Life Cycle Lesson Plan, 3rd-4th grade

The Stages of the Life Cycle of a Seed-Producing Tree

Tracy J. Maggio, NBCT

School #36

Essential Question:

What are the stages of the life cycle of a seed producing tree?

Standards

MST Standard 2: Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

Key Idea 1: Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information and as a tool to enhance learning.

MST Standard 4: Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment.

Key Idea 1: Living things are both similar to and different from each other.

Background Knowledge from previous lessons

Students will have already learned how and why seeds travel.

Students will have already learned how scientists classify plants into 2 main groups: plants that reproduce with seeds and plants that reproduce without seeds.

Students will have already learned that seed producing plants are then classified into 2 main groups: flowering and non-flowering.

Students will have begun a K-W-L chart on plants at the beginning of the unit.

Objectives

*Students will be able to put the stages in the life cycle of a maple tree and a white spruce tree in the correct order.

*Students will be able to access my voicethread on the computer after viewing it with the class during the lesson.

*Students will be able to use the school’s digital cameras to take pictures of various trees (leaves and seeds) found around the school and at the local park (Polaski Park) in order to compare the different kinds of trees, and also to create their own voicethread of the life cycle of one of the trees they took pictures of at the park.

Materials

*SmartBoard

*digital cameras

*book: “A Seed Is Sleepy” by Dianna Hutts Aston

*computers

Procedure

Read the book, “A Seed Is Sleepy” by Dianna Hutts Aston to the students. Ask if they have anything to add to our K-W-L chart, something new they want to know, or something they learned. Tell them that today they’re going to view 2 voicethreads on the Smart Board of the stages in the life cycle of a flowering tree (deciduous sugar maple) and a non-flowering tree (coniferous white spruce) to see how they grow and reproduce.

View the Voicethreads on the Smart Board.

Put students in groups and give one digital camera to each group.

Explain that we are going on a walking field trip around the school and to PolaskiPark to find a tree that has seeds underneath it. They will take a picture of the tree, the seed, the leaves, and the bark, to show as much of the tree as they choose.

Back at school, they will go to the library and research trees to identify their tree. Then they will download the pictures into the computer and produce either a powerpoint or a voicethread of the pictures, explaining the life cycle of their tree.

Evaluation

A rubric will be used for both the K-W-L (what they fill in for the last column, what they learned) and their final product, the powerpoint or voicethread.

**Currently, the voicethread for the maple tree is on the wiki, but I still have to upload the spruce tree.