SECOND GRADE PLANT LIFE

SECOND GRADE

PLANT LIFE

2 weeks LESSON PLANS AND

ACTIVITIES

LIFE CYCLE OVERVIEW OF SECOND GRADE

ORGANISMS WEEK 1. PRE: Distinguishing characteristics of vertebrates. LAB: Discovering characteristics of animals. POST: Identifying animals by the tracks they make. WEEK 2. PRE: Developing and understanding animal jokes. LAB: Describing local habitats. POST: Comparing land and water organisms.

HUMAN BIOLOGY WEEK 3. PRE: Charting the growth of humans. LAB: Comparing the growth of hair. POST: Analyzing how babies grow. WEEK 4. PRE: Investigating growth in humans. LAB: Comparing the positions of human organs with those of other animals. POST: Analyzing fingerprints.

PLANT LIFE WEEK 5. PRE: Exploring the different types of leaves and roots. LAB: Comparing and contrasting leaves. POST: Exploring the parts of trees and flowers. WEEK 6. PRE: Discovering the diversity of plants. LAB: Classifying broad and needle leaf trees. POST: Discovering the importance of trees.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT WEEK 7. PRE: Exploring different eating strategies. LAB: Observing a worm family. POST: Comparing the components of the nutrient cycle. WEEK 8. PRE: Investigating the life of owls. LAB: Exploring owl pellets. POST: Exploring your local natural environment.

Math/Science Nucleus ?1990,2000

2

LIFE CYCLE - PLANTS (2A)

PRE LAB

Students make leaf rubbings.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Exploring the different types of leaves and roots. 2. Discovering the importance of leaves and roots.

VOCABULARY:

leaf root

MATERIALS: a large number of different kinds of leaves for rubbing,

news stock paper (thin), pencils or crayons, examples of foods from leaves and roots, pictures of roots or uprooted plants to show the differences between shallow roots and tap roots

BACKGROUND:

The plant kingdom includes seed plants, ferns and mosses. Plants can have one cell or many cells. Plants make their own food by producing simple sugars through a chemical process called photosynthesis. Most of the food produced by plants is made in the leaves. The leaves provide ample surface area for the absorption of light energy and contain many chloroplasts and it is in the chloroplasts where photosynthesis occurs.

Leaves are often modified to help the plant in other ways. Cactus leaves, for example, have spikes to protect the plant, and most of the food production occurs in the stem. Some leaves are waxy to help conserve water, and some are hairy, making them less palatable to animals. Venus fly trap leaves help capture insects, which provide nitrogen to the plant.

Roots help anchor the plant to a substrate and draw water and minerals from the soil. Some roots form a shallow network underneath the soil surface, while others have tap roots that can go quite far down to find water and anchor the plant.

We eat a number of different kinds of leaves and roots. We eat the leaf blades of spinach and lettuce, and the stalks of celery leaves. Onions are layers of leaf bases (the lower part of the blade) that have been modified to store food for the plant. Carrots and radishes are examples of roots we eat.

PROCEDURE: 1. Ask your students why they think plants have roots. Mention the different kinds

of roots and discuss why it is so hard to pull up certain plants such dandelions which are anchored by their roots.

Math/Science Nucleus ?1990,2000

3

2. Show different kinds of leaves and have the students notice the different patterns of veins, different leaf edges, and overall shapes and sizes.

3. Ask the children why plants have leaves and talk about a plant's ability to make food and how this makes it different from an animal.

4. Show the students how to make a leaf rubbing, by using the broad sides of their pencil leads or crayons. Use news stock, onion skin, or other soft paper. Put the leaf under the paper and softly rub the crayon over the leaf. Have them notice how the veins and leaf edges come through. Let them make rubbings of a number of different leaves. Talk about foods from leaves and roots and show them some examples.

Math/Science Nucleus ?1990,2000

4

LIFE CYCLE - PLANTS (2A)

LAB OBJECTIVES:

Students measure and describe shape of different leaves.

1. Comparing and contrasting leaves. 2. Quantitating leaf description.

VOCABULARY:

blade leaf petiole vein

MATERIALS:

metric rulers 4 leaves worksheet (angiosperms/gymnosperms and leave shape)

BACKGROUND:

A leaf can be considered a plant organ, since it is made up of different tissue layers. The main function of a leaf is to produce food for the plant. The leaves are the sites where photosynthesis mainly takes place.

All LAB spring and summer the leaves manufacture the food needed for plant growth, especially in trees. This food-making process takes place in the leaf in numerous cells containing the pigment chlorophyll, which gives the leaf its green color. Along with the green pigment leaves also contain yellow or orange carotenoids which, for example, give the carrot its familiar color. Most of the year these yellowish colors are masked by the greater amount of green coloring. But in the fall, partly because of changes in the period of daylight and changes in temperature, the leaves stop their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down. The green color disappears, and the yellowish colors become visible and give the leaves their changing color.

PROCEDURE:

1. In this lab, students are to bring in 4 different types of leaves to class. They must be relatively fresh in order for students to make their observations. Leaves vary in their arrangements on the stem, their form, their distribution of veins (venation), their structure, and many other characteristics. This lab will focus on 2 leaf categories.

Math/Science Nucleus ?1990,2000

5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download