I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Neighborhood Habitats

Essential Question:

What role do plants play in our neighborhood habitats?

Bridge:

Plant Rubbings

Content:

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: Students will experience nature through tactile, auditory, and olfactory senses.

Activity: Students choose partners. One person is blindfolded. The other person takes his/her partner on a "touch" walk outside experiencing as many different natural things as possible. Before going outside, review appropriate behavior and expectations. Students should try and lead their partner to trees, plants, weeds, rocks, etc. After five minutes, switch roles. Have students create a visual of the experience on poster paper.

Assessment: The visual will reflect student's involvement in the touch talk experience.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: Through discussion of the touch walk, students will express and extend their knowledge of the experience.

Activity: Using the Listen, Think, Pair, Share strategy, have students answer the following question, 'What did you hear? touch? smell?" Have students answer each part of the question separately, each time using the Listen, Think, Pair, Share strategy. Have students return to the schoolyard to experience the same objects without the blindfold. What is different? Which way did you prefer?

Assessment: Quality of students' discussion reflects what they have learned.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: Students will have a closer look at plants through the use of texture.

Activity: Collect plant samples. Using the side of a crayon, have students make rubbings of various types of plants and parts of plants.

Assessment: The quality and size of the rubbing collection.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To give background knowledge on plants and seeds.

Activity: Teacher led lecture on vocabulary and functions of plants--roots, tree parts, common flowers, seeds, plants, bush, twig, etc. Use visuals and realia. Help students label their rubbings. Compare and contrast students' rubbings.

Assessment: Teacher checks for understanding throughout lesson.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: Students will understand the function of roots. Students will use observations from food coloring experiment to complete a graph.

Activity: Get a glass of water and put in two to three drops of blue food coloring. Put a stalk of celery or a white carnation in the glass. Have students make predictions of what will happen. Write the predictions on a chart. Students will graph the number of days/hours it took for the flower/celery to change colors. Students will make a visual representation of the time it took for the flower/celery to change colors. Compare the results. Have students reflect upon roots and their relationship to this experiment. Given a flower, students will carefully dissect the different parts. Students will then mount the parts of the flower on a piece of paper and label.

Assessment: Using students' predictions, check for understanding about the function of roots.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: Using what they have learned about plants, students will choose one of the following projects.

Activity:
1) Collect leaf examples from around the neighborhood. Mount and label where they came from.
2) Make a poster by drawing plants around the neighborhood.
3) Using a manila folder, create a pop-up scene of plants in the neighborhood. Write a story about the plants. Mount the story on the folder (see example at the end of this unit).

Assessment: Completed projects demonstrate knowledge of plants.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: Students will have an opportunity to complete and refine their projects.

Activity: The teacher will review each student’s progress on his/her project and will make suggestions for enhancing the work already completed.

Assessment: Students’ ability to refine and complete the project.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To allow students to share completed projects.

Activity: Students will present their plant displays

Assessment: Quality of presentations.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: