HEY, NICE PLANTS! CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
RELATED LESSON PLAN
Inquiry Project: Finding the
Flower Inside the Fruit (in printable PDF format)
RELATED CONFLICT RESOLUTION EXERCISE
Plants (in
printable PDF format)
With more than 1,700 parks and the biggest community
garden network in the country, New York provides students
and their families with the opportunity to appreciate
the wonders of city nature and get involved in taking
care of it. Although enjoying the cool air under
a tree shadow is probably one of the biggest pleasures
New Yorkers can have on a hot summer day, trees like all
plants provide us with much more than cool shadow. Without
them, for example, there would not be oxygen in the air
for us to breathe. Plants are also a fundamental source
of food and nutrients for people and many other animals.
And don’t forget the wonderful colors some of them
display, either on their leaves or flowers, over the seasons!
In Hey, Nice Plants! teachers will find a variety of
information about city plants that can be included in
classroom activities. For example, students can learn
about the process of photosynthesis (see Go Wild in New
York City, page 37), identify the different parts of a
tree bark and understand their functions (see page 38)
or learn how to grow a tree from an avocado seed (see
page 39). Children can also learn about the parks or community
gardens closest to their school or home and how to get
involved in taking care of trees or get gardening (see
pages 38 and 44).
Bringing students’ resources into the science
classroom
One strategy to awake students’ motivation about
plants and connect the topic to their own knowledge is
to teach them to identify the various plant parts they
eat everyday. For example, students are rarely aware that
carrots, beets, radishes are plant roots, that asparagus,
celery, leeks are stems or that broccoli and cauliflower
are flowers (see page 45). In this way, students can learn
about the function of each part of the plant by relating
them to what they eat.
In addition, some students who have grown plants at home
or have worked in community gardens can become class experts
and teach others what they know about the topic of plants.
Students’ parents who have had direct experience
working in agriculture or have a garden at home can also
become mentors for students in the creation of a small
garden in the school neighborhood. Finally, students coming
from other countries can research the typical plants of
their places of origin and give a presentation about them
to the rest of the class. In turn, that presentation can
serve as a starting point of a unit that compares plants
of different parts of the world, and how they have adapted
to different environmental conditions.
RELATED LESSON PLAN
Inquiry Project: Finding the
Flower Inside the Fruit (in printable PDF format)
RELATED CONFLICT RESOLUTION EXERCISE
Plants (in
printable PDF format)
