Stacey Kaufman's List: Grade1 Science: plants and seeds

• • Great probing questions. Asking all the right questions to lead them to their own answers! Great teaching skills
• The Secrets Inside a Lima Bean (Questions to ask and information for the teacher
• How would you describe this seed
• If this seed was soaked overnight, how do you think it would change?  Pass out a soaked lima bean to students.
• • How would you describe the soaked seed?
   
  • How does it compare with the seed that wasn’t soaked?
   
  • Why does soaking a seed cause it to change? Seeds absorb water when they are soaked. The water causes many chemical changes inside the seed.
• Have each student take the seed coat off with a toothpick and split their lima bean in half. 
• What do you notice inside of the seed?
• Why do you think a seed has different parts?
• • Great idea for a reuseable resource...egg cartons!
• In a hurry for seeds to sprout?  Put plant cups in a plastic cake container to make a greenhouse or use a see though plastic to-go container from a restaurant.
• Use egg carton compartments to plant seeds, perhaps four for each student to make sure that each child will have a plant that grows.
• Questions to ask students:  What happen to your bean since you last saw it?  What did your sprout look like at first? 
• How did it change as it grew?  Why are these changes taking place?    What happens to change a bean into a plant? 
• Seeds (Information for the teacher)
• • I believe I already hav this book or one that tells this story. Great for intro to this unit.
• Books I Like To Use
• Johnny Appleseed: A Tall Tale by Steven Kellogg

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• • The importance of seeds and soil! powerful!!!
• • Hands on Science is the best!
• • 1 st graders doing observing, predicting!
• • not only science, but math too!

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•   Our plant printables provide great teaching ideas for kindergarten and first grade
• nature and respecting flora
• cross-curricular printables
• easily incorporate language arts, math, or art into your study of flowers, trees, ferns, molds, and mosses

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• • simple and easy to find materials
• MATERIALS:
• • math=measure the seeds
• "You wear a coat to keep you from the cold. Seeds from flowering plants have seed coats to protect them.
• Display seeds that come from all kinds of plants
• Measure the bulk of different kinds of seeds. Do an estimating activity allowing the children to guess which seeds will fill more of a small cup
• • great book!
• • great idea...have them walk around and collect seeds with their socks...note home first! ;)
• The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
• Have the children take off their shoes and then go on a hike around the school or park, When you get back to class, have the children examine their socks to see what kind of seeds is stuck to the socks.
• Tell the children they are the plants and the straws are the roots. This is a great explanation for the next experiment.
• .Bring in celery or a carnation and show the children the power of the roots. Add colored water to a glass with the celery/carnation in it, and watch for the next few days as the celery/carnation changes colors.
• Discuss

  • so important in science...discussion. What do they think?
• .Create a game allowing the children to guess what each plant is

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• "mystery seeds" in newspaper cups
• students predicted
• we measured our sprouts
• wrote our observations in our "Seed to Plant Observation Logs

  • science and writing...and math

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• • cute story to intro seeds
• • drinks a lot of water...sprouting

• • what a great video to show students what the roots look like when they are growing. Stop video along the way and discuss changes

• Variety of seeds

  • this lesson is for 6-8 graders but it could easily be simplified for 1st grades.
• Magnifying glass or microscope
• Small dry seed, one for each student (bean or watermelon
• At each station, students should

  • all the things highlighted could be done by 1st graders just in a simpler level.
• describe the seed's characteristics,
• sketch a diagram of the seed
• label the diagram with significant seed parts,
• hypothesize how the seed is dispersed, and
• Give each student

  • maybe a group instead of each student

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