Schoolyard Field Guide and Flower Part Identification
Summary
In this classroom and field-based activity students will create their own journal, observe school yard plants using a OKWL chart, be introduced to the parts of a flower, and inspired by a floral poem by Emily Dickinson.
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Learning Goals
This activity is designed for students to practice their observation skills. To give the students time to focus on seeing an object. Students will learn the parts of a flower. Some of the vocabulary words introduced in this lesson are petal, stamen, pistil, and sepal.
Context for Use
This lesson would be appropriate for all primary grades. It would be appropriate for any class size. I plan to teach this in two 55-minute periods. It could be extended to three class periods. I will teach this lesson as a component in an ongoing series of environmental science lessons including additional lessons in observation.
Description and Teaching Materials
Materials needed- student drawing paper and/ or scientific notebooks, Stone Girl Bone Girl: The Story of Mary Anning , pencils, Ordovician Fossils of Minnesota Twin Cities Area identification sheet
Objective
Awareness – the student will observe schoolyard plants and draw a plant of their choice
Knowledge – After instruction, the able to identify the parts of a plant with 95% accuracy.
Skills – Students will be able identify schoolyard plants by their leaves and/or flowers with 80% accuracy.
Attitudes – After studying schoolyard plants, students will appreciate and respect plants in their environment
Action – After studying schoolyard plants, students will be able to maintain a schoolyard garden, weeding and dividing plants as necessary.
Make Science Journal
Take a 12x18 piece of construction paper
Fold it hotdog, fold it corndog, fold it mini-corndog. Crease well.
Open all the way.
Fold it hamburger, hold it like a taco, cut to make shorts, open all the way
Fold it hotdog again and smoosh the diamond.
Review outside classroom behavior expectations
Take your new journal, pencil and colored pencils.
Go outside!
Find a spot near a plant in the schoolyard garden
Describe what you see - you can use drawings and/or words
Think, Pair, Share
Using a OKWL chart students will share what they noticed, what they know, and what they want to learn and what they learned.
Identify the parts of flower.
Bring a magnifying glass and your journal to the outdoor classroom
Students will number off 1, 2, 1, 2...
Number 1 students will look for the specified flower part. Number 2 students will observe the part and see if it has been correctly identified. Repeat for several rounds, switching which student identifies and which student verifies.
1 Inch, 2 Inch, and 4 Inch Drawings
Students will do a series of drawings.
The first drawing will be a 1 inch square clearing a flower part they have chosen to draw.
The second drawing will be 2 inches and show the same small part of the flower and the area around it.
The final drawing will be 4 inches and show the flower part and the larger area around it. It may or may not be the entire flower depending on the flower they choose.
Ehlert, Lois. Planting a Rainbow. Harcourt Inc. Singapore, 1988.
Friesen, Helen Lepp. How Plants Grow. Perfection Learning, Logan, Iowa, 2006
Jeunesse, Gallimard. Flowers: A First Discovery Books. Scholastic, Italy 2005
Ross, Michael Elsohn. Flower Watching. Carolrhoda Books, Minneapolis, 1997.
The Emily Dickson Poem "We Should Not Mind so Small a Flower" can be retrieved from:
http://www.bartleby.com/113/5085.html
biology_attachment_flo (Microsoft Word 420kB Aug3 09)
Objective
Awareness – the student will observe schoolyard plants and draw a plant of their choice
Knowledge – After instruction, the able to identify the parts of a plant with 95% accuracy.
Skills – Students will be able identify schoolyard plants by their leaves and/or flowers with 80% accuracy.
Attitudes – After studying schoolyard plants, students will appreciate and respect plants in their environment
Action – After studying schoolyard plants, students will be able to maintain a schoolyard garden, weeding and dividing plants as necessary.
Make Science Journal
Take a 12x18 piece of construction paper
Fold it hotdog, fold it corndog, fold it mini-corndog. Crease well.
Open all the way.
Fold it hamburger, hold it like a taco, cut to make shorts, open all the way
Fold it hotdog again and smoosh the diamond.
Review outside classroom behavior expectations
Take your new journal, pencil and colored pencils.
Go outside!
Find a spot near a plant in the schoolyard garden
Describe what you see - you can use drawings and/or words
Think, Pair, Share
Using a OKWL chart students will share what they noticed, what they know, and what they want to learn and what they learned.
Identify the parts of flower.
Bring a magnifying glass and your journal to the outdoor classroom
Students will number off 1, 2, 1, 2...
Number 1 students will look for the specified flower part. Number 2 students will observe the part and see if it has been correctly identified. Repeat for several rounds, switching which student identifies and which student verifies.
1 Inch, 2 Inch, and 4 Inch Drawings
Students will do a series of drawings.
The first drawing will be a 1 inch square clearing a flower part they have chosen to draw.
The second drawing will be 2 inches and show the same small part of the flower and the area around it.
The final drawing will be 4 inches and show the flower part and the larger area around it. It may or may not be the entire flower depending on the flower they choose.
Ehlert, Lois. Planting a Rainbow. Harcourt Inc. Singapore, 1988.
Friesen, Helen Lepp. How Plants Grow. Perfection Learning, Logan, Iowa, 2006
Jeunesse, Gallimard. Flowers: A First Discovery Books. Scholastic, Italy 2005
Ross, Michael Elsohn. Flower Watching. Carolrhoda Books, Minneapolis, 1997.
The Emily Dickson Poem "We Should Not Mind so Small a Flower" can be retrieved from:
http://www.bartleby.com/113/5085.html
biology_attachment_flo (Microsoft Word 420kB Aug3 09)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Students may need additional work with observation and identifying parts of a flower. Heterogeneous small groups may support students learning the flower parts.
Assessment
Students journals will be assessed informally and students will be tested on the parts of a flower formally.
Standards
3.4.1.1.1. Living things are diverse with many different characteristics that enable them to grow, reproduce and survive.
3.4.1.1.2 Compare how the different structures of plants and animals serve various functions of growth, survival, and reproduction.
3.4.1.1.2 Compare how the different structures of plants and animals serve various functions of growth, survival, and reproduction.