Teacher's Guide
Apply -- Teacher Fade
Visit with a Plant
ACTIVITY THIRTEEN:
Visit with a Plant
Purpose:
This activity provides a context for students to practice using the idea of photosynthesis to explain how a plant gets its food at different stages of growth. They use their knowledge to explain to a strawberry plant how to make her own food after her cotyledon is used up.Teacher Role: Assessment--try to fade and not do any coaching.
Materials: To make this assignment more real, you might want to dress up as a strawberry plant (Or talk one of your colleagues into doing it -- the principal, maybe????!!!
Materials for the costume (use your imagination!)
Fake leaves pinned onto a green shirt
Green tights
Brown yarn dangling from feet to represent roots (attach with Velcro?)
Green visor covered with fake leaves
FRAME
Read about or (MUCH BETTER OPTION) come into the classroom dressed as a plant and with much drama and sense of doom, present the class with your problem. Tell them that you were told they had some knowledge about plants that might help you solve your problem.
ACTIVITY
Alternative 1: Ask them to write you a letter to send to help to help you solve your problem.
Alternative 2: Have a conversation with the class. Let them tell you how to solve your problem. Exaggerate the complexity of it all: "Whoa, wait a minute, how many things do I have to do ??? First I have to take in water and I do that how? And then..... Wow, this is hard work!"
REFLECT AND CONNECT
Alternative 1: Have some students read their letters out loud and get feedback about how to improve them.
Alternative 2: Have students write a follow-up note to the plant: "I was worried that you might forget all the directions so I am sending you this letter to make sure you understand...."
Student Book
ACTIVITY THIRTEEN:
VISIT WITH A PLANT
Ms. Strawberry J. Plant has a problem. She is a very young plant. So far she has lived quite well eating the food from her cotyledon. However, now the food in the cotyledon is all gone. She has no food left, and she is getting VERY hungry. She doesn’t know what to do to solve her problem.
Do you think you can help her solve the problem? Write down your ideas in a letter to her, and we will send them to her and see if our suggestions help. Maybe if we can help her get some food and feel better, she will come to visit us soon!
Dear Ms. Strawberry,
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Sincerely,
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