How Does It Grow?

Last week our reading theme was "How Things Grow" and we learned about what plants need to grow. One of the stories we read talked about seeds in different types of fruit and we classified fruit into the categories "one seed" and "many seeds." Even though it seems kind of babyish for first graders, we also did a fruit sort by colors. 

Earlier in the year, my English Language Development group learned about fruit and vegetable vocabulary words and I was shocked at the response when I asked them to list some vegetables. The responses I got were:

• marshmallows
• play dough
• Vitamin Water

I assumed first graders would be able to list some veges, but this was a difficult task for my group. They did have a better understanding of fruits and were able to name many and they did learn about vegetables after making that short list because I borrowed every related book from the library to give them lots and lots of examples, but it made me realize that I can't assume they have schema for certain categories and reviewing/doing simple activities can be helpful. 

Anyway, I originally made this activity for the student in my class who has Down syndrome because one of his goals is to learn and match colors. He does this activity at his seat with the help of an assistant, but I thought it would also be fun to use **my favorite** sticky magnets on the back so that I could put these items on the white board and conduct the activity in a way that would allow him to participate within the whole group. He took a turn just like the rest of the children and placed his magnets on the board. I think that was the first time all year he participated in that way, so it was great to see. 

We also learned about how apple trees grow and how strawberry plants grow. For homework the kids labeled the parts of the plant after reading a Weekly Reader about the different parts of the plant and what function they have. They learned that:

• A plant has flowers. Flowers make seeds. When the seeds fall to the ground, they can grow into new plants.
• A plant has leaves.  Leaves use light from the sun to make food for the plant.
• A plant has a stem.  The stem helps hold up the rest of the plant.
• A plant has roots. Roots take water from the soil for the plant to use. 

I don't want to plagiarize, so I will say that this info was taken from a ScienceSpin Early Primary Weekly Reader, April 2008.