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what things plants need to grow

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what the important parts of a plant are

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how plants make food for themselves

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how plants are pollinated and grow

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make predictions

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ask and answer questions

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build content vocabulary

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create a life cycle diagram for plant growth, using text and pictures

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design simple experiments testing what affects plant growth

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The title of the book presents a focusing question for inquiry-based learning. Students can attempt to predict the answer to the question before reading. They can then identify important information to help them answer the question as they read.

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Content vocabulary words are often directly explained in the text. Tell students that they can often read ahead or reread to find such context clues using the example of "species, or kinds" from page 5. Explain that if there aren’t clues, or if they still don’t understand boldfaced words like species after looking at context clues, they can look at the glossary definitions at the back of the book. You may choose to preview the glossary with students before reading and help them use the words in sentences to develop content vocabulary.

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Show students the table of contents before reading and explain that this page allows them to predict the topics they will learn about. Say that after reading, you can return to this page to remember the important topics from the book and where you can find discussions of those topics. Point to the heading "What Plants Need to Grow" and then explain that this chapter lists the main things plants need before they can grow.

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Before reading, point out one of the "Now I Know" boxes, such as the one at the bottom of page 7. Explain to students that they can use these boxes to quiz themselves and make sure they understood certain facts that they read about. Read the question in the box on page 7 and explain to students that they will learn whether grass is a kind of plant in the chapter. They will then be able to use this "Now I Know!" box to check themselves.

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Several of the scientific concepts that are described in the text are challenging to understand, especially on an initial reading. Encourage students to monitor their reading. Give them strategies to clarify their understandings, such as rereading, reading ahead, and flagging with sticky notes what they simply can’t figure out. After they read, ask what students did to self-correct their own understandings of difficult vocabulary and concepts. Help them with the concepts they could not understand on their own.

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ELLs and other students may need help understanding certain similes, idioms, and content vocabulary that this book uses. Use direct explanations, drawings, or gestures to explain challenging words and phrases. For example, a plant cell is compared to a tiny house on page 13, with different functions happening inside the different "rooms." To help students visualize this, draw on the board a simple diagram (cutaway or top view) of a house next to a simple diagram of a cell (similar to the photograph on page 13). Draw different rooms within the house and guide students to say aloud what happens in the different rooms. Then discuss as a group what happens in different parts of the plant cell. The cell parts and functions are discussed on pages 14–15 and again on pages 18–19; they include storing food, water, and waste; collecting energy; and so on). Point to pictures in the book or create your own visuals for other vocabulary and concepts, such as using the dramatic photograph on page 12 to discuss the leaves, branches, trunk, and roots of a tree.

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Language Arts, Grades 3–6: 1, 2, 3, 8, 12

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Science Grades 3–6: C (Life Science)

Maryland State Science Standards

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Science, Grades 3–5: 3 (Life Science)

The book also addresses the following Maryland science topics and indicators, for Grades 3, 5 and 6:

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Grade 3: 3.B.1, 3.B.1.b

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Grade 4: 3.D.1, 3.D.1.b, 3.E.1, 3.E.1.c

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Grade 5: 3.A.1, 3.A.1.a

*To find full descriptions of standards and benchmarks, visit the Marshall Cavendish Correlations site

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Make a K-W-L chart on the board or on chart paper by writing these headings at the tops of three columns: "Know," "Want to know," and "Learned." Discuss what students already know about plants and how they grow. Write students’ ideas in the first column on the chart. Then give students copies of the book and allow them to preview the pictures. Ask if this reminds them of anything else they know. Ask if it makes them think of questions they want to know about plants. Write additional ideas in the first two columns of the K-W-L chart and explain that you will discuss what students learned from the book after reading.

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Provide students with sticky notes to record additional questions and facts that they learn when they read. Say that you will discuss what they write down after they read.

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Review any predictions students made before reading about how plants grow. Ask students what information they didn’t predict.

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Review the K-W-L chart that you and the group made before reading. Point to the middle column and ask students if they learned what they wanted to know about plants from the book. If not, ask how they might find answers to their questions in other places. Then work with students to fill in the third column on the chart with facts that students learned from the book about plant growth. Encourage students to refer to the sticky notes they wrote on while reading so they remember facts that stood out for them.

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Clarify any challenging vocabulary or concepts that students could not figure out on their own. Make sure to discuss the central scientific concepts, such as what things plants need to grow, what the important parts of a plant are, how plants make food for themselves, and how plants are pollinated and grow. You might choose to review these topics with students by opening a book to the contents page and reviewing the different chapter topics and what students remember from each chapter.

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Review the last chapter in the book with students. Although it does not say so explicitly, the text is describing the life cycle of a plant in this chapter (from flowering and pollination to the creation of fruits with seeds, to the spread of seeds to the sprouting and growth of a plant, and back to the flowering and creation of fruit). Show examples of simple life cycle diagrams or have students find examples online. A couple of examples include:

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This frog life cycle diagram and

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This butterfly life cycle diagram.

Have pairs of students create their own life cycle diagrams for plants, filling in quoted lines from the book that tell about different stages and listing the page numbers for each quote. Encourage students to draw pictures that would accompany the text at each stage of a plant’s life cycle. Have pairs share their diagrams with one another to see if the stages in their cycles were the same. Students may notice some variation in the placement of the stages, which is fine so long as the important stages are included—point out that a diagram of a cycle doesn’t really need to start or end anywhere, because the process keeps on going.

Science

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See pages 26–27 of the book for an activity that involves growing bush beans and changing several of the variables that affect their growth.

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The activity in the book involves measurements of sprouting and growth times, and what happens to plants a) with or without light, b) with petroleum jelly blocking air from entering their leaves, and c) with or without water.
Have students expand on this activity to test some other thing that may affect plant growth. Encourage them to reread the book for ideas, or consult Web sites. Ask students what they could do if they had a "plant lab" with different materials for affecting plant growth. If necessary, prompt students to think about such topics as:

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Whether different-colored light would affect growth,

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Whether a strong lightbulb would work as well as the sun,

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What different soils could change about plant growth,

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Whether the seeds for different plants sprout and grow differently,

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How a small plant would grow if a tall plant was near it,

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How well plants grow if they are planted close together, and

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How plants would grow differently if insects and birds could get to them.

Have teams of students write or draw designs for their experiments and what results they predict. Explain why they need to include "controls" to their experiments, which allow them to compare growth with certain things changed and growth without those changes in variables. Remind them to change just one variable at a time, so if there are results, they know that it was what they changed that caused the results. To connect their experiments to everyday life, ask why people such as farmers might like to know the results of their experiments.
When students are finished designing experiments, have the teams discuss their designs with one another to think about ideas for improvements.
Finally, if the time and materials are available, have the groups perform their experiment and record its results.