Students will be able to demonstrate the elements needed for a plant to grow and can describe through movements and dance what would happen when the environment changes or an element is missing.
Materials
Chart paper
Markers
Music to fit growth and development of a plant
Paper to create comic strips
Pencils
Markers
Crayons
Activities
1. Discuss the life cycle of a plant. How does it start out? Using the chart paper make a list of all of the things that a plant needs to grow. Ask the students for a symbol that we could draw for each element needed and draw it beside the list.
2. After discussing the needs for a plant, break the students into groups for each; seeds, air, water, sunlight and soil. Have the groups of students decide together on a movement to represent their natural element.
3. Act out how a plant starts as a seed and how the elements help it to grow. Start out narrating it while the students act out the process with the music playing. You can use https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31pGUjo8fzo. Do it again with narration if necessary. Then, have the students perform the dance with the music without the narration and assess if students understand the process and needs of all of the elements.
4. After the students have mastered the growth of the plant. Then ask the students what would happen if we moved the plant to the desert. Discuss what element would be missing (rain) and what we would get more of (sun). How would this affect the plant? Change the music to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WNLLNxURt4 if you would like. Have the students use their movement to demonstrate this and see if they know how the growth of the seeds may be affected. Discuss it afterwards and see what students saw that changed about the movements.
5. Next, ask students what would happen if we moved the plant to the floor of the rainforest. Discuss what element we would be missing (sun) and what we would get more of (rain). How would this affect the plant? Change the music to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Av9yWZJUrk if you would like. Have the students use their movements to show this and see if they know how the growth of the seed may be affected this time. Discuss how the movements changed.
6. If there is time at the end or the following day, have students draw a comic strip to represent the growth of the plant including all of the elements demonstrated in their dance.
Differentiation Approaches
1. English Language Learners- The pictures next to the elements (air, sun, water) will help to give them an understanding of what the plants need in order to grow.
2. Students with ADD- Activity will be active and fast paced. You can ask students with ADD to help teach others their movement to stay focused.
3. Students who work quickly- Challenge them to think about what plants could survive in each habitat and create a list.
Assessment
The teacher will be able to assess if the students understand that plants need all of the elements in order to grow and how their growth will be affected if one of the elements is missing.
Follow Up and Extension Ideas
1. Have the students create a song or poem explaining the needs and growth of a plant.
2. Have the students research different what plants live in different habitats and how their needs are met.
