Lewiston Summer 2014 Unit Plan
Grade Level: 1
Theme: Gardening
Overarching Questions: What is a garden? How do they work? What is the purpose of a garden?
Week 1 Topic: Plant Parts/ How They Grow (What's in the garden?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.6
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
1.MD.A.1. Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object. Science example: Every sunflower is taller than the ruler...every daisy is shorter than the ruler...so without measuring directly we know that every sunflower is taller than every daisy. The sunflowers and daisies are not exactly like the plants from which they grew, but they resemble the plants from which they grew in being generally tall or generally short.
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.A: Structure and Function All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Introduce Gardening Unit by reading Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert. Ask students to identify fruits and vegetables they have tried and those they would like to try. Ask students to identify fruits and vegetables they think might grow in Lewiston, ME. Create a list of fruits and vegetables we hope to grow in our garden with descriptions of how they might look, feel, taste, smell, and sound like, ie "shiny red tomatoes." Then ask students to identify actions they will do to tend the garden. Create a list of action verbs. Have students work in pairs to create descriptive sentences about our summer garden using the two lists, "We will water the shiny red tomatoes. We will pull weeds. We will find ladybugs and cool cucumbers." Have students share their sentences and put them together to make a class poem.
2. Play Garden Tag to teach the stages of plant growth. Complete Seed Match activity. (1 class period/ Students complete matching activity and write descriptive sentences about the plants they identify. Worksheet can be modified to include fruits and vegetables they will see this summer. Teacher can also provide examples of whole fruits or vegetables for students to explore to aid in writing activity.)
3. Students learn about the parts of the plant and participate in a Plant Parts Garden Scavenger Hunt (1 class period/ Activity can be modified as necessary to suit Longley environment, ie might exclude cafeteria).
4. Eat Your Plants Parts (1 class period/ Students complete activity and then work collaboratively to create and try a salad made from the various ingredients in their bags: use spinach leaves (leaves), sunflower seeds (seed), carrots (root), cherry tomatoes (fruit), asparagus (stem), and broccoli (flower).
Literature Connections:
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Field Trip: Wolfe's Neck Farm
Materials We Need:
Lakeshore plants activity tub FF-986
Lakeshore plants book library GG-865
Nonfiction Ebooks on plants and life cycle
Cooking ingredients for "Eat your Plant Parts" (purchase from activity fund)
Weeks 2 + 3 Topic: Plant Needs (Sun, Soil, Water) (How does your garden grow?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.2
Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.5
Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.A.1
Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.1
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.A: Structure and Function All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Students will learn about living and non-living things and the water cycle. They will build a terrarium using recycled materials.
2. Students will observe their terrarium and write about what is happening as the water cycle forms inside the bottle. They can draw pictures and/or diagrams to accompany their writing. Students will complete a lab activity to learn about how plants absorb water through their root system.
3. Students will complete an activity A Heavy Load to Carry to demonstrate the amount of energy and time it takes to move water. They will draw conclusions about the importance of technology in water access and the need to conserve water.
4. Students will construct their own Rainwater Harvesting Tank and test its effectiveness. In addition to this model lesson, teachers may also choose to have their classrooms make and place one rainwater collection container in the garden to collect and measure rainwater at a later time.
5. Students will watch at BrainPop Movie about soil created by a first grade class. They will gather various soil samples from the school grounds (or the teacher can have them ready) and will conduct a short lab activity to investigate the properties of different types of soil. They will draw conclusions about the soil properties necessary for effective plant growth.
6. Students will select an area of the school garden to create a soil map, which they will observe over time. (I recommend creating one soil map per class rather than per student!)
7. Students will complete activities from Life Lab for further soil investigation! (this resource has so many activities I can't choose my favorite! It's up to you!)
Literature Connections:
Field Trips:
Jillson's Farm
Wolfe's Neck Farm
Materials We Need:
Terrarium Materials (purchase from activity fund)
For Heavy Load to Carry--4 1-gallon buckets, 4 1-gallon plastic jugs, 2 large plastic funnels
For Rainwater Harvesting Tank--spray bottle, straws, soy sauce containers
For Soil Activity--one quart plastic bags, strainer, pan, paper plates, magnifying glass
Week 4 Topic: Insects/Animals (What else lives in a garden?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.C.4
Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms Adult plants and animals can have young. In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring to survive. (1-LS1-2)
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
You will use the 4H Lost Ladybugs Curriculum for all activities this week.
