Growing Together: Open Forum

My 2nd grade teacher at school describes her Plant and Animal unit this way and I've been racking my head trying to figure out a good hands-on activity to help her achieve the learning she wants for her students. Maybe you have some ideas?:

"In the science unit they are going to learn that plants need animals to disperse their seeds or pollinate the flowers.  Then they learn that animals depend on plants for food and habitats. I also want them to understand that in nature plants reproduced without needing a human.  Every year they have the misconception that a human is planting chalta seeds in the jungle to make new chalta trees."

 *I do have a good stock of acorns at my disposal if this could help at all and I've collected some tree seeds that twirl when they fall from a high place. 

(In this case, is it just a matter of a garden talk that highlights how birds fly and carry acornsseeds all over or the wind moves seeds to nearby places-and then let the kids explore, touch, draw the seeds? Or maybe they walk around the garden  and identify what's been planted by humans and what's exists thanks to Nature & how did those seeds get there + drawing in their nature journals??   I'm thinking out loud here.) 

 

------------------------------
Maya Hagege-Sinderbrand
------------------------------

Maya - 

Our curriculum sample page happens to include a lesson plan that address this! It's a 1st grade lesson that's designed to address seed dispersal, but since that includes distribution by animals, it could be helpful. (Kids especially love the idea that seeds that "plop" include ones that plopped out of an animal's digestive system!) We also have a video version of this lesson that we made for home learning during the pandemic. This isn't our model of lesson delivery, so they're not posted publicly any more, but I'm happy to share this one if it's helpful. That's me teaching at the school my kids went to - I was a volunteer, then Program Director, and now Executive Director, and my kids are in college and high school!

Best,

Lindsey LeCuyer

www.gardentotable.org

------------------------------
Lindsey LeCuyer
------------------------------

Hi Maya, 

I second Lindsey's response regarding the seed dispersal lesson. I have used the attached FoodCorps lesson before and another option that I have not tried. 

------------------------------
Leslie Canales
Camden NJ
------------------------------

Here are some books that may help:

Who Will Plant a Tree? by Jerry Pallotta

What Will Grow? by Jennifer Ward

A Place to Grow by Stephanie Bloom

------------------------------
Lisa Smith
The Parish School
Houston TX
------------------------------

Some other books & lesson plans about seed dispersal come from Books in Bloom and include 

A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds

The Wind's Garden

Always loved having the students put on one tube sock, inside out over their shoe, and then go for a walk off the path outside and see what they gathered on their sock.  Compare that to the fur of an animal that also helps transport seeds.

------------------------------
Judy Pfister
Delaware Master Gardener
Millsboro, DE
Judy
------------------------------