccoli on their dinner plate become trees in a forest. Peas make nifty marbles. As they play, children investigate with all of their senses. They not only look and listen, but also touch, taste, and smell.
In this unit, students play a.s they examine many different plants. In the process, they explore the various parts that make up a plant and discover similarities and differences among plants. Through the activities included in this unit, children also enhance their language skills and expand their vocabulary. Math and art activities assist students in perceiving shapes and in identifying the color and other physical properties of plants.
Plants furnish us with food, shelter, medicine, and clothing. In times past, even very young children helped their families grow food and collect plant parts from fields and forests. Today, most children have no experience with plants and know little or nothing of even those plants we depend on for survival. For example, most children may have heard the word root, but few will associate the word with a carrot. Indeed they may not even know that carrots are plants that grow from seeds.
Do carrots grow? Are sprouts noodles? These are questions that children sometimes ask and that experience can truly answer. Through their garden explorations, students learn not only how plants grow but also where food comes from. When a carrot is pulled from the ground, a child immediately understands that it is a root. When lettuce is picked from a stalk, it is unmistakably a leaf. Try to teach this unit at a time when a variety of plants are ready for harvest. As children harvest these crops, they will deepen their understanding of plants as organisms that people depend on.
132- Song: “Roots, Stems, Leaves”
133- Introduction
134- Student Goals
135- Activity Chart
137- Unit Planner
138- Recommended Literature
139- Parent Letter
140- Plant Tell (observing plants in the garden)
143- Explorer Post 1: Seeds ( using tools to explore seeds)
145- Seeds Sort (sorting seeds into categories)
148- Sprouts About (germinating edible seeds indoors).
152- Explorer Post 2: Leaves and Stems (using tools to explore plant parts)
154- Leaf Rubbings (sorting leaves by characteristics)
157- Trace That Stem (examining plant stems)
160- Bean Teepees (planting seeds in the garden)
163- Explorer Post 3: Roots (using tools to explore roots)
165- Root Gardens (examining roots; planting root view boxes).
169- Seedling Home (transplanting seedlings into the garden)
172- Explorer Post 4: Flowers (exploring flowers and painting flower pictures).
174- Flower Power (discovering structure and properties of flowers)
177- Fruit Salad (comparing fruits and making a fruit salad)
179- Weed Pluckers (recognizing plant characteristics of garden weeds)
182- Anatomy of a Snack (recognizing plant parts of edible plants)
Exploring Garden Animals (Originally Written for Kindergarten)
Theme: Students use their senses to explore animals through drama, math, art, and language arts.
Science Explorations: Students become aware of some of the physical and behavioral characteristics of animals, how animals respond to people, and what different animals need for survival.
Process Skills: Students continue to develop observation and comparison skills as they identify animal behavior, draw a variety of animals, and record information in books and graphs.
In this unit, students explore a variety of concepts related to the properties and characteristics of animals.
Life Science: Animals have specific structures, behaviors, and survival needs. Many animals depend directly upon plants for food and shelter.
Earth Science: Some animals use soil and rocks for shelter.
Physical Science: Animals can be identified by their unique physical characteristics. Animals move in different ways.
Science, Technology, and Society: Some animals eat plants that people grow for food.
Whether chasing butterflies and grasshoppers, following ant trails, or petting snails, children are avid explorers of animal life. They project themselves and their emotions onto various animals in such interactions. Their interest in animals can provide a springboard for activities that hone observation skills and develop the ability to compare and contrast animals.
The animals children explore in this unit are not the warm, fuzzy animals they have as pets or even as stuffed animals. There are no mammals in this unit. Most are classified as arthropods-spiders, sow bugs or pill bugs, insects and other similar critters. These are members of the phylum Arthropoda, which means “jointed foot,” and contains the most animal species of all the classifications. Some children may find these animals strange or even frightening. For most, however, that strangeness will be part of the fascination. Give children many opportunities to observe these animals. If you are squeamish about creepy crawlers, try not to pass on your fears to your students. Instead, enlist the help of knowledgeable volunteers or older students to help introduce the animals to the class.
The garden is home to hundreds of animals. As children garden or participate in other outdoor learning activities, they are bound to encounter many of these creatures. Together, the first five activities in this unit provide a model for the investigation of each new acquaintance, as they can easily be adapted to the study of almost any garden animal. This set of model activities is followed by seven lessons, each of which gives specific suggestions for studying a certain type of common animal-sow bugs and pill bugs, snails and slugs, spiders, caterpillars, millipedes, crickets, and birds. In these lessons, you will also find information about the collection, care, anatomy, and behavior of each of these critters.
186- Song: “We’re Animals”
187- Introduction
188- Student Goals
189- Activity Chart
191- Unit Planner
192- Recommended Literature
193- Parent Letter
194- Garden Neighbors (finding animals in the garden).
197- Animal Investigations (using tools to explore garden animals)
199- Animal Antics (observing and miming garden animal behavior.)
202- Animal Math (observing animal characteristics and making a graph)
205- Animal Art (drawing live garden animals)
208- Animal Book (making a class book about garden animals)
211- Exploring Sow Bugs and Pill Bugs ( using model activities to explore these animals)
215- Exploring Snails and Slugs (using model activities to explore these animals)
219- Exploring Spiders (using model activities to explore this animal)
223- Exploring Caterpillars ( using model activities to explore this animal)
227- Exploring Millipedes (using model activities to explore this animal)
231- Exploring Crickets (using model activities to explore his animal)
235- Exploring Birds ( using model activities to explore this animal)
239- Animal Hunt Revisited (a fresh look at animals in the garden)
Garden Celebration (Originally Written for Kindergarten)
Theme: Students display what they have learned about using their senses to explore their environment.
Science Explorations: Students apply their knowledge of soil, water, plants, and garden animals to create lasting projects.
Process Skills: Students demonstrate their skills in observing, comparing, and communicating through exploration.
In this unit, students apply a variety of concepts that were developed in previous units.
Life Science: Plants and animals have specific growing requirements.
Earth Science: Soil is composed of different things.
Physical Science: Both living and nonliving things have physical properties that can be observed and described.
Science, Technology, and Society: People can grow food to eat.
It’s spring and the school year is coming to a close-a good time to reflect on all that you have accomplished. In the garden, you have weeded, watered, and watched seeds grow into blossoming plants. The changes you nurtured were in your students as well as in the garden. They explored, questioned, tested ideas, and expanded their horizons. Their adventures have built a firm foundation for future science learning. They have discovered how their senses can help them investigate the natural world. And they have learned how they can enhance those investigations with tools ranging from magnifying glasses to balances to shovels and rakes. The children have also learned to work together to explore the properties of water and soil, discover how plants grow, and investigate the worlds of garden animals.
Completing the activities in this unit will encourage students to think about what they have learned throughout the year. They repeat some explorations and activities so that they can display their increased understanding and knowledge. Keep a clipboard and a pen handy as you assess not only your students’ growing knowledge, but also their cooperative skills and their increasing ability to build and reflect on their own learning. In encouraging your students to learn how to learn, you have given them a teacher’s greatest gift. In this unit, students celebrate and pass on that gift by creating a Garden Big Book and planting a Halloween Garden for next year’s kindergartners. They cap their first year of Life Lab with a Garden Festival to celebrate their own achievements and say “thank you” to those who helped make those achievements possible.
244- Song: “Be Happy”
245- Introduction
246- Student Goals
247- Activity Chart
248- Unit Planner
249- Recommended Literature
250- Parent Letter
251- Pass It On (creating a class Garden Big Book)
254- A Hole Is to Dig II (a fresh look at what soil conceals)
257- Exploring Water (fresh look at the properties of water)
260- Animal Explorations (a fresh look at garden animals)
263- Halloween Garden (planting a fall garden for next year’s class)
267- Garden Festival Plans (organizing an end-of year garden celebration.)
270- Garden Salad (reviewing plant parts of salad vegetables.)
272- Garden Festival (end-of-year garden celebration.)
Sensing Our World (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students practice using their senses to explore the world around them.
Science Explorations: Students gain an awareness of the garden as a living laboratory.
Process Skills: Students explore different ways of cooperating with one another through working together in the garden, sharing ideas, and listening.
In this unit, students explore life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through lessons that focus on using the senses to learn about objects and the environment.
Life Science: Humans, like animals, use their senses to learn about the world around them.
Earth Science: The garden is a place where plants and animals live.
Physical Science: Objects in the garden have properties that can be observed.
A feast far the eyes.
A tickling of the taste buds .
Music to the ears.
Through our senses we experience the world. We rely on our senses to inform us of danger and opportunity. Our senses delight and inspire us by bringing richness and variety to our lives. In this, the first unit of the year, students consciously use their senses as they be:gin to explore the natural world. They also begin to examine the two themes for the year-diversity and cycles. As they use their senses to examine objects, they discover the enormous diversity in the world. Our senses alert us to change, so they are also a natural starting place for exploring cycles.
An exploration of the senses is a good beginning to a year of active science learning. It helps students develop observation, comparison, and communication skills that will be built on throughout the year. In this unit, students focus on one sense at a time. Later they make more complex observations. By comparing and contrasting objects, students begin to distinguish living from nonliving things. Partner and group work give students practice in communicating what they observe and understand.
Observing plants and animals in .the garden is a good way for students to practice using their senses. Two activities in this unit introduce students to the garden and help them appreciate it as a place f01r learning. Other ways of involving students in the garden are provided in the Digging Deeper and In the Garden sections of the unit.
2- Song: “Take the Time to Wonder”
3- Introduction
4- Student Goals
5- Activity Chart
7- Unit Planner
8- Recommended Literature
9- Parent Letter
10- Hello, Garden (touring the class garden)
13- Explorer Post 1: Through the Looking Glass (exploring magnifying lenses).
15- Garden Shape Search (honing observation skill)
18- Rattling Roundup (developing listening skills).
21- Know Your Nose (developing sense of smell)
24- Mirrors (practicing cooperation skills).
27- Ball Balance (problems solving with a partner)
29- Explorer Post 2: Harvest Time (harvesting and
exploring vegetables).
31- Tools Together (using and sharing garden tools).
34- Explorer Post 3: Garden Store (pretending to market crops).
36- Grow a Garden (sowing seeds in the garden)
39- Alphabet Garden (growing a plant for each letter of the alphabet).
Investigating Seeds (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students explore the diversity of seeds and the ways seeds change.
Science Explorations: Students gain an awareness of the growth process and explore some of the characteristics of living things.
Process Skills: Students practice observation skills and are introduced to the process of making predictions and categorizing information.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through lessons that focus on the characteristics of seeds.
Life Science: A seed is the part of a plant from which a new plant grows. There are many kinds of seeds and they all share the characteristics of living things.
Earth Science: Seeds require water to germinate.
Physical Science: Seeds have physical properties that can be observed and described.
It is tempting to think of a seed as magic. Every seed-no matter how small-contains all of the genetic information needed to produce an entire plant. Although all seeds serve the same function-the creation of new plants-they come in an incredible variety of shapes and sizes. As students compare and contrast seeds, they explore one aspect of this year’s theme: diversity. Their study of seeds also leads to an exploration of the characteristics of living things, an exploration that will also continue throughout the year.
Building on skills and concepts introduced.in the previous unit, this. unit helps students practice their observation skills. They compare and contrast various kinds of seeds. They also look for ways seeds differ from non-seeds. And they monitor seeds as the seeds germinate and grow. In addition, students are introduced to the GuessTest-Tell method of investigation. They begin by predicting the results of simple experiments.
In the garden, students begin to observe changes in. seeds and plants. After watching seeds germinate, students plant their own seeds. They also become aware that different seeds produce different plants.
36- Song: “Roots, Stems, Leaves”
37- Introduction
38- Student Goals
39- Activity Chart
40- Unit Planner
41- Recommended Literature
42- Parent Letter
43- Is It a Seed? (sorting seeds and non-seeds)
46- Full of Beans (sorting beans by characteristics)
49- Seed Soaks (predicting the effect of soaking peas)
53- Coming Up (predicting the outcome of planting peas seeds)
57- Seed Source (discovering seeds inside apples)
60- Seeds Match-up (matching seeds with fruits)
Exploring Soil (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students observe that different kinds of plants and animals live in the soil, and explore the diversity of living and nonliving things found there.
Science Exploration: Students begin to identify living objects as plants and animals.
Process Skills: Students observe and compare objects
The activities in this unit develop a variety of Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts related to soil and the living things found in the soil.
Life Science: Many living things are found in garden soil.
Earth Science: Soil is made up of many things. Soil is an example of something nonliving.
Physical Science: Soil has properties that can be observed and described.
Scoop up a handful of soil and you may see pebbles, grains of sand, bits of leaves and twigs, a piece of bone, and perhaps even an ant or earthworm. H you were to look at the soil through a microscope, you would find a busy world of tiny animals moving around and through the soil particles. Soil is crowded with living creatures, ranging from microscopic bacteria and fungi, to earthworms and millipedes, to gophers and moles. Soil provides the foundation for life on Earth. From the soil grow plants that provide food for people and other animals. Without soil, none of us could survive.
In this unit, students examine garden soil and the plants and animals living in it. Their investigations provide opportunities to explore one of this year’s themes: diversity. As they examine the rich variety of living things in soil, students begin to appreciate diversity in the natural world as a whole.