1. Students will learn about ladybugs and will create their own ladybugs (4H Curriculum pp. 5-7)
2. Students will learn about and identify different species of ladybugs. (4H Curriculum pp. 8-9)
3. Students will collect their own ladybugs (4H Curriculum pp. 10-15)
4. Students will submit the data they collect to the Lost Ladybugs project (4H Curriculum pp. 16-17)
Literature Connections:
Field Trip:
Coastal Maine Botancial Garden
Materials We Need:
Lake shore insect activity tub FF-985
Lakeshore insect book library GG-863
Week 5 Topic: Garden Uses (How do people use gardens?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.4
Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.3
Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.A: Structure and Function All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Make a vegetable soup.
2. Read the book Living Sunlight to introduce students to the way plants create energy and share that energy with people by creating our food sources. Have students create a picture/diagram or short skit showing how the sun gives us energy through plants.
3. Have students taste test a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. You can select items from the school garden and/or bring in others purchased at the grocery store or farmer's market. Use a taste test rating sheet to have kids record their reactions to each item they try. Have kids work together to graph the results to determine the class' favorites.
4. Have students create life-size cut outs of their bodies using large chart paper. Give them information regarding the parts of our bodies that different colored fruits and vegetables nourish. Gather a collection of magazines and/or grocery stores circulars and have them cut pictures of fruits and vegetables they liked during the taste test (or have tried at home) and add them to their body cut outs to show the parts of their bodies these fruits and vegetables help keep healthy. Display the body posters in your classroom or allow the students to take them home.
5. Cook a healthy recipe using your class' favorite fruits and vegetables. Be sure to choose a fruit or vegetable of each color. An easy recipe to try is Fruit Kebabs with Spiced Yogurt Topping. You can modify the fruit kebabs by adding fruits of different colors. You can also have older children research and choose their own recipes.
Literature Connections:
Field Trip:
Food Bank/ Hannaford/ etc.
Materials We Need:
1. Ingredients for vegetable soup.
Grade Level: 1
Theme: Gardening
Overarching Questions: What is a garden? How do they work? What is the purpose of a garden?
Week 1 Topic: Plant Parts/ How They Grow (What's in the garden?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.6
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
1.MD.A.1. Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object. Science example: Every sunflower is taller than the ruler...every daisy is shorter than the ruler...so without measuring directly we know that every sunflower is taller than every daisy. The sunflowers and daisies are not exactly like the plants from which they grew, but they resemble the plants from which they grew in being generally tall or generally short.
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.A: Structure and Function All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Introduce Gardening Unit by reading Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert. Ask students to identify fruits and vegetables they have tried and those they would like to try. Ask students to identify fruits and vegetables they think might grow in Lewiston, ME. Create a list of fruits and vegetables we hope to grow in our garden with descriptions of how they might look, feel, taste, smell, and sound like, ie "shiny red tomatoes." Then ask students to identify actions they will do to tend the garden. Create a list of action verbs. Have students work in pairs to create descriptive sentences about our summer garden using the two lists, "We will water the shiny red tomatoes. We will pull weeds. We will find ladybugs and cool cucumbers." Have students share their sentences and put them together to make a class poem.
2. Play Garden Tag to teach the stages of plant growth. Complete Seed Match activity. (1 class period/ Students complete matching activity and write descriptive sentences about the plants they identify. Worksheet can be modified to include fruits and vegetables they will see this summer. Teacher can also provide examples of whole fruits or vegetables for students to explore to aid in writing activity.)
3. Students learn about the parts of the plant and participate in a Plant Parts Garden Scavenger Hunt (1 class period/ Activity can be modified as necessary to suit Longley environment, ie might exclude cafeteria).
4. Eat Your Plants Parts (1 class period/ Students complete activity and then work collaboratively to create and try a salad made from the various ingredients in their bags: use spinach leaves (leaves), sunflower seeds (seed), carrots (root), cherry tomatoes (fruit), asparagus (stem), and broccoli (flower).
