These extensions are brought to you by other teachers who have used this unit. They have not been evaluated by The Einstein Project. (Rev.4/28/2012)
ACTIVITIES:
Plant gardens at school using seeds & slips
Bring in flowers to dissect – Gladiolas, lilies work well
Make a pressed plant book, pressed flowers
Build a terrarium
Seed mosaics
Students write a story about their life as a bee or plant
Make flower and bee models (styrofoam balls, spray paint, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, beads etc. to make wings, eyes, pollen basket etc.)
Concept cards for assessment
- Pre-test; draw a bee
- Post-test; draw a bee [what was learned?]
Grow bean seeds along with WI fast plants
Do a bee report
– make a model & write 2-3 paragraphs
- asses if they know the body parts
Skit on cross pollination
Readers theater
Add a mini unit on apples
-add in reading using books on growth of an apple tree
-tie in Johnny Appleseed
Extend the unit into math
-make time lines, fraction flowers (write fractions to represent the number & color of petals)
- estimate the number of seeds harvested
- graph the actual number
- plant other seeds to compare production of seeds
Go maple sugaring
Make a recipe connection; every ingredient is related to a plant (except the salt)
Assessment: create their own insect – assess knowledge of characteristics
INQUIRY:
Beekeeper – Barry Panheaty (920-682-9524) 718 N. 12th Street, Manitowoc, WI 54220, email- bgmp41@yahoo.com
Beekeeper – Tom Nitka – Green Bay area does 45 min presentation
Lee Hansen from Schroeder's Flowerland ("fast growing" seeds - kids could plant at home)
Botanist
WI Honey Queen – free – 20-30 min. presentation, email- wihoneyqueenprogram@gmail.com
Enrich the unit with Oneida Indian Language/environmental consequences/mathematical observations and cultural values
Study roots, stems, & photosynthesis
Rural schools – class could research the negative effects of mustard plants (weeds) on crops
Study Joshua pines (very different solution to problem of how to survive from Brassica)
Visit a greenhouse
- Paine Arboretum, Oshkosh, Gardens of the Fox Cities for tour (called Plants 101)
- Green Bay Botanical Gardens, Boerner Bot. Gardens, Hales Corners
- Corn Maze, apple picking, pumpkin patch
Observe a lily
Good information on Brassica plants & bees on the internet
BOOKS:
"Inside the Beehive" - Magic School Bus
"Goes to Seed" - Magic School Bus
"How Do Apples Grow?" - Betsy Maestro
"All About Seeds" - Melvin Berger
"Apple Seed to Applesauce" - Daniel Born Jr.
"Seedfolks" – Sid Fleischman
"Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices" – P. Fleischman
"Honeybees" – Jane Lecht
"The Reasons for a Flower" – R Heller
"Questions and Answers about Bees" – B. Polisar Reigot
"Tiny Seed" – Eric Carle
"Mysteries of Plant Life" - Usborne
"From Plant to Seed" – Gail Gibbons
"Oh Say can You Seed?" – B. Worth (all about flowering plants)
VIDEOS:
" Buzzin Bees"
"Secrets of the Bee World"
"Inside the Beehive" – Magic School bus
"Goes to Seed" - Magic School bus
"What is Pollination?" - Biology of Plants series
"The Lifecycle of a Honeybee" – Reading Rainbow
"Plants", or "In Action" – Eyewitness video
'BUG City Bees"