This unit also provides opportunities for students to practice their observation skills and apply these skills to the Guess-Test-Tell process. Students sharpen these skills as they make careful observations about the properties of soil and perceive changes in things that live in the soil.
Using the soil in their own garden as a focus of study, students begin to explore the diversity and workings of the garden environment. They gain insights into the ways garden plants and animals affect the soil. Students also begin to appreciate how they as gardeners can affect the soil.
64- Song: “Dirt Made My Lunch”
65- Introduction
66- Student Goals
67- Activity Chart
68- Unit Planner
69- Recommended Literature
70- Parent Letter
71- Going on a Worm Hunt (setting up a Worm Hotel; collecting worms)
75- Soil Discoveries (sorting the contents of a cup of soil)
78- It’s in the Bag, Part I (composting oil and plant materials in a bag)
81- Pitfall Traps (collecting garden animals in small traps)
85- It’s in the Bag, Part II (examining the contents of the compost bags)
87- Plants in Soil (planting seedlings in soil with compost)
90- The Dirt on Soil (creating a class book about soil)
Observing Earth’s Cycles (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students explore changes and patterns of change, including cycles, that take place daily and seasonally.
Science Explorations: Students investigate changes in shadows, day and night, the moon, and living things.
Process Skills: By recording and comparing their observations, students begin to describe patterns of change.
This unit develops a variety of concepts related to cycles and change.
Life Science: Living things change.
Earth Science: There is a cycle of day and night, as well as a moon cycle.
Physical Science: We can measure changes.
Science, Technology, and Society: Natural patterns of change affect the way we live.
When will Saturday be here? How long until dinner? Is it almost time to pick our peas? The coming, going, and recurrence of events are important to all of us-even children. We depend on the predictable, cyclical nature of our lives to plan our weekdays, our weekends, our wardrobes, our gardens, and other aspects of our lives.
This unit provides ways for students to observe changes in the natural world, enabling them to begin exploring one of the year’s themes: cycles. The activities in this unit stimulate students’ interest in change. The unit also develops the skills students need to detect changes and observe patterns of change. As they explore, students come to their own conclusions about the how and why of several simple changes, which later will help them understand more abstract changes such as yearly cycles and seasons.
Examining change and unraveling patterns are exciting and vital skills for young scientists. By learning to focus on what they see and record what they discover, students are stimulated to explore at deeper levels. In addition to reinforcing and extending the observation skills emphasized in previous units, this unit provides opportunities for students to enhance their cooperative skills. Most of the activities are designed to allow students to work together in pairs or small groups.
The garden is a good place for students to observe change. The more familiar students are with the garden, the easier it will be for them to notice changes there. Many gardening ideas are included in Gardening Know-How for the ’90s, and the In the Garden and Digging Deeper sections of this unit.
94- Song: “Nocturnal Animals”
95- Introduction
96- Student Goals
97- Activity Chart
98- Unit Planner
99- Recommended Literature
100- Parent Letter
101- The Difference a Day Makes (observing objects change during the course of a day)
104- Me and My shadow (observing a pencil’s shadow during the course of a day)
108- Day Circles (role playing daily cycles)
111- Moon Watchers (recording changes in the moon)
114- Collector’s Corner (collecting objects and sorting them into categories)
118- A Tree for All Seasons (observing and drawing changes in a tree outdoors)
121- Checking Out Changes (predicting change in the garden)
Investigating Weather (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students develop their understanding of various weather phenomena and the effects of these phenomena on living and nonliving things.
Science Explorations: Students observe both changes in weather and changes caused by various weather phenomena.
Process Skills: Students practice observing weather over time and record their observations
Process Skills: Students develop cooperative skills by participating in activities and working together to grow a garden.
The activities in this unit develop a variety of concepts related to weather.
Life Science: Living things respond to changes in the weather.
Earth Science: Wind, precipitation, and temperature are weather conditions.
Physical Science: Changes in direction, temperature, and volume can be measured.
Science, Technology, and Society: Weather is an important part of our daily lives. It affects what we wear and what we do.
The sky goes dark. A clap of thunder rattles the window panes. Even young children know that something is about to happen. What they may not know is how the darkened sky and the thunder are connected to the rainstorm that follows. As they explore the activities in this unit, students begin to make such connections.
In this unit, students develop the skills needed to recognize the elements that make up the weather, and to identify changes in weather. They observe a flag fluttering in the breeze, cloud formations, and the way the sky changes through the course of a thunder storm. The children are introduced to simple measurements so that they can not only tell that things change, but also determine the extent of those changes.
As children observe changes over time, they make connections. They become aware of the patterns that underlie the changes in the weather from day to day. They may watch temperatures drop as winter approaches. Or they may discover that hot, humid days breed thunderstorms.
Just as farmers watch the sky and listen to weather reports in order to plan their activities, students begin to discover how weather affects the garden. They discover that rainfall, wind, frost, dry spells, and everything in between affects what grows and how well it grows. The better they understand weather, the more skilled they will become as gardeners-knowing when to plant and when to harvest, when to protect seedlings from cold, and when to water.
126- Song “River Song”
127- Introduction
128- Student Goals
129- Activity Chart
130- Unit Planner
131- Recommended Literature
132- Parent Letter
133- Weather Stories (sharing stories about weather)
136- Weather Wizards (recording daily weather conditions)
139- Hot to Cold (predicting and recording temperatures of objects)
143- Drop in the Bucket (learning to use a home-made rain gauge)
147- The Waving Wind (observing wind and its effects)
150- Storm Watch (observing and drawing a storm; nothing its effects on the garden)
153- Weather Roundup (synthesizing weather data)
156- Mt Weather Report (creating weather reports and predicting tomorrow’s weather)
Exploring Plant Life (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students explore the diversity of plants and the stages of the plant life cycle.
Science Explorations: Students identify similarities in the structures and life cycles of seed-bearing plants.
Process Skills: Students apply observation skills to identifying patterns, making comparisons, and predicting outcomes.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through activities that focus on the structure and life cycle of plants.
Life Science: Different kinds of plants have structural similarities that can be observed. All seed-bearing plants share a similar life cycle.
Earth Science: The Earth, its atmosphere, and the sun provide resources for plants to grow and change.
Physical Science: Change can be measured.
Living things in general and plants in particular make Earth unique among the planets. Even a passing glance at the world about us reveals an astonishing range and assortment of plant life. In this unit, students examine the diversity of plants, and, through that close scrutiny, uncover unexpected similarities in the structures and life cycles of plants.
The first step in studying plants is to provide students with a clear idea of what a plant is, an idea that may not be as easy to establish as it sounds. Students may be able to distinguish a redwood from a rose, a privet from a pansy, and maybe even a marguerite from a marigold. They may not, however, think of trees, shrubs, and flowers as different kinds of plants, or use the word plants to describe them. Recognizing the fundamental qualities that define a plant will, in turn, help students realize the astonishing variety in the plant world.
In a previous unit, students explored the properties of seeds and their role in the life cycle of plants. Students now focus on seedlings which they care for throughout the unit: they monitor growth, measure change, detect patterns of change, make comparisons, and predict continued development. An ongoing feature of this unit is the Pet Plant Album, in which students compile, organize, and record these observations. At the same time, students are testing their assumptions about how seeds and plants are related, where plants come from, and how all of those different seeds got into the ground anyway.
At the end of the unit, students review their ideas about plants, and discuss how their knowledge of plants grew along with their seedlings.
160- Song: “Roots, Stems, Leaves”
161- Introduction
162- Student Goals
163- Activity Chart
164-Unit Planner
165- Recommended Literature
166- Parent Letter
167- Pick the Plant (distinguishing plants from non plants)
170- PetPlants (carefully observing and drawing plants)
173- Pet Plant Album (observing a seedling over the course of a month)
176- Plant Anatomy (comparing and labelling the parts of different weeds)
179- From Flowers to Fruit (observing a flower develop into a fruit)
182- The Life of a Plant (dramatizing the stages in a plant life cycle)
185- Outdoor Pets (transplanting pet plants into the garden)
Exploring Animal Life (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students recognize that there are many kinds of animals on Earth, and that animals have a life cycle just as other living things do.
Science Explorations: Students identify animals as living things with common characteristics. These include ways of moving (walking, flying, swimming}, ways of sensing the world (seeing, hearing, smelling), and ways of eating (plant-eating or animal-eating).
Process Skills: Students observe patterns of change, and compare and sort objects according to similarities and differences.
In this unit, students explore a variety of concepts that focus on the characteristics of animals.
Life Science: Animals are living things with a life cycle that includes growth, reproduction, and death.
Earth Science: Animals depend on resources to live.
Physical Science: Animals have properties that can be described.
Students were surprised at the number of living things that are plants, they will be equally astonished by the variety within the animal world. Animals include insects (the largest group), fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. A worm an animal. So too is a blue whale, a chimpanzee, a hummingbird, and an oyster. Scientists have identified nearly a million different kinds of animals. In this unit, students explore what animals have in common. They discover that almost all move in some way. They also find that animals eat other animals or plants. These two characteristics differentiate animals from plants, which are rooted to a place and make their own food through the process of photosynthesis.
Like plants,animals have a life cycle of birth,growth,reproduction, and death. There is great diversity in the ways this life cycle is carried out. Some animals like the elephant live over sixty years, while others like the mayfly live for only a few hours. Animals also vary in the ways they reproduce. Some lay eggs; others give birth to live babies; and still others create new, genetically identical individuals from their own bodies. Some animals go through a phenomenal metamorphosis resulting in an adult stage that has no resemblance to the earlier growing stage. In this unit students observe such a life cycle as they raise caterpillars and observe them change into butterflies.
The activities and projects included in this unit focus on small garden animals that the children keep temporarily in the class-room. As students investigate these animals, they expand and deepen their understanding of what an animal is. They also de- velop insights into the ways living things can be categorized as plants or animals.
190- Song: “No Bones Within”
191- Introduction
192- Student Goals
193- Activity Chart
194- Unit Planner
195-Recommended Literature
196- Parent Letter
197- Is It an Animal? (distinguishing animals from non-animals)
200- Caring for Caterpillars (recording caterpillar growth over time)
204- Animal Hunt (collecting and observing small garden animals)
207- Animal Portraits (drawing small garden animals)
210- Leg Count (sorting small garden animals by number of legs)
213- Animal Responses (investigating small garden animals’ response to stimuli)
216- From Caterpillars to Butterflies (watching a butterfly emerge)
219- Garden Animals Book (creating a class book about garden animals)
Investigating Garden Homes (Originally Written For First grade)
Theme: Students explore the different kinds of living things that make their homes in the garden.
Science Explorations: Students investigate the ways in which animals' homes provide them with shelter, food, and safety.
Process Skills: Students apply the observations they have made throughout the year.
In this unit, students explore a variety of activities that focus on developing sensory awareness and on growing plants.
Life Science: Plants have different growing requirements. Work in the garden causes changes that can be described.
Earth Science: Soil can be wet or dry. Tools can be used to dig in soil. Water can wash away soil.
Physical Science: Water has physical properties that can be described.
Science, Technology, and Society: People can grow food. They can eat it raw or cooked. Different tools are used for different jobs.
In this final unit, students explore and celebrate the garden in its role as a home for many kinds of Ufe. The garden is a complex weave of relationships. Caterpillars munch on plants which they may later pollinate as butterflies .. Spiders stretch their webs between plant stems in order to catch ·insects that feed on plants. Birds build their nests in trees, while at the same time keeping those trees free of pests. Most living things depend on other living things to fulfill their needs for food, shelter, and protection, a fulfillment we associate with home.
The relationships revealed as· students investigate garden homes synthesize the plant and animal life cycles they explored in previous units. In the garden, children see how animals depend on plants as sources of food, as materials for shelter, and as part of their defense strategy. Students consider how a wide variety of garden animals, from birds to spiders, meet these basic needs. Through observing, exploring, and imagining, students discover that each animal fashions a home in its own unique way.
In the course of this year, your students have investigated seeds, the components of soil, weather conditions, and the living things in the garden. They have had much practice in making observations and comparisons. This unit provides many opportunities to assess growth in these skills. As students participate in activities and interact with one another, check to see if they have become more careful observers. Are they more aware of small details? Do they detect patterns and shapes? Note too their increasing ability to compare and contrast data.
2- Song: “Take the Time to Wonder”
3- Introduction
4- Student Goals
5- Activity Chart
7- Unit Planner
8- Recommended Literature
9- Parent Letter
10- Hello, Garden (touring the class garden)
13- Explorer Post 1: Through the Looking Glass (exploring magnifying lenses).
15- Garden Shape Search (honing observation skill)
18- Rattling Roundup (developing listening skills).
21- Know Your Nose (developing sense of smell)
24- Mirrors (practicing cooperation skills).
27- Ball Balance (problems solving with a partner)
29- Explorer Post 2: Harvest Time (harvesting and
exploring vegetables).
31- Tools Together (using and sharing garden tools).
34- Explorer Post 3: Garden Store (pretending to market crops).
36- Grow a Garden (sowing seeds in the garden)
39- Alphabet Garden (growing a plant for each letter of the alphabet).
Sensing Changes (Originally Written For Second grade)
Theme: Students observe the properties of things and the process of change.
Science Explorations: Students use their senses to discover the physical properties of objects and to compare and contrast objects.
Process Skills: Students develop observation, categorization, and communication skills as they use their senses to identify, sort, and describe objects.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through lessons that focus on the way their senses provide information about the world.
