What’s growing in your classroom? Record how a plant, animal, or you are changing. It’s a cinch with Crayola® Markers!

• 1.

  Find out how plants, animals, and even people go through stages in their growth and development. Plants grow quickly, so that’s what our sample shows.

• 2.

  Plant a seed. Place a bean seed in a damp paper towel and put it in a paper cup. Cover the cup with plastic wrap, and then put it in a dark place. Check the seed in a few days for any changes.

• 3.

  Record what happens. Fold construction paper into at least four parts. Number the sections. In the first section, use Crayola Markers to draw the seed as it looked when it first sprouted.

• 4.

  Plant the sprout in soil in a paper cup. Continue to watch the plant grow. Draw the changes you see. Date your observations.

Standards

• LA: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
• LA: Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
• LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• LA: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade level topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
• LA: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships.
• LA: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.
• MATH: Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects.
• SCI: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.
• VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

Adaptations

• Possible classroom resources include: Plant Life Cycles (Nature's Patterns by Anita Ganeri; The Life Cycle of a Flower by Bobbie Kalman; From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons; Time For Kids: Plants! (Time for Kids Science Scoops) by Editors of TIME for Kids
• Students create a diagram of a fully-developed plant. Use Crayola Colored Pencils or crayons to label each part of the plant. A 1-2 sentence description of each part's function should also be included.
• Students plant seeds and keep daily records of how much water, sun, and plant food their seeds received. Organize data into a chart. Allow one column for student comments about what they are seeing happen to the seed. Post data/observation charts in the classroom for student discussion.
• Each student may choose to plant several different types of seeds and chart their growth processes. Compare and contrast the variations of growth between seed types.