Living things must meet certain needs in order to survive and reproduce. Most living things must obtain nutrients, water, and oxygen. They also require an appropriate place to live. Adaptations allow organisms to succeed. This unit begins with a review of the needs of living things.
Students also begin their unit notebooks.
Students are introduced to the names of plant parts and the important life functions of plants. A sorting activity serves as a pre-assessment of student knowledge in Plant Parts , lesson 2. They then go outside to study plants at the end of the growing season. In lesson 3, Out With the Old, In With the New , students learn that while drying leaves, dead shoots, and spreading of seeds appears to be the end of the life cycle, it is also the beginning. Students focus their notebooks on the goals of this unit in My Six Questions About Plants , lesson 4, an exercise in which they compose six questions about plants which they will attempt to answer by the end of the unit.