Life Science: The senses enable people to observe, define, and record parts of the environment. Using the senses also enables people to feel that they are a part of the environment.
Earth Science: The garden provides resources for things that live there.
Physical Science: Physical properties of matter can be observed, defined, and recorded.
Through sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste, we experience the world around us. Our senses delight and inspire us by adding richness and variety to our lives. They also enable us to communicate with one another. By listening to, reading about, watching, and touching others, we expand our understanding of the world.
In this unit students use their senses to expand their understanding of the natural world. They observe and explore the characteristics of many different objects, often focusing on one sense at a time. Such activities build a foundation for more complex observations later in the year. Because the senses alert us to alterations in our surroundings, the activities in this unit are also a natural starting place for exploring this year’s theme: change. Students begin to observe the process of change.
The activities in this unit help students develop a variety of cooperative skills. They begin by learning how to listen, help each other, and share ideas. Students practice these skills by working with partners and in small groups. They will continue to do so throughout the year. The tasks they perform, however, will become more and more challenging.
Several activities in this unit introduce students to the garden. Not only do these lessons help students become more aware of their senses, they also help them become familiar with the garden and how it can be used as a scientific laboratory. In every unit you will find helpful references to the garden resource book, Gardening Know-How for the ’90s, which will answer your questions and expand your knowledge of basic gardening techniques.
2- Song: “Take the Time to Wonder”
3- Introduction
4- Student Goals
5- Activity Chart
7- Unit Planner
8- Recommended Literature
9- Parent Letter
10- Hello, Garden (touring the class garden)
13- Explorer Post 1: Through the Looking Glass (exploring magnifying lenses).
15- Garden Shape Search (honing observation skill)
18- Rattling Roundup (developing listening skills).
21- Know Your Nose (developing sense of smell)
24- Mirrors (practicing cooperation skills).
27- Ball Balance (problems solving with a partner)
29- Explorer Post 2: Harvest Time (harvesting and
exploring vegetables).
31- Tools Together (using and sharing garden tools).
34- Explorer Post 3: Garden Store (pretending to market crops).
36- Grow a Garden (sowing seeds in the garden)
39- Alphabet Garden (growing a plant for each letter of the alphabet).
Investigating Plants (Originally Written For Second grade)
Theme: Students explore the characteristics of plants and the ways they change as they grow.
Science Explorations: Students investigate the resources that plants need to survive.
Process Skills: Students practice making predictions about change and recording their observations.
In this unit students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts related to plants and the things they need to grow.
Life Science: Plants are living things and need certain resources from their environment to grow.
Earth Science: The Earth, its atmosphere, and the sun provide resources such as soil, water, and air for plants to grow.
Physical Science: Change can be measured.
In this unit students investigate the needs of plants. It is the beginning of an exploration into the basic needs of living things, which will continue throughout the year. The unit is also an introduction to the process of scientific investigation-of asking questions and collecting evidence. Students investigate such questions as: What is a plant? And what do plants need to grow? They also consider how their questions can be tested. In other words, this unit introduces children to Life Lab’s Guess-Test-Tell process, a simplified version of the scientific method. Students make predictions and set up experiments to test their ideas. Then they interpret the results.
Through the process students discover that plants, like other living things, have basic needs. Plants depend on water and other natural resources for survival. In this very simple way, students begin to understand the relationships among the various parts of the Earth’s ecology. Experimenting with plants is also an excellent introduction to change the year’s theme. As students watch their seeds grow into plants, they observe changes from day to day and week to week.
Your students will play a variety of roles in their explorations of plants and plants’ needs. They will be observant detectives, careful gardeners, thoughtful scientists, and probing reporters as they investigate plants and the things plants need to grow. Throughout, the focus is on the processes of sharing, challenging, and testing evidence of change.
36- Song: “Sun, Soil, Water, Air”
37- Introduction
38- Student Goals
39- Activity Chart
40- Unit Planner
41- Recommended Literature
42- Parent Letter
43- Plant Detectives (distinguishing plants from non plants)
46- Plant Watchers (planting seeds or seedlings in pots)
50- Plant Care Planners (monitoring seeds; developing a plan for care)
54- Scientists at Work (testing an assumption about what plants need)
58- Plant Reporters (recording and discussing the results of the experiment)
Investigating Water (Originally Written For Second grade)
I
Unit IntroductionTable of Contents
62- Song: ‘Water Cycle Boogie”
63- Introduction
64- Student Goals
65- Activity Chart
66- Unit Planner
67- Recommended Literature
68- Parent Letter
69- Investigating Water (using tools to explore water’s properties)
73- Shape Changers (predicting and testing how fast ice cubes melt)
77- Now You See It (investigating rates of evaporation)
80- Water from the Air (investigating condensation)
83- Mini-Terrariums (using plants to test evaporation and condensation)
87- A Book of Water (creating a class book about water)
Investigating Air (Originally Written For Second grade)
Theme: Students explore the various ways air changes, moves, and affects objects.
Science Explorations: Students investigate air as a natural resource that all living things need.
Process Skills: Students apply their observation skills to predicting change.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through activities that focus on observing air and predicting its movements.
Life Science: Almost all living things need air to grow.
Earth Science: Air surrounds the Earth.
Physical Science: Air has properties that can be observed and recorded; air occupies space, has weight, and moves and changes.
Science, Technology, and Society: Air can become polluted.
We can’t taste it, see it, or smell it. We are often unaware of its presence unless it is moving. Yet we cannot survive without it. Air is one of our most valuable resources. Without it, Earth would be a lifeless, empty planet, a planet without plants, animals, or people.
In this unit students explore air. Because it is invisible, air seems mysterious to many young children. Yet they know a lot about wind-air in motion. They understand that wind can lift a kite, blow away a hat, and even make a tree sway. Few, however, connect wind with air. In this unit, students test their ideas about air and wind in a variety of experiments and demonstrations. They become detectives looking for clues that prove air is real, even though it cannot be seen.
As in other units, the theme is changed. Students explore the way air itself moves and how it affects a variety of objects. They investigate how the temperature of the air changes, and they discover the ways such substances as smoke and perfume can become a part of air. By the time they complete the unit, students will have a deeper understanding of air and its importance to living things. They also will know some of its properties. Through investigation they learn, for example, that air takes up space and has weight.
As the children investigate air, they use a variety of scientific procedures and tools. They learn how to use a balance scale. to weigh air and other substances. They also learn to read a thermometer to find the temperature of both air and water. At the same time, students become more familiar with the scientific method. They learn to make thoughtful predictions, test ideas, and weigh evidence as they revise their ideas about the world around them and develop new insights.
92- Song: “Sun, Soil, Water, Air”
93- Introduction
94- Student Goals
95- Activity Chart
96- Unit Planner
97- Recommended Literature
98-Parent Letter
99- Air Detectives (investigating air movement)
102- A Space Case (trapping air underwater)
106- Heavy as Air (weighing the air in balloons)
109- A Matter of Degreed (using a thermometer to measure air temperatures)
113- Breathing Space (measuring lung expansion and contraction)
116- Blowing in the Wind (using breath to move small objects)
119- What’s in the Air? (observing that different substances can become part of the air)
122- Visitors from Another Planet (reviewing what students have learned about air)
Investigating Food (Originally Written For Second grade)
DownloadUnit IntroductionTable of Contents
126- Song: “Dirt Made My Lunch”
127- Introduction
128- Student Goals
129- Activity Chart
130- Unit Planner
131- Recommended Literature
132- Parent Letter
133- Lunch Lines (tracing food items to their sources)
136- Running on Empty (discovering why humans need food)
139- Eating Right (sorting foods; identifying a balanced diet)
143- Flour Power(investigating grains; grinding wheat into flour)
146- From Fruit to Sauce (investigating fruits and
vegetables; making applesauce)
149- Found a Peanut (investigating protein food; making peanut butter)
152- Made from Scratch (making a meal from the foods students processed)
155- Lunchtime Planning (planning healthy menus)
Investigating Food Chains (Originally Written For Second Grade)
Theme: Students observe patterns of change in the garden. These changes.are caused by animals feeding on other living things
Science Explorations: Students investigate the parts of a food chain and how each organism gets its food.
Process Skills: Students categorize living things according to their role in a food chain and observe the way living things affect the garden.
In this unit, students explore a variety of Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through activities that focus on observing and understanding a food chain as a pattern of change in the garden.
Life Science: All living things must have energy and nutrients to survive. Energy and nutrients pass through a food chain; while plants make their own food, animals get energy by eating plants or other animals.
Earth Science: The physical environment provides resources needed by living things.
Physical Science: The sun is a source of energy, and energy makes things work.
Science, Technology, Society: When we eat, we are part of a food chain.
A garden is a solar restaurant: from air, water, nutrients, and sunlight plants produce the food on which animals dine. This unit is about the transfer of food energy from green plants (producers) to other organisms (consumers). Without the transformation of sunlight into food energy and the transfer of food energy from one organism to another, there would be no life on Earth as we know it. All living things need energy to survive.
In the last unit students discovered that food provides people with energy, that people need different kinds of food to be healthy, and that many of the foods they eat come from the garden. In this unit they learn that different kinds of living things need different kinds of food energy to survive. They also learn that the food supply of every living thing is linked to the rest of the world. The sun gives plants energy; herbivores eat plants; carnivores eat herbivores; omnivores eat both plants and animals; and decomposers feed on once-living things, helping to release nutrients into the soil so that plants can start the cycle over again.
The transfer of energy from organism to organism can be viewed as a food chain. As students explore the various links in the chain and classify organisms according to where they get their energy, they discover the roles these organisms play in the garden ecosystem. The garden is an invaluable resource in explaining a food chain. There, students observe the systems that allow plants and animals to live, grow, and nourish one another in a constant process of change, of living and dying. The best time to do the activities in this unit is in the spring, when plants and animals abound. If you teach it at another time of the year, you will find a terrarium essential.
160- Song: “Decomposition”
161- Introduction
162- Student Goals
163- Activity Chart
164- Unit Planner
165- Recommended Literature
166- Parent Letter
167- Chain of Foods (looking for evidence of a food chain in the garden)
169- Food Machines (transplanting seedlings; thinking about plants as food)
172- Who’s Been Eating My Garden? (investigating herbivores in the garden)
175- Bugs for Breakfast (investigating carnivores in the garden)
178- Life Underground (digging for decomposers the garden)
182- Anything-Eaters (analyzing lunch; determining humans’ role in the food chain)
185- Energy Relay (running a relay race to mimic the Food chain)
188- Life Goes Around (reviewing in a skit what students have learned about food chains)
Investigating Resources (Originally Written For Second grade)
Theme: Students explore how natural resources change as they are used by humans and other living things.
Science Explorations: Students investigate the ways that living things use natural resources, and they develop plans to conserve some resources.
Process Skills: Students predict and communicate changes. They also categorize resources by source.
In this unit students explore a variety of Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts related to resources and the ways in which people use resources.
Life Science: Living things need certain resources to survive and grow. Humans use plants and animals as resources.
Earth Science: Human use of non living resources such as water affects the physical environment.
Physical Science: Change can be measured.
Science, Technology, and Society: Everything that is manufactured and used by humans ultimately comes from natural resources.
Do books grow on trees? What about money? In the last unit students discovered how we turn plants into food. In this unit they investigate some of the many ways we use resources to produce not only bread, but also a variety of other products. Thus, they expand their exploration of natural resources and discover that everything we make can be traced to a natural resource. In that sense, books really do grow on trees and so do dollar bills.
The unit begins with two questions: What are natural resources, and how do people use them? Students learn that a natural resource is any part of nature that is useful or necessary for life. And humans have found endless ways to use natural resources. The year’s theme of change fits naturally into the unit, as students discover the ways we alter or process natural resources in order to create the things we need and want. The unit also develops the idea that how we use a resource matters. Students consider how our use of resources affects not only the way we live, but also other living things. In the next unit students will explore in greater depth concepts related to conservation.
192- Song: “Ecology”
193- Introduction
194- Student Goals
195- Activity Chart
196- Unit Planner
197- Recommended Literature
198- Parent Letter
199- What’s Its Use? (defining what is a natural resource).
203- Weeds’ Needs (setting up an experiment on plant crowding)
207- Tree Tales (identifying different ways people use trees)
210- Papered Over (paper-making with recycled paper)
214- Piles of Paper (setting up a recycling center; developing a paper-conservation plan)
217- The Three R’s Club (creating a “talk show”presentation on conserving resources)
Conserving Resources (Originally Written For Second grade)
Theme: Students explore the way resources change as they are processed and used.
Science Explorations: Students investigate the ways people use resources and implement plans for conserving some resources in their school and garden.
Process Skills: Students demonstrate their knowledge of the Guess-Test-Tell process and demonstrate skill in making predictions and categorizing information.
Students explore a variety of concepts in this unit related to conservation and protection of resources.
Life Science: Living things are interdependent. Human use of resources has an impact on other living things. Wise resource use will save resources.
Earth Science: Human use of resources changes the physical environment. Humans can conserve and recycle the Earth's limited resources.
Physical Science: Change can be measured.
Science, Technology, and Society: Humans can conserve natural resources.
After a year of studying resources, students discover ways to use those resources wisely. They experiment with water conservation, create devices to meet plants’ needs, learn about composting, and, in the process, develop their own vision of wise resource use. As they investigate, you will have many opportunities to assess their mastery of the Guess-Test-Tell method, as well as their ability to use prior knowledge in making predictions and their ability to develop meaningful categories for sorting objects and ideas.
