How Does Our Garden Grow?

Created By 
L.Ruyle

 

Invitation | Situation | Interactions | Tasks | Standards | Assessment | Tools

Invitation: A pretty flower garden is a great way to "dress up" our school.

Situation: These activities will take place during the months of March through May, and will be an interdisciplinary study focusing on reading, science, math, and art.  The students will work both indiviually and as part of a small group.

Interactions: The students will all plant seeds in individual containers (half an egg shell?) and get them to sprout in the classroom.  They can then transplant them into the garden area between the two wings.  Each little plant will be labeled with a marker giving the name of the flower and the name of the student.  The students will be organized into small groups that will decide on the kind of flower they wish to plant.  Within the group,  individual children will make different color choices. During this unit, the students will have opportunities to cross into the academic disciplines of math, science, reading and art.

Tasks:  Science and Math:  The students will learn about the parts of a plant, needs the plant has, making comparisons, measurement (standard and non-standard) and graphing, time it takes for change to occur.  The students will also create and write math stories to extend their knowledge of problem solving situations. Language Arts:  Reading (stories and articles about plants or gardens), Writing, Technology.  There will also be an extension into the study of insects and how they affect a garden (either benefit or harm).

Standards:   TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS (TEKS) ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (1.1E)  Listening/speaking/purposes,
(1.13A) Reading/literary response,
(1.15A, B, C) Reading/inquiry/research,
(1.18B) Writing/purposes,
(1.19E) Writing/writing processes,
(1.21B) Writing/grammar/usage,
(1.23A, B) Writing/inquiry/research, MATH (1.1) Number, operation, and quantitative reasoning,
(1.3) Number, operation, and quantitative reasoning,
(1.7) Measurement (non-standard),
(1.8) Measurement (time),
(1.11) Underlying processes and mathematical tools, SCIENCE
(b) Knowledge and skills (1.1)-conducts classroom and field investigations following home and school safety procedures, (1.2)-develops abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry in the field andthe classroom,
(1.4)-organisms and objects and parts of organisms and objects can be observed, described, and measured, (1.7)-changes occur,
(1.9) -organisms have basic needs) Scientific processes

Assessment:  As the students engage in the activities of this project, they will make a report using  Hyper Studio to share the information they have acquired from their research.

Tools: Technology:  Using the WWW for researching, using "Hyper Studio", clip art, cut and paste, and using a word processor.  Non Technology:

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The Activities: