Topic: Flowers, fruits and seeds

Target group

4th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

Grade IV

VI. The natural environment of the immediate area. Pupil:

6) lists and describes factors conditioning life on land and adapting organisms to life.

General aim of education

Students describe the flower's structure and discuss its function in the course of plant propagation.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• indicate individual parts of the plant and exchange their functions;

• discuss the meaning of various floral elements;

• describe the functions of the meaning of fruit.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• works made by students in a lesson devoted to the construction of plants (see the lesson plan entitled „Plant construction”);

• various fruits: dry and juicy;

• scissors;

• boards;

• magnifying glass;

• 5 lilies;

• scalpel;

• ruler.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher, referring to the previous lesson, asks the indicated student to exchange the known elements of plant construction and discuss their functions.

• The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

Realization

• The instructor recommends the pupils to familiarize themselves with the content of the abstract and in the appropriate place of their work done on previous classes (see the lesson plan entitled „Plant construction”), described the role of the flower. The selected person reads his note, the teacher corrects any mistakes.

• The lecturer announces the experiment. Creates groups of 5 people. He or she instructs the students to write a research question and a hypothesis in the form provided in the abstract. Then the students perform the experiment, record their observations and conclusions. The teacher points the person who shares his insights and explains the conclusions made.

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

• The teacher presents different fruits. Pupils discuss their adaptation to seed dispersal.

• Students carefully look at the illustration of the fruit, and then draw it from memory in the notebooks and sign elements of its construction. They pair up and mutually check the correctness of their drawings.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to finish the sentence: „After today's lesson I will remember ...”.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Flowers, fruits and seeds

The most important function of flowers is to produce fruit and seeds. A flower usually consists of a calyx, corolla, stamens and a pistil. All these floral parts are arranged on a receptacle.

• The calyx consists of units called sepals. They are usually green, and their main task is to protect delicate flower buds.

• The corolla is composed of petals. In insect‑pollinated plants, their function is to attract animals capable to pollinate, i.e. to transfer pollen from stamens to the top of the pistil (stigma). In plants pollinated by the wind, that is wind‑pollinated plants, petals of the corolla are usually small and green.

• The pistil and stamens allow plants to reproduce. Stamens produce pollen which is then transferred to the pistils of other flowers. This is how pollination occurs.

After pollination, numerous changes take place in the pistil, leading to the formation of fruit in which seeds are encased. The task of fruits is to disseminate seeds. Fruits are often sweet and nutritious. In this way, they attract animals. After digesting fruit, animals excrete seeds in their feces. Some fruits produce barbs or other structures that get tangled in animal fur or feathers.

• Plants have a similar external structure, even though they may look very different.

• Flowers differ with their appearance, but have a similar structure.

• The function of a flower is to produce seeds and the fruit surrounding them.

• Seeds are dispersed by the wind, water, animals or people.