In earlier units, students discovered that we, like all other living things, consume resources. Every object we make or use-from the tallest skyscraper and the most complex machine to the simplest food-can be traced to one or more natural resources. If we are not careful about the ways we use those resources, life on Earth will be threatened. We therefore have a responsibility to conserve and protect resources. The activities in this unit help students apply their understanding of resources to the impact of changes in the ways various resources are used. As students investigate those alterations, they explore yet another aspect of change, which is this year’s theme.
Anyone who has ever been nagged by a child about a bad habit knows just how great a force for social change a child can be. As they learn more about the actions they can take to recycle, reuse, and consume wisely, your students may be eager to set up a class project in conservation. Support their efforts. The unit includes a wide variety of suggestions for class, school, and community projects.
222- Song: “Nature Rap”
223- Introduction
224- Student Goals
225- Activity Chart
226- Unit Planner
227- Recommended Literature
228- Parent Letter
229- WE CARE! (identifying an environmental issue and possible solutions)
232- Water Watchers (analyzing use and misuse of water)
235- ThirstyGarden (determining whether using mulch saves water in the garden)
239- Garbage Inventions (inventing ways to help plants grow)
243- A Toast to Compost (making and maintaining a compost pile)
246- Message to the Future (creating a class conservation plan and book)
Sensory Explorations (Originally Written For Third grade)
Theme: Students become involved with the garden as a context for learning.
Science Explorations: Students explore the garden as a structure with many different parts.
Process Skills: Students practice recording sensory observations through drawing, writing, and working as a member in a coopera-tive group.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts as they are introduced to the garden as a living laboratory.
Life Science: People use their senses to perceive the world. Living things are more complex than they first appear.
Physical Science: People use their senses to perceive the physical properties of matter.
Science, Technology, and Society: People work and communicate in small groups to accomplish tasks and solve problems. Science is a cooperative endeavor.
Explore along with your students, and in the process, you will discover what they know about the world that lies within the garden, how they use their senses to observe, and how they work with others.
Your class garden, whether it consists of two small planter boxes or covers half an acre, can provide a living laboratory for the study of science. This unit introduces the garden as a structure with many different parts and as a habitat for many living things. The concept of a habitat offers students a meaningful context for their explorations throughout the year. All plants and animals, including humans, need a habitat, a place where their basic needs for food and shelter are met. As students investigate the garden habitat, they will learn how factors from temperature to precipitation to soil type affect what can live there. In the next six units, your students will examine various parts of the garden-seeds, soil, climate, tools, plants, and garden animals. The year culminates in a unit that focuses on exploring how these parts of the garden function together as a habitat for many living things.
Because this unit emphasizes sensory awareness and cooperative skills, many of these introductory activities focus on careful observation, detailed description, communication, and cooperation. The more skilled your students are in gathering information through their senses, the greater their success in hypothesizing and problem solving. Cooperation facilitates class management and enhances learning as students share observations and analyses. You may wish to reinforce these skills by repeating some of these introductory lessons throughout the year.
Inspire a sense of garden ownership by involving students in the garden-harvesting the last tomatoes (if there is a garden left from last year), clearing weeds, digging a new bed, or even planting radishes in a window box. The In the Garden sections, included in many lessons, suggest ideas for getting your garden started and maintaining it. Refer also to the garden resource book, Gardening Know-How for the ’90s, which will answer your questions and expand your knowledge of basic gardening techniques.
2- Song: “Take the Time to Wonder”
3- Introduction
4- Student Goals
5- Activity Chart
6- Unit Planner
7- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Garden Explorers (exploring the garden with the
senses)
13- Musical Monarchs (cooperative learning)
16- Guessing Garden (cooperative learning;recording
skills)
19- Mystery Plants (sorting;decision-making.)
22- Observation Circles (observation and recording
skills)
25- Look Again Trail (observation and recording skills)
28- Garden Tools (safet oolu se)
32- Scavenger Hunt (observation;cooperative
learning)
35- Assessment Checklist
Seeds (Originally Written For Third grade)
Theme: Students explore the garden through sensory awareness activities and garden projects such as digging, planting, watering, and harvesting.
Science Explorations: Students gain an understanding of how they can use their senses to learn about the world around them.
Process Skills: Students develop cooperative skills by participating in activities and working together to grow a garden.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts as they investigate seeds.
Life Science: Seeds are produced by plants, and, under the right conditions, develop into plants.
Earth Science: Certain climatic conditions are needed for seeds to germinate.
Physical Science: A seed's structure determines its means of movement and the speed at which it disperses.
A seed is a promise of a full-grown plant, a small suitcase with a great memory, a package of concentrated energy, a mysterious object waiting for the right conditions to develop. For students, seeds are objects of wonder that they can collect, dissect, and investigate. Some students may still believe that plants are not alive because they do not move. As these children plant seeds and watch them grow, they begin to refine their understanding not only of seeds but also of the characteristics of living things.
The exploration of seeds is an excellent introduction to this year’s science theme: structure-function. By gathering, examining, and germinating seeds, your students discover how the structure of a seed is related to its function-the creation of new plants. They explore, too, the structure of each part of the seed and investigate its function. They discover how each of these parts relates to the way a seed grows into a plant. They also observe how the external parts of the seed protect the embryo and aid in the dispersal of the seed. And they discover that the embryo itself contains everything needed for a new plant to develop.
The first unit emphasized observation skills. Now students apply these skills to the Guess-Test-Tell process, a simplified version of the scientific method. Students learn to base their hypotheses on observation and other concrete experiences. Two of the most concrete experiences students can have with seeds are collecting and planting them. You will find a variety of fall gardening ideas in the In the Garden sections of this unit.
38- Song: “Roots, Stems, Leaves”
39- Introduction
40- Student Goals
41- Activity Chart
42- Unit Planner
43- Recommended Literature
44- Parent Letter
45- Seed Hunt (seed collecting)
49- Seed Detectives (examinings eeds)
52- Shoots and Roots (germinating seeds)
56- Hitchhiker Seeds (seed dispersal)
60- The Life of a Seed (planting seeds;story writing)
63- Assessment Checklist
Soil (Originally Written For Third grade)
Theme: Students explore the structure of different soil samples and experiment to see how each functions.
Science Explorations: Students investigate the properties of various types of soil and how plants grow in each.
Process Skills: Students practice setting up and monitoring simple experiments, and recording data from observations.
The activities in this unit develop a variety of Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts related to soil.
Life Science: Soil is a key component in many habitats. Plants grow differently in different soils.
Earth Science: There are many different types of soil. Rocks weather to form the mineral portion of soil.
Physical Science: Soil has properties that can be observed and described. Soil is classified by texture and by the proportions of sand, silt, and clay that compose it. The structure and texture of the soil affect its drainage capacity.
Science, Technology, and Society: People can change the structure of the garden soil by adding compost.
In this unit, students dig and discover. They dig up a spadeful of soil and discover a dynamic mixture of living, once-living, and nonliving things. As they explore that spadeful of soil and compare it to soil from other places, they deepen their understanding of what is alive and what is not alive. They also investigate an aspect of this year’s theme. Students learn that the structure of the soil functions as a key factor in the lives of plants and animals living in it. They are all parts of a tightly linked system. A change in the soil moisture and temperature affects plants and animals, and as plants and animals live and die in the soil, they alter the soil’s structure.
The unit builds on knowledge and skills students developed in earlier units. The first unit stressed observation and cooperative skills. The second introduced students to a simplified version of the scientific method, the Guess-Test-Tell process, as a way of investigating seeds. Now students apply those skills and their knowledge of seeds to their study of soil. Working in small groups, they explore the physical properties of a soil in great depth as they prepare for an activity staged as The Great Soil Conference, convened by an invited guest playing the role of the Great Gardener. At the conference, students share their insights and discoveries. The conference also provides students with a way of summarizing what they have learned. In the last activity, they apply what they have learned to a real problem in the garden. These two activities assess in very different ways what students have learned.
The unit itself is organized around preparations for The Great Soil Conference. Students receive letters from the Great Gardener, encouraging them to experiment and explore. Be sure that students save the results of these investigations in a special folder, so that they will be ready to show the Great Gardener what they have learned. The Great Soil Conference is a structured yet motivating way to introduce students to the mechanics of reports and presentations. It can serve as a useful model for sharing other investigations, both guided and independent.
66- Song: “Decomposition”
67- Introduction
68- Student Goals
69- Activity Chart
70- Unit Planner
71- Recommended Literature
72- Parent Letter
73- All Sorts of Soils (collecting and examining soil)
77- Which Soil Do Plants Prefer? (experiment with
soil and seeds)
88- Soil for the Senses (investigating the properties of
soil)
84- Mudshakes (investigating the components of soil)
88- Earthworms’EarthStories(experiments with earthworms
and soil)
92- Does It Hold Water? (testings soil absorbency)
96- The Great Soil Conference (group presentations
abouts soil)
100- Back to the Garden (creating plans to improve
gardens soil)
104- Assessment Checklist
Weather and Climate (Originally Written For Third grade)
Theme: Students explore weather patterns that make up the climate.
Science Explorations: Students collect data on weather conditions and examine the effects of weather on plants, animals, and their habitats.
Process Skills: Students work in teams to collect, record, analyze, and present data.
In this unit, students explore a variety of concepts related to weather and climate.
Life Science: Climate influences which living things can survive in particular environments. Different plants and animals require different ranges of temperature and rainfall.
Earth Science: Climate is the daily and seasonal weather that a particular region experiences over a long period of time.
Physical Science: We can measure changes in rainfall, temperature, and wind.
Science, Technology, and Society: Weather influences human activities.
Everyone, including each of your students, has an opinion about the weather. It is an important part of our lives. Students know that it affects the way they dress and the activities they plan. In this unit, they discover that it also affects the kinds of gardens they plant and even when they plant them. By analyzing weather conditions and exploring their impact on the garden, students are introduced to the concept of climate. Students discover that although their weather may change quickly-in some places, from hour to hour-the climate changes very, very slowly. Climate is the usual weather that a particular region experiences during the year. The concept of climate takes into account seasonal changes and the average daily weather over a period of 30 years or more. Therefore, even though we may get a record snowfall in October or experience an unusually early spring, neither affects what we think of as the climate, unless such unusual events become the norm by repeating themselves over a very long period of time.
This unit builds on concepts and skills developed in earlier units. For example, in the last unit students explored how soil affects the garden. Now they discover that climate also makes a difference in determining what can grow in the garden, and when.
The unit also builds on skills introduced in earlier units. Students continuetoapplytheGuess-Test-Tellmethodastheyrecordweather data. There are also many opportunities for cooperative learning. Throughout the unit, the emphasis is on observing, questioning, and testing ideas rather than on rote learning. A hands-on approach to science results in a deeper understanding of concepts and fosters the kind of approach to problem-solving that can last a lifetime.
108- Song: “River Song”
109- Introduction
110- Student Goals
111- Activity Chart
112- Unit Planner
113- Recommended Literature
114- Parent Letter
115- What’s the Weather? (exploration of local weather)
118- ToolsforWatchingWeather(recording data from
weather instruments)
122- Weather Watchers (recording weather data)
126- I Remember When … (interviewing adults about
climate)
130- Under the Weather(investigating effects of weather
on plants)
134- When Will Our Garden Grow? (creating planting
guide)
137- Weather Report (creating weather reports)
141- Assessment Checklist
Tools (Originally Written For Third grade)
Theme: Students explore the structures of garden tools and use them to perform specific functions.
Science Explorations: Students investigate the ways that tools change force and make work easier.
Process Skills: Students experiment with simple machines and record data.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through activities that focus on experimenting with tools and designing them.
Life Science: Our bodies have parts that serve as tools, performing certain functions to transmit and alter forces.
Earth Science: The characteristics of soil determine which tools are best used to work it. Tools can alter the structure of the landscape.
Physical Science: Machines are made of parts that move. Machines make work easier by amplifying and changing the direction of forces.
Science, Technology, and Society: Humans use tools to alter their habitats.
The new gardening year offers a wonderful opportunity to explore simple machines. With spring coming, many garden tasks are waiting to be done, and each provides an opportunity to explore first-handhowmachineshelpgetworkdone. Whether The Machine is a student’s body yanking on a weed, or a shovel being used to move compost, the parts of each simple machine can be identified. By constructing their own machines, students can experiment with changing how the parts are arranged and experience how their changes affect the tool’s function. These hands-on explorations will help students integrate abstractions like “effort,” “load,” and “fulcrum” into their everyday experience.
Tools are instruments of change. By allowing us to do more work with less effort, they alter cultures, history, and the environment. The refinement of the digging stick into a scratch plow drawn by oxen sparked ancient Egypt’s civilization. Likewise, new metal plowshares broke the prairie soil of the North American Great Plains and doomed the Native American buffalo cultures, as well as the prairie ecosystem itself. In nineteenth-century America, tools were a farm family’s livelihood. Farmers were adept at devising and repairing tools and adapting parts. As cast-iron plows replaced wood in the early nineteenth century, some farmers simply replaced their wooden cutting edges with sawblades. Encourage students to think of their own innovations for tools as they use them in the spring garden.
