Topic: Mosses

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;
7) recognizes and names common organisms occurring in the immediate vicinity of the school.

General aim of education

Students describe the appearance and living environment of mosses.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• recognize mosses after the external construction;

• point out places where mosses can grow.

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;

• mosses;

• magnifying glass.

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 explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

Realization

• The lecturer presents a photograph that opens up an abstract depicting mosses. He asks students to name the plants visible in the picture.

• The teacher instructs the pupils to read the fragment „Where moss grows” and wrote in notebooks places where mosses grow. The selected student reads his note. The other students complement her, correct mistakes.

• The lecturer asks pupils to read the fragment entitled „Moss structure and appearance” and determined the differences between the construction of mosses and the construction of plants discussed in previous lessons.

• The teacher gives the pupils specimens of mosses and magnifiers. Students extract one plant from a clump, observe its structure and compare it with an interactive illustration in an abstract. They point and name parts of the plant, their functions, and then perform its biological drawing according to the criteria established with the teacher.

• The teacher assesses the students' drawings.

Summary

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

Homework

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

• Task 1.1 Look around the area of your place of residence and school carefully, looking for mosses. Look for places that meet the conditions necessary for their growth. Describe at least three positions where moss grows.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Mosses

Mosses are plants with a simple structure. They are small, measuring from 1 to 10 cm; they reach greater height only in special circumstances.
Instead of roots they have rhizoids, which are thin, thread‑like protuberances that extend from the stem. They hold the moss in soil. They’re also used to absorb water, although more water is absorbed through moss leaves. They grow densely from the stem. Photosynthesis occurs in the leaves.

Mosses do not produce flowers, fruit or seeds. In the summer, the stems sprout leafless stalks that end with a capsule shaped like a can that produces spores. After they mature, the capsule opens up and releases the spores. The spores grow into young plants.

Mosses grow predominantly in damp and shaded places. Such conditions exist in damp, dense forests, near the banks of streams and slow‑flowing rivers, in the vicinity of springs, on marshes and in the area of vanishing lakes. Mosses have very low requirements, therefore they also appear in rock crevices and between rocks, provided that a sufficient amount of water reaches these places for a part of the year.

Mosses can store large amounts of water by creating dense patches. They are resistant to periodical dryness. Even when they’re heavily dehydrated, they return to life only several hours after they once again become wet.

A special example of mosses are peat mosses. They grow on wetlands and vanishing water reservoirs. Large areas overgrown in peat mosses change into peat bogs that comprise growing layers of dead mosses that keep becoming thicker and gradually change into peat.

• Mosses are plants with a simple structure that grow in wet environments.

• Mosses have very low requirements, which allows them to grow and develop in poor soil.