Download - Plants and Me Final
Task
You are going to analyze a teacher’s work plan for this year.
Situation: Marcela is teaching English in 6º form in astate primary school in La Plata. She is working on aproject that integrates English and Natural Science.
Analyze the project that this teacher developed
You are expected to use Diseño Curricular to answer
these questions: what content is Marcela teaching? What context do they belong to? What linguistic exponents is she teaching? What functions (prácticas del lenguaje)
would kids be using to perform the tasks?
ContextsContextos de la vida cotidiana y
escolar
Contextos de contenidos escolares
YoMi escuelaMis amigosMi familia y mi hogarMi mascotaMi día a díaMi barrio / ciudad / provincia / país
El espacioEl cuidado del
medio ambienteLos cambios en
la naturalezaLos seres vivos
Animales extintosLas actividades humanas
La organización social
Poemas y cancionesRimas y adivinanzasCuentos y fábulasNovelasHistorietasSlogans y Graffities
Contextos literarios y populares
Annual project work plan
Growing and
change
Project work: Plants and me
Brief description: The teaching sequences that form
part of this project account for the succession of tasks for a group of eleven-year-old students from a sixth class of a primary school from the city of La Plata.
PLANTS AND ME
THIS PROJECT IS IN FIVE PARTS
CONTENT AREA: Growing and changeTOPIC PLANTS AND ME
AIMS • To identify the different parts of a plant and their functions• To identify the factors that influence the growth of plants.• To do experiments and interpret the results.• To describe the growth process of a plant.• To develop awareness of the importance of plants as a source of food.
LANGUAGE • To describe the different parts of a plant and their functions • To talk about the conditions a plant needs to grow healthily.• To use appropriate vocabulary.• To follow simple instructions.• To make comparisons.• To act out a simple story.
VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURES
Use words and phrases related to plants (roots, stem, trunk, flower, branch) growth (seed, roots) instructions, adjectives.
WHAT CHILDREN NEED TO KNOW ALREADY
• The life cycle of a plant• How to take simple instructions• How to do an experiment
MATERIALS Flower pots, compost, sand, etc
CROSS-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
• Science: Discovering plants, what plants need to grow• Story• Art work and video
Part 1Discovering plants.Time: 2 hours
1.1 Preparation Organize a ‘Plant Hunt’ in the school garden. Ask children to observe the plants and ask them
questions to help them identify. Do you know this plant? Can you see any flowers? What colour are they? Children answer either in their mother tongue or in English.
1.2 Core task Back in the classroom, ask the children to draw
one of the plants they saw in the garden. T shows Worksheet 1 to introduce the vocabulary for the different parts of the tree. Ss play Simon says “Simon says point to the flower, point to the trunk, etc.”
1.3 Plant and flower puzzleCopy of worksheet 1 SS cut out the pictures
stick them in their notebooks and glue the labels next to the corresponding part
1.4 Each part of the plant is important Discuss the function of the different parts of
the plant. To help SS with vocabulary. e.g.: The roots fix the plant/ tree to the
ground and suck water and minerals.
A. Experiment. SS carry out a simple experiment to
demonstrate how the stem and roots work. B. Zigzag Book. SS fold the parts of the
Zigzag Book, read the captions and fill in the gaps above the captions with the missing words. Under the flap they should draw the part of the plant that matches the description.
1.5 Follow up
Part 2 What plants need to grow Time: 2 hours + 20 days for the experiment
2.1 PreparationThe aim of the experiment is to observe and
discover the factors that influence a plant’s growth.
What you need: Plant pot, bean seed, soil.
Procedure
1) T says: Plants need four things to grow. What are they?
2) T draws symbols of the four key words on BB, as she says that plants need: Water, light, nutrients and warmth.
3) T says: “Look, here’s a pot. Here’s a bean seed and here’s some soil. Let’s put the soil in the pot and plant the bean seed like this. Let’s give the bean seed water, light, nutrients and warmth. Let’s watch it grow and record what happens!”
4) Get the children to plant their own seeds and label the pot with their names (you can give a pot for each pair or groups).
5) In subsequent lessons, as the bean stem starts to appear children draw and label pictures to record the growth of their plant.
Part 3 Plants we eat
Aim: To develop awareness of the importance of plants as a source of food.
Materials: Pictures of fruit and vegetables. Procedure:
1) T asks Ss if they think plants are an important source of food and to give examples of plants we eat.
2) Explain that different food we eat comes from different parts of plants: the seeds, the roots, the bulbs, stems, the leaves, the flowers or the fruit.
3) Divide the class into pairs and ask them to complete the web by noting as many food as they can think of which comes from different parts of the plant. E.g.: Carrots are the roots of the plant.
4) Matching game. T shows Ss a picture and they should say what part of the plant it is.
“Plants we eat” web
Part 4 Jack and the BeanstalkTime: 1 hour 40 minutes
4.1 Story
4.2 Tell the story again and ask the children to act it
out. Get the children to think about and compare the
growth of imaginary beanstalk in the fairytale with the
real growth recorded during the experiment.
4.3 Jack and the beanstalk dominoesWorksheets P-4/P-5. The aim of the game is to
tell the story by matching pictures and captions.
Rules: shuffle the cards, put one with START on the table, and deal the other to the players; the player who has got the card with the caption that matches the picture of Jack and the cow, puts the card on the table . The game continues and the winner is the first player left without cards.
Story Activities
4.4 Make a poster by dividing a piece of paper in half. Draw Jack on one half and the Giant on the other. Ask the children questions in order to get them to describe some features of the two characters. Record their answers on the poster.
Part 5 Extension activity: ART/VIDEO Time: 1 hour
ART
5.1 Get the children to look at and describe paintings by various artists, mentioning their colours, forms, lines and painting techniques (e.g. Sunflowers or Cypresses by Vicent Van Gogh; Big Flower by Andy Warhol…)
5.2 Explain to the children that they are going to make pictures of a flower and a plant by using parts of their bodies (hand, arm) and following your instructions.
• Flower: dip the palm of one hand in a bowl filled with non-toxic paint; make a hand-print on a blank sheet of paper (this represents the flower); paint the stalk, the leaves and the roots.
• Tree: put your forearm and hand on a blank sheet of paper and draw round them with a pencil; colour the resulting silhouette brown; complete the picture by sticking leaves and flowers on to it. These should be made by roughly tearing coloured paper.
VIDEO
Episode “Charlie & Lola” “I really wonder what plant I’m growing”
References
Calabrese, I Rampone, S. (2007). Cross-Curricular Resources for Young Learners. Oxford. OUP.
Foresman, Scott. Science. (2006). Pearson Education.
Read, C. (2007). 500 activities for the primary classroom. Oxford: Macmillan.
Jack and the Beanstalk. Penguin Young Readers. Level 3.
Carlie & Lola. Episode: “I really wonder what plant I’m growing” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-abBziIvWI