Garden tools are always in short supply. Take advantage of the necessity to reinforce cooperative skills like sharing tools, waiting one’s turn, and taking responsibility. Review tool-safety rules often. Encourage students to work together and share their experiences with each other as they explore how simple machines work.
145- Introduction
146- Student Goals
147- Activity Chart
148- Unit Planner
149- Recommended Literature
150- Parent Letter
151- Move It! (Any Way You Can) (exploring force
using tools)
155- Seesaw Ups and Downs (experimenting with
levers)
159- Playground Machines (experimenting with force
and simple machines)
162- Ramp Romp (investigating inclined planes)
166- Garden Levers (investigating tools used as levers)
169- Weed Machines (investigating force and levers)
172- Invent a Tool (inventing a new garden tool)
176- Assessment Checklist
Plants (Originally Written For Third grade)
Theme: Students explore how the structure of a plant functions to enable it to survive.
Science Explorations: Students investigate the common features and characteristics of the parts of most plants.
Process Skills: Students practice independently setting up experiments using the Guess-Test-Tell method and recording their observations and experiment data.
In this unit, students explore Life, Earth, and Physical science concepts through activities that focus on characteristics of plants and the function of each of their parts.
Life Science: Plants have parts that help them survive and interact with the environment.
Earth Science: Plants derive the materials they require from natural resources such as water and soil.
Physical Science: Plants grow toward light.
In this unit, students conduct a variety of investigations to explore how different plant parts function to ensure the survival of the whole plant. Even though the plant world is extremely diverse, almost all flowering plants including the tall redwood tree, the marsh-loving cattail, and the saguaro cactus-have certain common features (roots, stems, and leaves) and common characteristics (roots grow downward into the soil and stems and leaves grow toward sunlight).
The structure of a plant functions to meet its basic needs for water, sunlight, air, and nutrients. The lessons in this unit start by exploring students’ understanding of these plant needs and their knowledge of plant parts. In assessing what students know, and in giving them opportunities to observe plant parts and plant needs, you will help them establish a meaningful context for the experiments on root, stem, and leaf growth. Thus, when they express amazement at a plant bending and twisting through a maze to reach light, they will also understand that the plant needs light in order to survive.
Throughout the year students have had opportunities to set up and monitor experiments. This unit continues to build on their experience and suggests that students practice setting up and monitoring experiments independently. In the beginning of the unit, the class will build individual root view boxes from milk containers. Each student should construct and plant at least one. These boxes will be used in most of the experiments, and will give students an uncommon opportunity to observe a growing plant both above and below ground.
180- Song: “Roots, Stems, Leaves”
181- Introduction
182- Student Goals
183- Activity Chart
184- Unit Planner
185- Recommended Literature
186- Parent Letter
187- What’s a Plant? (drawing plants;identifying characteristics of plants)
191- A Root View (experiment on roots)
196- Dissect a Plant (comparing edible and non-edible
plant parts)
200- Sun Blockers ( covering plant leaves to discover
plants’ need for light)
204- Watercolors (stem experiment with colored water)
207- Which Way Is Up? (root experiment)
210- Rooting for Water (experiment comparing watered
and unwatered roots)
214- Amazing Plants (experiments with bean plants and
light)
218- Get a Grip (experiment with peas)
222- Plant and Tell (garden plant scavenger hunt and
group reports)
225- Assessment Checklist
Garden Animals (Originally Written For Third grade)
Theme: Students investigate the ways animal parts function to aid the survival of the animals that possess them.
Science Explorations: Students investigate essential characteristics that many animals have in common.
Process Skills: Students design experiments to test how animal structures help animals function, and then they record and report the information they gather.
Life Science: Different parts of an animal perform functions that help the animal interact and survive within its environment. Animals have characteristics that distinguish them from other living and nonliving things.
Earth Science: Some animals have parts that allow them to move in the soil. Animals change the soil by living there.
Physical Science: The motion of moving objects can be described and categorized. Sounds are made by vibrations.
Every day, small garden animals routinely busy themselves with an amazing set of behaviors. These animals’ structures — legs, eyes, antennae — permit the animals to get the food and water they need, protect themselves, and find shelter. Consider the click beetle, whose hinged body is designed so it can flip itself over when it becomes upended. In the ant world, different species harvest and store seeds, kidnap and enslave the larvae of other species, and herd and milk aphids. Snails and slugs secrete their own slimy pathways to help them glide along. A one-acre plot of land can host over a million insects with their fascinating and varied behaviors.
This unit’s investigation of small garden animals will provide a chance to study these creatures and discover how all of them, different as they are, manage to survive. As students search for and watch animals in their habitats, draw them, and investigate how they touch, eat, move, make sound, and defend themselves, they will be learning how the animals’ structures serve them. This study integrates physical science through investigating the sounds animals make, the structures they use to eat, and the ways they move. The first three lessons involve students in capturing small garden animals and observing them in the classroom. By the end of the unit, students will have a foundation for understanding how an animal survives in its habitat.
228- Song: “No Bones Within”
229- Introduction
230- Student Goals
231- Activity Chart
232- Unit Planner
233- Recommended Literature
234- Parent Letter
235- What’s in Our Garden? (exploration of garden
animals)
239- Sense Abilities (investigating animal senses)
242- On the Move (mapping animal movements)
247- Better to Eat You With (investigating animal
mouth part functions)
250- Safety First! (investigating animal defenses)
253- Sound Ideas (investigating sound)
256- Animal Flashes (matching animal parts and functions)
259- Assessment Checklist
Interactions (Originally Written for Fourth Grade)
Theme: Students practice problem-solving skills as they trace how organisms interact with each other and with their physical surroundings.
Science Explorations: Students explore the give and take that occurs between humans, living and nonliving things, and all living things as they meet their survival needs.
Process Skills: Students work cooperatively to observe how people, plants, animals, and their physical surroundings are related and to communicate what they discover.
Life Science: All living things interact with each other and with their environment to obtain the resources they need to survive.
Earth Science: Soil, water, air, and light are natural resources that most living things depend on for survival.
Physical Science: The physical properties of matter can be changed by interactions with living and non living agents and forces.
Science, Technology, and Society: One way humans interact is through communicating with each other. Scientists depend on good communication to share ideas.
From the moment we fill our lungs with air for our first new born wail, we are constantly interacting with the world around us. As gentle as a breeze sifting pollen from a flower, as violent as a predator-prey battle, as dramatic as a thunderstorm, or as far-reaching as the jolt of light beams on molecules of chlorophyll, interactions define the condition of life on our planet.
This unit introduces students to the year’s in-depth investigations of these dynamic cycles and connections. Using fourth graders’ curiosity about how the natural world works, the lessons that follow challenge students to discover the give and take that links the living and physical worlds. Throughout the year, students will develop new skills in relating and organizing information that will help them understand the connections they discover. The year is filled with hands-on experiences and experiments that explore how organisms rely on each other and the physical environment for food, nutrients, water, shelter, and room to grow and reproduce. With this concrete underpinning, students can better understand what happens when the food webs and water, nutrients, and other cycles that sustain a habitat are disrupted. They are also encouraged to take part in a year-long Endangered Species Project so that they can use their new understanding to help preserve a threatened species.
Of course, much of the fun of discovery comes from working together and communicating with other people. Science relies on cooperation, and many of the activities in this first unit are cooperative games or projects that involve interactions among classmates. Encouraging the development of cooperative skills will help students realize how people depend on each other, as well as facilitate classroom management and enhance students’ joy in learning.
Iv- Song: “Take the Time to Wonder”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Garden Links (identifying interactions)
13- All Tied Up In Knots (using communication
for problem solving)
16- Unlikely Pairs (exploring physical properties)
19- Discovery Center: Acting Together
( investigating physical forces)
23- Habitat Hike (observing interactions in a
micro habitat)
27- All My Relations (observing interactions
over time)
31- Garden Picture Web (illustrating
interactions)
34- Endangered Species Project (researching
endangered species)
36- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
Lab Sheets
40- Calendar
Pre Assessment: What Do You Know
41- About Interactions?
43- All Tied Up In Knots
44- Unlikely Pairs
45- Acting Together
47- Garden Picture Web
48- Post Assessment:Making the Connections
49- Field Log
1- Magic Spot
2- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
3- Observation Page
4- Garden Links
5- Habitat Hike
7- All My Relations
53- Life Lab Beat
57- Index
Habitats (Originally Written For Fourth grade)
Theme: Students explore how the plants and animals in a habitat interact with each other and respond to the conditions of their habitat.
Science Explorations: Students investigate how factors of temperature, moisture, and light determine the conditions of a habitat.
Process Skills: Students organize measurements and observations to understand the relationships within a habitat.
Life Science: Living things use their habitat's resources in different ways and amounts. Organisms within a habitat interact with each other.
Earth Science: Soil is a habitat. The organisms that live in soil and the nutrient cycles that occur in soil affect the whole habitat.
Physical Science: The amount of light, moisture, and heat helps to determine what lives in a habitat. Habitat interactions can result in changes in the state or properties of matter.
Science, Technology, and Society: Human actions can destroy habitats or alter the interactions within them.
A habitat is more than the sum of its parts. In the habitat of a child’s neighborhood, a casual passerby does not see the secret hiding places, the neighbors good for a cookie or chat, the nice and mean dogs, the hills that defeat a bicycle, the hangouts and houses of friends and relatives, and all the other links that embroider a child’s life within a community.
In much the same way, natural habitats are a tapestry of nooks and crannies that are home and sustenance to birds, insects, mammals, mosses, fungi, worms, crustaceans, mollusks, flowering plants, bacteria, millipedes, centipedes, reptiles, and more. Cut down a tree or strip away topsoil and the homes and livelihoods of many organisms are lost. Not so obvious are the structural changes to the web of interactions among plants and animals and the changes in physical relationships-water flow, moisture, light, soil particles, and the other conditions that define a habitat and what lives there.
Many students will know that a habitat is a home that provides food, water, shelter and living space for a plant or animal. In this unit, students expand on their knowledge, exploring how plants and animals interact with their habitat to meet their survival needs and respond to the habitat’s physical challenges.
Tying these investigations to the Endangered Species Project will personally connect students to the plants, animals, and landscape of a habitat and weave their lives into the fate of a larger neighborhood.
Iv. Song: “Everything Needs a Home”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Look Lively (examining habitats)
Discovery Center: Habitat Riddles
13- creating plants and animals
17- Growing Conditions (experimenting with variables affecting plant growth)
23- Mystery Habitats (investigating microhabitats)
26- Worm Race (experimenting with worms to infer habitat needs)
29- Clean Sweep (observing habitat changes)
33- Living Dangerously (role playing habitat resources and population needs)
37- Homing In (creating habitat brochures for garden animals)
40- Endangered Species Project (selecting an endangered species for year-long study)
43- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
Lab Sheets
46- Calendar
47- Preassessment: What Do You Know About Habitats?
48- Growing Conditions
53- Plant Labels
54- Mystery Habitats
55- Habitats and Microhabitats
56- Worm Race
59- Postassessment: Making the Connections
61- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Long
2- Look Lively
5- Clean Sweep
65- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Habitats
69- Index
Water Interactions (Originally Written For Fourth grade)
Theme: Students construct water's interactions as it cycles through habitats.
Science Explorations: Students experiment with the properties and states of water and begin to explore the water cycle.
Process Skills: Students use measuring and organizational skills to relate the properties of water to its role in the environment.
Life Science: All living things need water. Plants transpire water into the air.
Earth Science: Water moves through the water cycle. It carries solutes and other materials necessary for life.
Physical Science: Water's chemical structure determines its unique properties. Water can exist as a solid, liquid, and gas at the temperatures that support life.
Science-Technology-Society: Humans have a responsibility to consider how their actions and wastes affect the water they and other organisms use.
All living things depend on water. It is a key component of all habitats and can often be the limiting factor that determines what can live in an area. Plants and animals that survive in a dry habitat have adapted protective devices to conserve water: a cactus has thick waxy leaves to minimize transpiration; a camel can go a few days without water to drink.
Water is the natural world’s magician; it is always present but wears different costumes, one of which is a cloak of invisibility. Water is the only substance on earth to exist as a solid, liquid, and gas at ambient temperatures. As a liquid, it is a major component of all Planet Earth: It is the chief constituent of cells, covers three-quarters of the world’s surface, and is home to most of the world’s lifeforms. As a solid, it is a reservoir: Fresh water is stored in ice caps, glaciers, and snow cover. As a gas, it disappears: Water becomes a vapor and is purified in the process; to concrete learners, this is the hardest disguise to penetrate. The activities and extensions in this unit give students many opportunities to explore all states of water in hands-on investigations that take students’ own experiences as a starting point.
The study of water is ideal for expanding the garden’s Living Laboratory to include the physical and earth sciences. The interactions of the water cycle also offer excellent data-collecting activities because students can easily control and measure variables such as temperature and water amounts at the start and finish of an experiment.
Teacher Resource Section
Iv- Song: “Water Cycle Boogie”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
5- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Water Hunt (finding and tracing water sources)
12- Discovery Center: Water Puzzle (exploring evaporation and condensation)
16- Small Worlds ( creating and monitoring open and closed terrariums)
20- Invisible Water (experimenting with hygrometers)
24- Leaf Water (experimenting with transpiration)
29- Sticky Water (experimenting with properties of cohesion and adhesion)
32- Upward Bound (experimenting with water flow in plants)
35- Water-Go-Round (role playing the life of a water drop)
38- Endangered Species Project (researching how adopted species use water)
41- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section Lab Sheets
44- Calendar
45- Preassessment: What Do You Know About Water?