Literature Connections:
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Field Trip: Wolfe's Neck Farm
Materials We Need:
Lakeshore plants activity tub FF-986
Lakeshore plants book library GG-865
Nonfiction Ebooks on plants and life cycle
Cooking ingredients for "Eat your Plant Parts" (purchase from activity fund)
Weeks 2 + 3 Topic: Plant Needs (Sun, Soil, Water) (How does your garden grow?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.2
Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.5
Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.A.1
Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.1
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.A: Structure and Function All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Students will learn about living and non-living things and the water cycle. They will build a terrarium using recycled materials.
2. Students will observe their terrarium and write about what is happening as the water cycle forms inside the bottle. They can draw pictures and/or diagrams to accompany their writing. Students will complete a lab activity to learn about how plants absorb water through their root system.
3. Students will complete an activity A Heavy Load to Carry to demonstrate the amount of energy and time it takes to move water. They will draw conclusions about the importance of technology in water access and the need to conserve water.
4. Students will construct their own Rainwater Harvesting Tank and test its effectiveness. In addition to this model lesson, teachers may also choose to have their classrooms make and place one rainwater collection container in the garden to collect and measure rainwater at a later time.
5. Students will watch at BrainPop Movie about soil created by a first grade class. They will gather various soil samples from the school grounds (or the teacher can have them ready) and will conduct a short lab activity to investigate the properties of different types of soil. They will draw conclusions about the soil properties necessary for effective plant growth.
6. Students will select an area of the school garden to create a soil map, which they will observe over time. (I recommend creating one soil map per class rather than per student!)
7. Students will complete activities from Life Lab for further soil investigation! (this resource has so many activities I can't choose my favorite! It's up to you!)
Literature Connections:
Field Trips:
Jillson's Farm
Wolfe's Neck Farm
Materials We Need:
Terrarium Materials (purchase from activity fund)
For Heavy Load to Carry--4 1-gallon buckets, 4 1-gallon plastic jugs, 2 large plastic funnels
For Rainwater Harvesting Tank--spray bottle, straws, soy sauce containers
For Soil Activity--one quart plastic bags, strainer, pan, paper plates, magnifying glass
Week 4 Topic: Insects/Animals (What else lives in a garden?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.C.4
Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms Adult plants and animals can have young. In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring to survive. (1-LS1-2)
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
You will use the 4H Lost Ladybugs Curriculum for all activities this week.
1. Students will learn about ladybugs and will create their own ladybugs (4H Curriculum pp. 5-7)
2. Students will learn about and identify different species of ladybugs. (4H Curriculum pp. 8-9)
3. Students will collect their own ladybugs (4H Curriculum pp. 10-15)
4. Students will submit the data they collect to the Lost Ladybugs project (4H Curriculum pp. 16-17)
Literature Connections:
Field Trip:
Coastal Maine Botancial Garden
Materials We Need:
Lake shore insect activity tub FF-985
Lakeshore insect book library GG-863
Week 5 Topic: Garden Uses (How do people use gardens?)
ELA Priority Standards (no more than 2):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.4
Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
Math Connections (no more than 2):
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.3
Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.
Science Connections (no more than 1):
LS1.A: Structure and Function All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.
Student product/assessment:
Daily Activities to Support Learning:
1. Make a vegetable soup.
2. Read the book Living Sunlight to introduce students to the way plants create energy and share that energy with people by creating our food sources. Have students create a picture/diagram or short skit showing how the sun gives us energy through plants.
3. Have students taste test a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. You can select items from the school garden and/or bring in others purchased at the grocery store or farmer's market. Use a taste test rating sheet to have kids record their reactions to each item they try. Have kids work together to graph the results to determine the class' favorites.
4. Have students create life-size cut outs of their bodies using large chart paper. Give them information regarding the parts of our bodies that different colored fruits and vegetables nourish. Gather a collection of magazines and/or grocery stores circulars and have them cut pictures of fruits and vegetables they liked during the taste test (or have tried at home) and add them to their body cut outs to show the parts of their bodies these fruits and vegetables help keep healthy. Display the body posters in your classroom or allow the students to take them home.
5. Cook a healthy recipe using your class' favorite fruits and vegetables. Be sure to choose a fruit or vegetable of each color. An easy recipe to try is Fruit Kebabs with Spiced Yogurt Topping. You can modify the fruit kebabs by adding fruits of different colors. You can also have older children research and choose their own recipes.
Literature Connections:
Field Trip:
Food Bank/ Hannaford/ etc.
Materials We Need:
1. Ingredients for vegetable soup.