Summary
Students will be presented with data cards about plants and they will need to determine how to sort the data.
Materials
For each pair of students:
Additional Resources
-
Plants of the Rocky Mountains, by Linda J. Kershaw;
ISBN 1-55105-088-7
- Rocky Mountain Tree Finder, by Tom Watts (1972, Nature Study
Guild, Berkeley); ISBN 0912550058
- Rocky Mountain Plants and Animals Coloring Book, by Dot Barlowe
(Dover Publications); ISBN 0486430456
Background for Teachers
This activity requires students to sort data about plants of Utah.
Fourth grade students are to learn about plants that live in deserts,
wetlands, and forests. Those listed in the Science Words to Know section
of the standard include:
cottonwood |
Utah juniper |
quaking aspen |
pinyon pine |
bulrushes |
cattails |
sagebrush |
prickly pear |
Some other common Utah plants: |
Douglas pine |
sego lily |
Blue spruce |
fir |
Gamble's oak |
|
|
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Playing this game requires students to make inferences about why
plants might live in a particular environment and how physical
characteristics influence survival in these areas. A great resource to help
students find answers, or for teacher information, is the 4th grade science
Web page listed under Resources in the science section of the USOE Web
site.
Intended Learning Outcomes
1. Use Science Process and Thinking Skills
3. Understand Science Concepts and Principles
Instructional Procedures
Invitation to Learn
Start a clapping rhythm such as knees, clap, snap fingers, clap, and
keep it going while you say,
Plants, plants, everywhere
Let's name parts that plants all share.
Continue the clapping rhythm and call on a student who will then
recite a plant part that they know. This should all be to the rhythm.
Example:
Plants, plants, everywhere
Let's name parts that plants all share.
Knees, clap, snap, clap (call student name)
Knees, clap, snap, clap--FLOWERS
Continue until students run out of parts (e.g., branches, leaves, roots,
seeds, etc.).
If you have studied plant adaptations, try this rhythm with them
changing the second line to "Name adaptations plants can share" (e.g.,
color, thorns, waxy coating, etc.). This leads into the following activity.
Instructional Procedures
- Prepare materials for the activity. Each pair of students should
label their sacks (Where It Lives, How it Looks, and How it
Survives) and cut up the Plant Puzzler Cards. Decide
which sack the cards will go in.
This is a place where students will need to sort the data and make
decisions about where to put it. Some pairs might put different
cards in different places. For example, "furry leaves" is a physical
characteristic, but it can also be a means of survival for some
plants. Students will need to be able to explain their decisions if
questioned.
- Make sure the students understand all the words on the Plant
Puzzler Cards. Tell them they will be looking at data about plants
and then determining which plant might fit the characteristics.
- One team member will take a card from each bag. The other
student will write the words on different squares in the correct
column of the Plant Puzzlers Student Worksheet.
- The next team member takes a turn. Continue until each member
has filled in two rows across.
- As a team, look at the rows of words. Through research,
determine a plant that can fulfill all the descriptors. For example,
if a row lists desert, attracts pollinators, and spiny skin, students
might determine that the name of the plant is the prickly pear
cactus. Have the team draw an illustration of their plants in the
space on the chart and label, or draw larger illustrations on
another paper.
- As students research each group, they might discover one that
isn't solvable (e.g., wetland, spiny skin, loses leaves, etc.). If this
happens, they might want to pick another card from the
appropriate bag.
- Students will present their findings to the class. They should be
prepared to explain how the plant is suited for the environment it
lives in.
Extensions
Art Target
Arrange subjects in a piece of art so some of them touch or extend
out of its edges.
Journal Activity
The journal cover is made with leaf rubbings or leaf printing in two
colors. Students will see that creating interesting combinations can
require them to go off the page, or work "beyond the box."
The Plant Puzzler Journal can be any size, but using half of
a 9" x 12" sheet of art paper (4 1/2" x 12") works well for the cover.
- Fold the paper like a "wallet" (1). The approximate size is
5" x 5" with a foldover piece of two inches.
- The inside pages can be made using one half of an 8 1/2" x 11"
paper, folded (2).
- You will also need to cut graph paper to the size of the inside
pages for your perimeter leaf drawings (3).
- Fold these in half and "tuck" into the book.
- Punch a hole with a hole punch on the fold close to the top and
bottom of the pages (4).
- Insert the toothpick or skewer into the holes to create the book
binding (5).
- Secure the foldover by cutting a small slit in the front cover and
tucking the piece into the slit.
Suggested activities for the journal contents:
- Find some leaves with simple contour lines and trace them on the
graph pages. Find the perimeter of the squares for simple leaves.
- Use the journal to record any data students collect about plants
and their physical characteristics.
- Record and answer any questions students might have about the
plants they investigate during the activity.
Additional Extensions
- Create a New Plant. (pdf)
- Use Environmental Tree Page (pdf) to extend the activity
further. Pick an environment. Choose an unusual or uncommon
plant from Utah. In the branches provided, list physical
characteristics of these organisms.
Family Connections
List different environments (forests, wetlands, deserts) in three
columns on a page. Keep a tally of plants your family sees over
the weekend, either at home, on television, in books, newspapers,
etc. Which is most common?
Assessment Plan
- Plant Puzzlers Student Worksheet with plants identified correctly
is a good assessment tool.
- Using the Create a New Plant Rubric will help determine
if students have grasped the intended learning outcomes for this
lesson.
- The Plant Puzzler Journal can also be used if it includes entries
where students have recorded information about the physical
characteristics of plants.