47- Water Puzzle
52- Small Worlds
56- Invisible Water
59- Moist Air Meter
63-Sticky Water
71-Upward Bound
74- Postassessment: Making the Connections
75- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Water Hunt
4- Leaf Water
6- Observation Page
79- Life Lab Beat: Focus On Water
83- Index
Nutrient Interactions (Originally Written For Fourth grade)
Theme: Students explore the interactions by which plants obtain the nutrients they need from soil and use these building blocks to create nutrients animals need.
Science Explorations: Students investigate how dead matter is decomposed and recycled as nutrients for plants and animals.
Process Skills: Students observe decomposition and test soils and foods for nutrients in order to relate decomposition to plant and human nutrition.
Life Science: All living things need nutrients in order to grow and survive.
Earth Science: Rocks and dead matter are broken down by weathering and decomposition cycles into substances plants can use as nutrients.
Physical Science: As organic matter breaks down by decomposition, heat energy is given off.
Science, Technology, and Society: The natural cycle of decomposition is important for plant and human nutrition. If the cycle is broken, the health of living things can suffer.
Put your ear up close to a well-fed tummy and take in the comfortable rumbles of a meal in its final stages of digestion. From the minute it enters your mouth, your meal is smashed, mashed, liquefied, acidified, and enzymatically chopped into molecular bits that your body will use as energy or as building blocks to make more of you. The leftovers provide a feast for the gut bacteria that do the final processing before returning the remains of your meal to the earth.
Now run your hand through rich, organic soil and feel a plant’s digestive system. While our bodies surround and include our digestive system, plants are separate from but literally immersed in a key part of theirs-the soil. The cycles and interactions by which rock is weathered into soil and dead matter is broken down into molecules are much like the process by which we digest the food we get, directly or indirectly, from plants. Plants use the sun’s energy to make food-sugars, starches, and oils-but they rely on the soil to provide them with the minerals and nutrients they need for a well-balanced diet. In turn, we rely on plants for our nutrients-minerals, the amino acids that make up proteins, and most vitamins.
This unit explores the interactions that connect human and plant nutrition. You and your students are in for an unusual feast as you use students’ favorite foods to investigate the interactions that transform waste products into new organisms. The Field Log pages provide extension activities for interested groups of students.
iv- Song: “Decomposition”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Breakdown! (exploring decomposition)
12- Discovery Center: Label It! (categorizing
nutrients)
16- Rot-A-Rama I (experimenting with compost)
20- Moldy Oldies (relating decomposition to
the recycling of nutrients)
24- Uptake (investigating the transport of nutrients)
28- Rot-a-Rama II (analyzing compost to understand factors influencing decomposition.)
31- See Vitamin C (experimenting with VitaminC )
34- Snack-a-Thon (tracing sources of nutrients)
37- Endangered Species Project (developing
an information packet)
39- Assessment Checklist Student Lab Book Section
Lab Sheets
42- Calendar Preassessment: What Do You Know
43- About Nutrients?
45- Breakdown!
51- Discovery Center: Label It!
53- Rot-a-Rama I
56- Moldy Oldies
59- Uptake
62- Rot-a-Rama II
64- See Vitamin C
68- Postassessment: Making the Connections
69- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Who’s For Dinner?
4- The Soil Makers
6- Decomposers are Our Friends
7- Decomposers I Have Known
8- Garbage
73- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Nutrients
77- Index
Light Interactions (Originally Written For Fourth grade)
Theme: Students investigate earth as a solar-powered planet, dependent on sunlight for light energy.
Science Explorations: Students explore properties of light and use the results to investigate how plants and animals use light.
Process Skills: Students relate properties of light to their investigations into how plants and animals use light.
Life Science: Green plants use light energy to make their food and produce oxygen. Animals' eyes respond to reflected or emitted light, enabling them to see.
Earth Science: Sunlight interacts with the atmosphere and objects on the earth.
Physical Science: Light transfers energy from the source that emits it to the object that absorbs it. Most surfaces reflect, transmit, and absorb some of the light that hits them.
Science, Technology, and Society: The study of the properties of light has led to the invention of all kinds of devices, including eyeglasses, magnifying lenses, microscopes, and telescopes.
In contemplating the interactions that take place in an ecosystem, it is impossible to . think of one interaction as being more important than another for maintaining life on earth. Water and nutrients are needed to cycle through the system, as students have learned. Light is another key interaction one that is perhaps taken for granted. The source of light for earth is the sun. However, whether light is traveling from the sun millions of miles away or from a nearby flash light, it behaves, interacts, and reacts in predictable ways. Two properties of light, reflection and refraction, can be observed when looking at a clump of reeds in still, clear water. On the surface of the water can be seen an upside-down picture of the reeds, along with the sky above. Light travels from the reeds and sky and is reflected by the surface of the water up into the eyes. Looking into the water, one can see the stems of the reeds, and it may seem odd that the reeds appear to bend where they break the surface. Light rays passing from one substance to another are bent, or refracted. Light rays coming from the reeds beneath the water bend as they pass from the water to the air.
Through hands-on activities in the first part of the unit, students will explore some of the basic properties of light. Then they will begin an investigation into the importance of light to living organisms. Light not only gives animals the capacity to see, but it is the energy source for most food on the planet. Light energy absorbed by plants initiates the process by which most plants make food. During this chemical reaction (photosynthesis), plants release oxygen into the air, providing the oxygen that all animals need to breathe. As students gain an appreciation for the many important interactions of light energy, perhaps they will “see it in a new light” and not take it for granted again.
III- Table of Contents
Teacher Resource Section
Iv- Song: “Soil, Sun, Water and Air”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Light Riddles (formulating and solving
Riddles about light)
12- Let There Be Light ( investigating properties
of light)
16- Light Plays (group presentations using light
for special effects)
20- Color World (experimenting with color)
25- Light Action (experimenting with light)
30- Do You See What I See? (exploring light
and vision)
33- Do They See What We See? (exploring
vision variations in the animal kingdom)
36- Lightning Round (revising and solving
light riddles)
39- Endangered Species Project (exploring the
effects of light on plants and animals)
42- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
Lab Sheets
46- Calendar
Preassessment: What Do You Know
47- About Light?
48- Light Riddles
54- Discovery Center: Let There Be Light
62- Light Plays
63- Color World
70- Light Action
73- Do You See WhatI See?
79- Lightning Round
Postassessment: Making the
80- Connections
81- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Light Writing
3- Sun Dial
5- Reflected-Refracted-Absorbed
7- Do They See What We See?
85- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Light
90- Index
Food Webs (Originally Written For Fourth grade)
Theme: Students investigate how food webs link organisms within a habitat.
Science Explorations: Students explore how organisms interact in food webs to transfer food energy.
Process Skills: Students observe and model food webs in order to relate them to food energy transfer.
Life Science: Most living things get the energy and nutrients they need in order to survive through food chains consisting of green plants as food producers, animals as consumers, and decomposers as recyclers.
Earth Science: Food webs rely on decomposers to recycle nutrients.
Physical Science: In addition to minerals and other building blocks, food contains the sun's stored energy, which is transferred through food webs. With each interaction in a food web, less usable energy is available to the consumer.
Science, Technology, and Society: Humans can affect food webs with pollution and habitat destruction.
Food webs exemplify the interconnections within habitats. These feeding relationships are the mechanisms by which the sun’s energy is transferred from green plants to plant eaters to the animals that prey on them and on each other. All of these energy transfer mechanisms use energy themselves. Only about 1 percent of the light that falls on a plant is used in photosynthesis to create the carbohydrates that start the food chain. Animals that eat the plants use only about 10 percent of the energy stored within the plant to sustain them; the rest is used to fuel the animal’s activities and body maintenance and is given off as heat. If you treat yourself to some aerobic exercise, you will feel the heat generated as your food energy is burned. All that heat eventually radiates back into space and is not available to energize any stray predator you may encounter. While energy is not recycled, the elements that make up each organism are, thanks to decomposers, which break down complex molecules into minerals plants can use to restart the chain of life.
In previous units, students have investigated two major parts of food webs: the decomposition that takes place as part of the nutrient cycle (Nutrient Interactions unit) and the energy source of photosynthesis (Light Interactions unit). In this unit, students integrate concepts investigated earlier as they review simple food chains before moving on to food webs, the richer, more complex interactions that are involved when animals have several food sources.
Teacher Resource Section
Iv- Song: “We’re Animals”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Keep Me Running (demonstrating how food
Provides energy)
12- Food Chain (investigating favorite foods)
16- Sun Food (investigating how plants make food)
21- What’s for Dinner? (exploring animals’
adaptations for eating)
25- Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
(experimenting with decomposition)
29- Animal Detective (identifying food webs of
Garden animals)
33- Pass It Up the Line ( investigating toxins in
food chains)
37- Tied Together (creating a food web)
40- Endangered Species Project (investigating
food webs of endangered species)
42- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
Lab Sheets
46- Calendar
Preassessment: What Do You Know
47- About Food Webs?
49- Energy Arrows
50- Food Chain
51- Sun Food
54- What’s For Dinner?
57- Help Us Find Our Teeth
62- Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
65- Animal Detective
66- Pass It Up The Line
68- Postassessment Making the Connections
71- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Animal Detective
7- Mushroom Spore Print
75- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Food Webs
79- Index
Ecosystems (Originally Written For Fourth grade)
Theme: Students explore the patterns of relationships that define systems and ecosystems.
Science Explorations: Students apply their knowledge of how living things use their habitats to look at how ecosystems work.
Process Skills: Students organize their knowledge of habitat components and interactions to explore the relationships in ecosystems.
Life Science: All living things are connected to their environments by the roles they play in them and the effects they have on their surroundings, as well as the effect their environment has on them.
Earth Science: In an ecosystem, organisms interact with the physical environment. Water, minerals, and organic matter cycle through ecosystems.
Physical Science: Energy and matter are transferred among organisms within an ecosystem. Energy from the sun, transformed by plants, flows through the food chains of an ecosystem and must constantly be renewed.
Science, Technology, and Society: While human actions can destroy ecosystems and cause the extinction of species, they can also help to preserve biological diversity.
“No man is an island entire of itself,” wrote the poet John Donne in 1624. He might just as well have been writing about ecosystems, the webs linking living things with each other and their environment. Every organism within an ecosystem depends on every other living and non living thing: a change to one affects all.
This year started with the exploration of habitats. A habitat is the place-the home, the physical structure-where a plant or animal lives. As the year continued, students explored some of the key interactions that take place in a habitat: water and nutrients cycles, light, and food webs. In the coming weeks, students will work at organizing what they have learned in the previous units as they explore how all of these factors interact in an ecosystem. Ecosystem thus becomes the unifying concept that explores the interactions of living organisms with each other and with their non living environment. When you think of the great ecosystems of the world, rain forests, deserts, oceans, and prairies may come to mind. In this unit students will have the opportunity to investigate the systems and interactions in these locations, as well as in their own schoolyard.
By using the garden’s Living Laboratory as a model of how ecosystems work, students come to understand that no piece of earth is divorced from the rest of the world: sunlight, water, and gases enter the system, plants and animals come and go, and associations form and disintegrate, linking each ecosystem to the biosphere, our planet’s life zone. This unit, too, is built on mutual reliance and cooperative learning. In these activities, students work together to find and share information, create ecosystem dioramas, solve problems, and make decisions. You will also find many ideas for weaving your Endangered Species Project into these activities.
Teacher Resource Section
Iv- Song: “Ecology”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Working Together (examining simple
systems)
12- Whacky Systems (inventing a system)
15- Garden Connections (analyzing inputs
into a garden bed)
20- Setting Boundaries (observing and
Diagraming a garden system)
23- One Bit of Ground (creating dioramas of
ecosystems)
27- Carrying On (exploring interactions in
food pyramids)
32- Picture a World (creating a seed packet)
Endangered Species Project ( creating an
endangered species news show)
37- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
Lab Sheets
40- Calendar
Preassessment: What Do You Know
41- About Systems?
42- Working Together
43- Whacky Systems
45- Garden Connections
52- Ecosystem Readings
60- One Bit of Ground
63- Carrying On
66- Picture A World
67- Postassessment Making the Connections
69- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Setting Boundaries
4- Endangered Ecosystem
6- Cactus
7- Tropical House?
8- Square Meter Ecosystem
73- Life Lab Beat: Focus On Ecosystems
78- Index
Sustainable Systems (Originally Written For Fourth grade)
Theme: Students apply what they have learned throughout the year about how plants and animals interact with each other and their environment.
Science Explorations: Students relate their knowledge of ecosystem parts and interactions to building sustainable systems.
Process Skills: Students organize data and observations into projects to create a sustainable garden system.
Life Science: A healthy ecosystem has all the necessary inputs and food interactions to be sustained over the long term.
Earth Science: Nutrients and water cycle through a sustainable system.
Physical Science: A sustainable system is one in which energy and other losses from the system are minimized.
Science, Technology, and Society: Resources must be conserved and recycled to maintain a healthy ecosystem. If habitats and ecosystems function well, species will be preserved.
