Topic: Growing plants

Author: Zyta Sendecka

Target group

Students of the 4th grade of an elementary school (new core curriculum)

Core curriculum

4th grade

VI. The natural environment of the immediate area
6. The student lists and describes factors conditioning life on land and adapting organisms to life

The general aim of education

The students independently grow plants, observing various stages of their life cycles.

Criteria of success

• you will grow a plant o your own;

• you will name two characteristics that differ annual, biennial and perennial plants;

• you will give four examples of names of annual, biennial and perennial plants.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Methods / forms of work

Directed conversation, workshop and work with text.

Individual work and frontal work.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• abstract;

• interactive or traditional board;

• tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Before lesson

One week before the classes, the students start observation 1: „Growing plants” (abstract) and bring it to the lesson.

Introduction

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

2. The teacher asks the chosen student to tell about the plant growth and the observation.

Realization

1. The teacher asks the students to independently perform an interactive task to check their knowledge of the sequence of activities when planting the selected plant.

2. The teacher asks the students to pay attention to differences in the growth cycles of the presented plants while watching the animation: „Life cycle of a plant” and „Life cycles of biennial and perennial plants”.

3. The teacher asks the students to do exercise 1 by themselves.

4. The teacher gives the students work sheets, in which the students compare the life cycles of annual, biennial and perennial plants, based on the knowledge gained from the animation and the tasks.

Summary

• The teacher asks the students to look closely at the plants and their names in galleries 1, 2 and 3.

• The teacher displays the selected exercises on the board one by one, and the selected students solve them. Together with other students, they think about any possible errors, indicating the features of an incorrectly indicated plant.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Growing plants

We come across plants everywhere we go – they grow in gardens, parks and urban green areas. We buy flowers at a florist’s and fruits and vegetables at a local market. Our clothes are made out of fibres of plants such as cotton and flax. Plants are also grown in pots in our homes. It is important to be able to take good care of them.

Most of the plants around us are grown from seeds. Some need many years to grow (like fruit trees), while others – a few weeks or months. For example, the sunflower may be sown in the spring, and already in the summer or autumn you will enjoy beautiful flowers. Majority of plants that we eat are sown, than watered, patiently cared for and finally - once fully ripe - harvested in their entirety or in parts (e.g. fruits).

Growing a plant you may get to know its lifecycle. Plants develop from seeds – we call it germination. Initially seeds sit in soil and then – provided the right conditions, e.g. access to water and appropriate temperature, are there – start to germinate. The plant increases in size for a while. Then it starts to produce flowers and fruits. We call all those changes a lifecycle.

Plants are grouped according to the time it takes to complete their lifecycle into: annual, biennial and perennial plants. Annual plants are plants that germinate (in the spring) and produce fruits and flowers all in the same year. They live from spring until autumn – then they die. If we left them to themselves, new plants would grow in their place the following spring. It happens because the plants produce seeds that sit covered with snow in soil through the winter and then germinate in the spring. This group of plants includes wheat, bean, poppy and many flowers, such as marigold and sweet pea.

Biennials are plants that geminate in the spring of one year and then gather supplies, for example in their roots, like carrots and beets. In the autumn the overground part of the plant withers. Only the underground parts survive winter hardships. In the spring the overground part grows back, produces flowers and fruits and dies in the autumn. Many vegetables are cultivated and harvested for their nutrient‑filled roots, that is why we grow them only for one year. However, if we left such plants in the soil for the winter, they would produce flowers and seeds in the following year. The biennials group includes many garden flowers, e.g. hollyhock, chrysanthemums and pansy, as well as many vegetables: carrot, beet, onion and others.

Perennials live longer than one or two years. Some of them, e.g. trees may live for hundreds, or even thousands of years. They achieve maturity after a few years – afterwards they start to produce seeds. Perennials usually flower and produce fruits every year. However, some of them, like bamboo, flower only once in their lifetime. Perennials group includes, among other plants, all trees. Some plants lose their shoot every year; the shoot grows back in the spring – it is their underground parts, like roots or underground parts of the shoot, that survive the winter. Such plants are often called perennials to distinguish them from woody plants.

• The life cycle of most plants begins with the seed. Then the plant germinates, grows, and finally gives flowers. Flowers develop into fruits containing seeds.

• We divide plants into one‑year, two‑year and long‑term due to the length of life.