Change Around Us

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). 

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)

Sparkling in the light, pouring out of faucets, and billowing as vapor in clouds, water attracts us from the very beginning of our lives. It is, after all, a resource essential to all living things. Life on Earth would be impossible without water.

Children play in water and investigate it endlessly. While most children recognize everyday examples of evaporation, condensa­tion, boiling, and melting, their understanding of these phenomena is often inaccurate or incomplete. For instance, a child may realize that water in puddles disappears, without understanding that the water has not vanished but has become a gas. Another child may know that ice cubes melt, but not connect the melting with heat energy.

Through the activities in this unit, children investigate the scientific explanations for their observations about water. In different activi-. ties involving evaporation and· condensation, students explore how water changes. They are also introduced to the water cycle. To gain an understanding of how water changes, students observe what happens to ice cubes as they melt, what happens when water evaporates and condenses, and they create their own mini-terrari­ums. Change is a difficult concept for a second grader, but with careful observation and record keeping, students can understand what happens to water before and after it changes form.

In this unit, students continue to use the techniques of scientific investigation. First, they predict what happens to water under various conditions. Next, students test their ideas and then tell how their ideas compare with the results of their experiments.

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)

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)

Where does our food come from? Does spaghetti grow on trees? Does peanut butter come from cows? To many children, food comes from grocery stores and fast-food restaurants. Few give much thought to how their food got there or what it is really made of. A garden can reveal the origins of some plant foods and take students back to a time when everyone collected food directly from the land. A garden teaches us that we can grow much of the plant food we eat. It reinforces the idea that we are dependent upon other living things, including plants.

As students learn more about food, they discover that like all other living things, people need food for energy, for growth, and for health. They learn, too, that not all foods are created equal. While a baked potato and a candy bar both taste good, the potato provides more nutrients. Children also discover that while lunches do not grow on trees, the ingredients needed to prepare a lunch come from a wide variety of plants. Many of these plants can be grown in the garden. As students grind grain into flour and turn peanuts into peanut butter, they deepen their understanding of change, the year’s theme. They observe how plants change as they are pro­cessed into foods. They also find that food plays an important role in the ways they, like other living things, grow and change.

Four activities in this unit require some cooking. Volunteers or aides can help make those projects more manageable. If, however, you lack time, facilities, or helpers, you may want to limit or adapt these activities to your particular needs. Suggestions are provided for doing so.

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)

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)

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)

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)