Over the past year, your students have looked at many of the connections that bind plants and animals to each other and to their habitats. They have explored how organisms use water, nutrients, and light and how these factors help to determine what lives where. They have investigated how parts work together to make up a whole system, and they have applied their explorations to looking at how food webs and nutrient and water cycles build an ecosystem’s self-sustaining web of relationships. Now they take the next step and explore how humans can work at sustaining living systems. Sustaining any living thing involves sharing responsibility for and being aware of how individuals fit into a network of relationships. In this unit, students take responsibility for monitoring and assessing the projects they initiate. Of course, the end of the year is a busy time for everyone. Some of this unit activities will help prepare the garden for the summer. Instead of trying to schedule and complete all of the activities, you may want to choose either Mulch It Up or Critters Alive as a stewardship project, or consider having half the class do one activity and the other half do the other. Either the Endangered Species Play or Passing the Torch will provide a rousing end to a challenging year of learning about the world around us. Whichever way you choose to organize this unit, it will provide an opportunity to assess and reflect upon the interactions that each of us depend upon. As students apply their knowledge, challenge them to communicate the science concepts they are using.
Iv- Song: “Nature Rap”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Gardens Forever! ( identifying systems
in the garden)
12- Garden Managers ( creating a sustainable
Garden plan)
16- Mulch It Up (examining properties of mulch)
20- Critters Alive (controlling garden pests)
24- New Neighbors (creating a multiple use
management plan)
27- Endangered Species Play (producing an
Original play)
30- Passing the Torch (compiling an
endangereds peciesb ig book)
33- Endangered Species Project (creating an
endangered species awareness day)
35- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
Lab Sheets
38- Calendar
Preassessment: What Do You Know
39- About Sustainable Systems?
41- Gardens Forever!
42- Garden Managers
45- Critters Alive
49- New Neighbors
53- Endangered Species Play
56- Postassessment Making the Connections
57- The Green Heart Award
58- We Pass the Torch
59- Moisture Meter
61- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Garden Managers in the Field
3- Mulch It Up
6- Critters Alive in the Field
8- Midsummer Daydream
65- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Sustainable Systems
Changes (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Students observe different ways things change and begin to consider the causes of change.
Science Concept: Students explore the notion that all things living and non living-change over time.
Process Skills: Students practice observation skills in collecting data.
Life Science: Living things change over time.
Earth Science: The physical environment changes in observable ways.
Physical Science: Matter has observable properties. Changes can be measured.
Science, Technology, and Society: Science happens all around and affects each one of us in some way each day. Understanding new technologies as well as new learning strategies will help us participate actively in our rapidly changing society.
Change is something that we cannot ignore. In the course of a day, we are bombarded with so many sensory experiences that we pay attention only when there is change. We may sit for hours with the constant hum of a motor and not hear it. Only when it suddenly becomes silent do we stop to listen and wonder what happened. Change catches our attention.
Much of science focuses on change. Through observing and analyzing change, we can come to understand what is happening today, can speculate about what happened in the past, and can predict what may happen in the future. Many of these changes are not dramatic; they may be subtle. One thing is certain, however: All things-living and non living-change with time.
This unit introduces students to the year’s science theme, Change Over Time. Through activities that help students look for and analyze changes in their own world, in themselves, in everyday objects, and in the garden, students deepen their understanding of change as a process that occurs over time. For those students new to Life Lab this year, the unit also introduces Super Sleuth, Life Lab’s method of recording students’ predictions, observations, tests, and results of experiments and investigations. This method helps students investigate the changes in their world as scientists do.
In addition, the activities in this unit help students develop a variety of cooperative skills. They learn to listen to each other, to share ideas, and to reach decisions together. Students practice these skills by working with partners and in small groups. They will have opportunities to develop these skills throughout the year in more and more challenging activities. For teachers and students new to Life Lab, this unit introduces the garden as a Living Laboratory. Students not only become more aware of changes, but they also learn how to use t h e garden as a scientific laboratory. In every unit you will find helpful references to the garden resource book, Gardening Know-How for the ’90s, which will answer your questions and expand your knowledge of basic gardening techniques.
Iv- Song: “Take The Time To Wonder”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Small Change (making observations)
12- Find Someone Who … (identifying changes)
15- Here’s Looking At You, Kid (recognizing
changes over time; making a timeline)
19- Tell It Like It Is (exploring one-and
two-way communication)
22- Discovery Center: Tools of the Trade
(using science tools)
26- Changes in the Night (exploring changes
in the garden)
30- Just Add Water (investigating physical
and chemical changes)
34- Before … and After (examining objects to
identify changes.)
38- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
40- Calendar
Lab Sheets
Preassessment: What Do You Know
41- About Changes?
43- Find Someone Who
45- Here’s Looking At You, Kid
47- Discovery Center: Tools of the Trade
52- Just Add Water
54- Cluing into Changes
55- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Changes in the Night
8- Seasonal Change
59- Life LabB eat: Focus on Changes
64- Index
Adaptations (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Students examine examples of adaptations that plant and animal species have developed over time.
Science Exploration: Students investigate ways plants and animals are adapted to survive in their particular habitats.
Process Skills: Students make observations, collect data, organize the data, and communicate their ideas about what they observed.
Life Science: An adaptation is a trait that enables a living organism to survive. All living things have a variety of adaptations that increase their fitness and ability to survive in specific environments.
Physical Science: Motion is affected by weight, buoyancy, and shape.
Science, Technology, and Society: Culture influences seed selection by choosing which seeds to plant and by modifying habitats to meet the needs of those seeds.
You have heard the expression of being “all thumbs.” Imagine for a moment that you were not able to use your thumbs at all. Hold your thumbs tightly against your index fingers and try buttoning or unbuttoning a shirt, holding and writing with a pencil, or peeling and eating a banana. All of a sudden you can see how important your thumbs are!
Humans and other primates have what are called opposable thumbs. Because our thumbs are opposite the rest of our fingers, we are able to manipulate objects with our hands, making it easier for us to grab and hold food and to use tools. The opposable thumb is just one example of an adaptation-a feature of a living thing that helps improve its chances for survival.
In the first unit, students were introduced to the year’s theme, Change Over Time, by examining a variety of changes. Through an exploration of adaptations, this unit lays the groundwork for students to consider changes that occur over much longer periods of time. Adaptations develop over time-sometimes millions of years-through a process of natural selection. Each individual of a species has slight differences from others in the same species. Some of these differences may increase an individual’s chances to survive and reproduce in its environment. Those that survive sometimes pass on to their offspring the characteristics that enabled them to do well in that environment. Thus, generation after generation, characteristics that enhance survival become more and more common. In this way, the individuals that are better suited to an environment are “selected” and continue to change; those less suited die out. An understanding of adaptations and good gardening go hand-in-hand. Students will learn that specific plants and animals are suited to live in a particular habitat. Help students apply this information to their gardening methods. For example, you might investigate what plants are best adapted to your climate and why. Are they drought tolerant or can they survive cold winters? The concept of adaptations will be explored throughout the year as students investigate ow living things have adapted to seasons, climate, habitat, and each other.
Iv- Song: “We’re Animals”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- A Habitat Is Where … (exploring how living
things survive in their habitats)
12- Humble Weeds (making observations
about adaptations;collecting seeds)
15- Discovery Center: Seed for Yourself
(exploring seed characteristics)
18- Hanging in Air (experimenting with
airborne seeds)
22- Disappearing Act (investigating
camouflage an adaptation)
25- Designer Beings (designing a creature
adapted for a particular habitat)
28- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
32- Calendar
Lab Sheets
Pre assessment: What Do You Know
33- About Adaptations?
35- A Habitat Is Where
36- Discovery Center: Seed for Yourself
37- Hanging in Air
40- Designer Beings
Post assessment: Cluing into
43- Adaptations
45- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Humble Weeds
5- Humble Weeds Field Notes
7- Beaks That Speak
49- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Adaptations
54- Index
Energy and Change (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Students examine heat energy and consider how energy is involved in change.
Science Exploration: Students explore ways that heat energy changes things, focusing on sunlight as a source of heat.
Process Skills: Students practice inferring ideas from data they collect and from reasoning.
Life Science: Green plants use energy from sunlight to produce food.
Earth Science: The sun emits sunlight, which is a source of energy.
Physical Science: Energy is involved when matter moves or changes. Heat is a form of energy. When sunlight is absorbed, it transforms to heat. When energy is transferred from one form to another, change occurs in matter.
Science, Technology, and Society: Alternative energy sources help conserve natural resources and protect the environment. Technologies are advancing to use energy more efficiently as our society learns to face a growing population and its impact on air, water, and land.
Everything we do and everything that happens to us involves energy. Energy is what makes things work. You may depend on your battery-operated alarm clock to wake you up in the morning, or your breakfast cereal to power your body until lunch, and on the energy released by burning gasoline to get you to work via bus or car. Light, sound, heat, and electricity are all different forms of energy. All of these forms are similar in that one form can change into another. Most of what happens in the universe-from the growth and decay of living things to the workings of machines and computers to the collapsing and exploding of stars-involves one form of energy being transformed into another.
Wherever there is change, energy is involved. In looking at energy as a part of change, students build on the theme of Change Over Time. In this unit, students focus on heat energy and examine ways heat changes things. In the following units particularly Seasonal Change, and Weather and Climate Changes-students will build on the foundation of energy as they explore how heat energy from sunlight affects the living and non living elements of our planet.
Energy is not something we can see, though all around us we see evidence that it exists. Through activities in this unit, students practice making inferences-giving explanations based on their observations. By examining data they collect about heat energy in experiments, and through reasoning, students begin to form an understanding of what energy is and how it works.
In the garden, students can explore the importance of energy to all living things. For example, green plants use energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into food. The energy in this food is in turn passed to other living things through the food chain. Many late fall gardening ideas can be found in the In the Garden sections of this unit.
Iv- Song: “Nature Rap”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Energy Words (categorizing energy-related
words)
12- The Heat Is On (observing changes caused
by heat energy)
16- Heat On The Go (investigating heat energy
transference)
19- A Lot Of Hot Air (exploring ways to trap
energy)
23- Hot Colors ( comparing sunlight absorption
of different colors)
26- Keeping Things Warm (experimenting
with different kinds of insulation)
30- Solar Box Challenge (designing and
testing solar collectors)
34- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
38- Calendar
Lab Sheets
Preassessment: What Do You Know
39- About Energy And Change?
40- Energy Words
41- The Heat Is On
46- Heat On The Go
49- Hot Colors
52- Keeping Things Warm
54- Postassessment: Cluing Into Energy
and Change
57- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- A Lot Of Hot Air
4- Solar Box Challenge
7- Feel The Heat
8- Easy Detail
Life Lab Beat: Focus on
61- Energy and Change
66- Index
Seasonal Change (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Students consider the causes of seasonal changes and observe changes in sunlight over short periods (daily changes) and longer periods (seasonal changes). They look for ways in which living things have adapted to survive and to take advantage of seasonal changes.
Science Exploration: Students explore Earth's rotation and how the Earth's orbit around the sun and the tilt of its axis cause seasonal changes.
Process Skills: Students make periodic observations of natural phenomena and use models to explain phenomena they observe.
Life Science: Living things are adapted to seasonal variations in the environment.
Earth Science: The Earth rotates on its axis once each day. Seasons result from the Earth's orbit around the sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis. The closer the sun is to the horizon, the less solar energy is received per unit time. The characteristics of seasons vary with latitude.
Physical Science: The sun is a source of energy. From one season to the next, the amount of available solar energy at a given location on Earth changes. This energy is strongest when the energy receiver directly faces the sun.
Science, Technology, and Society: Problem solving gives students an opportunity to make predictions, do research, and eventually come to an educated solution to a "mystery." This process can be applied to many aspects of their lives.
Most people would agree that the different seasons of the year inspire delight and remind us that living is about changing. With seasonal changes in temperature and weather, living things respond with their own changes, including falling leaves, migrating birds, and spring-blooming bulbs. These seasonal changes can be beautiful, interesting, and just plain fun. Seasons can also be reassuring: They remind us of the cycles of life. As we experience the seasonal pleasures of the passing months of the year, we become connected to the natural rhythms of the world around us.
This unit is about the seasons of the year, but it is not a typical study of the four seasons: summer, fall, winter, and spring. Instead, the unit uses this familiar topic to introduce the abstract concept of movement in the solar system. By focusing on the Earth’s rotation on its axis and its revolution around the sun, the unit helps students understand the reasons we have seasons. Through modeling activities and observations over time, students learn that the seasonal changes they observe are caused by astronomical phenomena such as the relationship between the Earth’s position and the sun. Students develop skill in using models as a tool for studying objects and processes that are remote in time and space. They also continue to practice making inferences based on reasoning. In the Energy and Change unit, students explored the sun’s heat energy and how it affects living and nonliving things. In this unit , students examine how change in the amount of available sunlight at a given location is the underlying cause of seasons. In the Weather and Climate Changes unit, students build on this notion as they investigate ways that changes in heat energy from the sun affect weather. Seasons and gardening are intricately connected. Usually, we plant in the spring, grow in the summer, harvest in the fall, and let the garden fallow in winter. In fact, the word season comes from the Latin verb serere, meaning “to sow.”
Iv- Song: “Nocturnal Animals”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Mysteries (collecting data)
12- Turn, Turn, Turn (investigating the earth’s
movement)
16- Sun Clock (measuring shadows)
20- A Reason for Seasons (making a model of
the earth’s orbit)
24- Seasonal Sun Tracking (collecting data
about shadows)
29- Seasonal Adaptations (exploring seasonal
adaptations and writing legends)
34- Mysteries Solved (compiling data and
sharing observations.)
37- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
40- Calendar
Lab Sheets
Preassessment: What Do You Know ·
41- About Seasonal Change?
43- Mysteries
49- Turn, Turn, Turn
52- A Reason for Seasons
54- Seasonal Adaptations
56- Mysteries Solved
Postassessment: Cluing into
60- Seasonal Change
61- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Inside Out
4- SunClock
5- Sun Clock Observations
7- Seasonal Sun Tracking
65- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Seasonal Change
70- Index
Weather and Climate Changes (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Weather in an area changes in what is typically a yearly pattern called climate. Climates have changed over long periods of time, affecting living things.
Science Exploration: Complex interactions between earth's air, water, and land masses create different climates. Different living things are adapted to different types of climates.
Process Skills: Students practice synthesizing information and inferring ideas from data.
Life Science: Plants and animals are adapted to the climates in which they live.
Earth Science: Climate is the typical pattern of seasonal weather that a particular region experiences over time. Some climatic differences are due to the orientation of the earth to the sun, which causes the various regions of the earth to be heated differently.
Physical Science: Gasses can push against the things they touch. This is called air pressure. Air flows from areas of higher pressure to areas of lower pressure. Winds result from differences in air pressure.
Science, Technology, and Society: Weather and climate influence human activity. Meteorologists use sophisticated equipment for predicting weather.
If you live in Miami, you don’t expect snow for Christmas. If you live in Alaska, you don’t expect to broil in August. This is because you know that different parts of our planet have different climates. A climate is the typical weather for a given place over a period of time. Knowing about an area’s climate can give an idea about what to expect in terms of temperature or precipitation at a certain time of year. In this unit, students examine some causes for climates and weather variation. Climates are created by a complex interaction between earth’s masses of air, water, and land. To help students understand some of these interactions, the unit involves them in monitoring their local weather in a class weather station, exploring air pressure, studying climate and weather maps, and modeling the earth’s movement around the sun. These various activities provide opportunities for students with different learning styles to explore the concepts at different learning levels.
Students learn that one of the major reasons for climatic differences is the tilt of the earth’s axis in relation to the sun. This builds on students’ learning in the Seasonal Change unit, in which they explored the movement of the earth around the sun. The unit also builds on students’ learning from the Energy and Change unit as they explore how the sun’s heat energy drives the wind patterns that are typical for earth. In addition, students build on their learning from the Adaptations unit as they consider specific adaptations organisms have for living in their native climate.
As every gardener knows, consideration of the local climate is a critical factor for a successful garden. Knowing expected climate conditions can help you plant garden plants that will thrive in your area and can help you determine the best planting times for various species. Because this unit was designed for mid-winter, when most school gardens lie dormant, the activities take place indoors, away from the garden. Look in the Digging Deeper and the In the Garden sections for specific ideas about how to connect the unit to your garden activities.
Iv- Song: “Water Cycle Boogie”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Climate Wheel (identifying characteristics
of climate)
12- Comparing Climates (compiling data
about climate)
15- Discovery Center: The Pressure Is Up
(exploring air pressure)
21- Sunny with a Chance of Birthday Cake
(experimenting with air pressure)
24- Earth Climates (investigating sunlight
and wind)
28- Hot Spots (comparing land and water
temperatures)
31- Palm Trees in Alaska? (relating climate
and adaptation)
34- Climate Wise (creating contrasting weather
reports)
37- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
40- Calendar
Lab Sheets
Preassessment: What Do You Know
41- About Weather and Climate Changes?
45- Climate Wheel
46- Comparing Climates
55- Discovery Center: The Pressure is Up
63- Sunny with a Chance of Birthday Cake
65- Earth Climates
71- Hot Spots
74- Palm Trees In Alaska?
78- Climate Wise
Postassessment: Cluing Into
81- Weather and Climate Changes
83- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Facing Vases and Other Magic Shapes
4- Build a Weather Station
8- Weathered Garden
Life Lab Beat: Focus on Weather and
87- Climate Changes
93- Index
Soil Changes (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Soils change over time as a result of living and non living processes such as freezing, weathering, the activities of soil organisms, and erosion.
Science Explorations: Science Exploration: Through laboratory experiments that model natural phenomena, students learn how soil is formed and changes.
Process Skills: Students practice synthesizing data and making inferences from data.
Life Science: Living things in soil have adaptations that enable them to survive in their soil habitat. Living things interact with the soil and can change it over time.
Earth Science: Soil is formed and changes as a result of many mechanical and chemical processes. Soil is formed from particles of rock mixed with organic matter from living and once living things. Soil erosion is the gradual wearing away by water, wind, or ice.
Physical Science: Physical processes such as friction and the forces of wind and water cause soil formation and erosion.
Science, Technology, and Society: Topsoil is a valuable natural resource that can be depleted by human use. We can learn ways to conserve it.
Take a handful of soil and examine it closely. Smell it, feel it, and rub it between your fingers. What is this stuff that we build our houses on, raise our food in, and mine minerals from?
Soil is the thin layer of loose material that covers much of the land areas of the earth, and it is the material that supports plant life. We depend on it to produce our food and forests. Although it may seem unchanging and lifeless, soil is actually a dynamic mixture of rock materials that is teeming with living things. A teaspoon of soil can contain millions of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, as well as earthworms, insects, and spiders. Soils are the product of physical, chemical, and biological processes. They contain rocks and minerals and organic material from living or once-living things. Soils are slowly but continually changing.
To get a sense of the formation of your local soil, dig a soil profile (a hole approximately 1 meter deep) and examine the differences in color and organic matter in the different layers. Toward the bottom you might find solid rock-the parent material from which your soil has formed over hundreds of years. As the parent rock was weathered through different processes, it chipped away into the sand, silt, and clay that form the particle texture of your soil. Organic materials-living and once-living plants and animals-mix with the soil’s top layers, forming the nutrient base and providing the richness that allows us to grow a diversity of plants.
By examining how soil is formed and other ways it changes, students learn the importance of this vital resource. In this unit they are introduced to the notion that some natural processes take place over very long periods of time. For example, it may take hundreds of years to form one inch of soil from rock.
Soils are formed over such long periods of time that it is not possible to directly observe this process over the course of a few weeks. In this unit, students practice an important science skill. Using data to make inferences about phenomena that cannot be observed directly.
Iv- Song: “Dirt Made My Lunch”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Soil Maker (examinings oil)
12- Busting Up (investigating how plants break
down rock)
17- Freeze! (investigating the effects of freezing
and thawing)
21- They Toil in the Soil (observing how
earthworms affects soil)
25- Water Erosion (investigating how water
affects soil)
29- Blowing in the Wind (investigating how
wind affects soil)
32- Fossil Leaves (exploring and creating fossil
models)
35- The Adventures of Super Soil (writing
about soil)
37- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
40- Calendar
Lab Sheets
Preassessment: What Do You Know
41- About Soil Changes?
43- Busting Up
46- They Toil in the Soil
56- Fossil Leaves
Postassessment: Cluing Into
57- Soil Changes
59- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Facing Vases and Other Magic Shapes
4- Water Erosion
8- Earthworm Hunt
63- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Soil Changes
69- Index
Growing Together (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Students examine changes in the garden over time and put into perspective the changes that occur over a short time and over a longer time.
Science Exploration: By exploring different time scales of change, students build on their understanding that the earth and its inhabitants are constantly changing. Students begin to recognize that the earth is very old and that by observing the earth and its life today, we can learn about how it was in the past.
Process Skills: Students synthesize what they have learned about changes in the garden and in nature and apply their learning to some garden problems.
Life Science: Living things change over time. Different kinds of changes occur over different scales of time: for example, it may take millions of years for a new species to evolve but only a few minutes for a single plant to be devoured by a deer.
Earth Science: The earth changes over time. The geologic time scale is used to place geologic events, such as the formation of . the Grand Canyon, in a time sequence.
Physical Science: Different units of time are appropriate for describing different events. Scientists use various tools and methods to measure these scales of time.
Science, Technology, and Society: In order to plan for a sustainable future it is important to understand how the earth and living things on the earth have evolved and continue to evolve over time.
Depending on how you look at it, time can move very fast or very slow. We all are familiar with how time seems to drag when we are bored or uncomfortable and yet flies when we are having fun. In addition to time seeming to change speeds, the events that can happen over time change dramatically, depending on the time scale. For example, on the scale of a human lifetime, a plant may grow imperceptibly over the course of a day. On a geologic scale, a plant species evolves into another species in response to changes in the environment that take place over millions of years.
Throughout the year, students have been learning about changes in the garden and in the natural world around them: changes in heat, sunlight, seasons, weather, soil, and between living things. In this unit, students get a chance to reflect on and apply their learning. Focusing on the Change Over Time theme, students explore different scales of time as they consider various changes in the garden. Children this age may be confused about how long ago past events happened and how long they took to occur. Timelines are one way to classify time. Through activities in which students make timelines of different garden changes, the unit helps them sort out the timing and duration of garden events and paves the way for a better understanding of time scales.
To culminate the year, students also prepare to provide next year’s class with gifts to start them in the garden: plants to harvest and a compost pile to enrich the soil. These activities help students see the garden and their learning as ongoing and ever changing.
Iv- Song: “Everything Needs A Home”
1- Introduction
2- Student Goals
3- Activity Chart
4- Unit Planner
6- Recommended Literature
8- Parent Letter
9- Garden History (compiling chronological
information)
13- Planning for a Fall Harvest (determining
suitable plantings for climate and time
of harvest)
17- Planting for Fall (planting a garden and
preparing seed cards)
20- A Gift of Compost (building a compost pile)
24- Garden History Timeline (creating a
garden timeline)
27- A Brief History of the Earth (creating a
timeline to reflect the history of the Earth)
31- This Year’s Timeline ( creating a timeline
to reflect Life Lab learning)
35- Assessment Checklist
Student Lab Book Section
38- Calendar
Lab Sheets
Preassessment: What Do You Know
39- About Change Over Time?
40- GardenHistory
42- Planning’for a Fall Harvest
45- Vegetable Planting Guide
Postassessment: Cluing Into
46- Change Over Time
49- Field Log
1- Reflections from a Naturalist’s Field Log
2- Negative Space
3- Rule of Thumb
4- Planning for a Fall Harvest
6- Planting for Fall
53- Life Lab Beat: Focus on Change Over Time
60- Index
Change Over Time (Originally Written For Fifth grade)
Theme: Students explore the garden through sensory awareness activities and garden projects such as digging, planting, watering, and harvesting.
Science Explorations: Students gain an understanding of how they can use their senses to learn about the world around them.
Process Skills: Students develop cooperative skills by participating in activities and working together to grow a garden.
In this unit, students explore a variety of activities that focus on developing sensory awareness and on growing plants.
Life Science: Plants have different growing requirements. Work in the garden causes changes that can be described.
Earth Science: Soil can be wet or dry. Tools can be used to dig in soil. Water can wash away soil.
Physical Science: Water has physical properties that can be described.
Science, Technology, and Society: People can grow food. They can eat it raw or cooked. Different tools are used for different jobs.
Step into the morning freshness of a garden, and your senses come alive. A rainbow of colors surrounds you as you listen to the birds chirp, smell freshly-turned soil, and feel the velvety texture of a petal. With little conscious effort, your eyes, ears, nose, and hands have begun to explore the natural world.
Through the activities and free exploration stations provided in this unit, children learn to use their senses to investigate the natural world. The garden becomes a living laboratory, where students can expand their sensory awareness. In future units, students will continue to explore the garden as they investigate water, soil, plants, and animals. Lessons in each unit are either organized as free exploration stations, called Explorer Posts, or teacher-directed activities. Explorer Posts give children the opportunity to freely explore a skill or a material, while the activities present a directed exploration of science concepts and process skills.
Some gardening projects in this unit are ongoing; others are seasonal. All of the information you will need for each gardening activity is included in the lesson or can be found in Gardening KnowHow for the ’90s, by Dick Raymond. Make time for gardening activities, even if your garden consists of a planting box. No matter how small the garden, it will become a focus for learning important lessons about caring for living things and cooperating to achieve a common goal.
This unit marks the start of a year of exploration for you and your students. Use the Planner in each unit to guide your exploration, but feel free to strike out on your own. Choose the activities that best suit your students, your teaching style, and the season of the year. All of the lessons provide opportunities for cooperative learning and challenge students to solve problems and share discoveries.
2- Song: “Take the Time to Wonder”
3- Introduction
4- Student Goals
5- Activity Chart
7- Unit Planner
8- Recommended Literature
9- Parent Letter
10- Hello, Garden (touring the class garden)
13- Explorer Post 1: Through the Looking Glass (exploring magnifying lenses).
15- Garden Shape Search (honing observation skill)
18- Rattling Roundup (developing listening skills).
21- Know Your Nose (developing sense of smell)
24- Mirrors (practicing cooperation skills).
27- Ball Balance (problems solving with a partner)
29- Explorer Post 2: Harvest Time (harvesting and
exploring vegetables).
31- Tools Together (using and sharing garden tools).
34- Explorer Post 3: Garden Store (pretending to market crops).
36- Grow a Garden (sowing seeds in the garden)
39- Alphabet Garden (growing a plant for each letter of the alphabet).