Teacher's Pages
Activity 16 - Another Visit From Ms. Strawberry Plant
Activity 16 - Students Page
Purpose:
Students get the opportunity in a light-hearted way to
use the idea of photosynthesis and food
transport in plants to solve Ms. Strawberry Plant's latest
problem.
Materials:
Plant costume (optional) -- see Activity 13
Strawberries
Knife to slice strawberries
Plates or trays to put strawberries on for each group
And/or Letter from Ms. Strawberry Plant
Optional: Strawberry book by Jennifer Coldrey and George Bernard,
Stopwatch Books, Silver
Burdett Press, Englewood, NJ
FRAME
Option 1: Dress Up!
Dress up as a strawberry plant (or any other plant -- for
example, you could tie potatoes to your "roots" and be a potato plant). and visit the class, presenting your problem
with as much drama and concern as possible.
Option 2: Read this letter from Ms. Strawberry J. Plant (J.
stands for Jam, by the way).
ACTIVITY
Engage students in conversation about the strawberry plant's
problem. Encourage them to use ideas about photosynthesis and food transport to explain the problem.
Highlight ("coach") students with your responses (while
staying in character). For example, you might say things like:
"Wait a minute! You're saying I MADE these red things? How
did I do that?"
"So to make these red things, you're saying I need to make
food in my leaves (which is very difficult, and complicated, you know --you don't know how easy you have it just
going to stores to buy food!). And then I send the food to be stored in this red thing. But how does the
food get there?"
"OK, I feel much better that these red things are not tumors
or something bad. But why do I need these red things anyway?
Have students write a letter to Ms. Strawberry Plant to help her
solve her puzzle. [NOTE: While they are working, get out of the costume "character" as much as
possible]
Group Work: Pass out strawberries (to groups of students, pairs,
or individuals) that have been sliced in half longitudinally (from the middle of the green top downwards).
Tell the students to observe the strawberry closely and to see if they can explain what the
different parts of the strawberry are and what they do.
Whole class discussion:
"What did you notice about the strawberries?"
See how many ideas the students can generate BEFORE showing them
the photograph of a strawberry sliced in half in the Strawberry book, pp. 14-15.
REFLECT AND CONNECT
"In what ways was Ms. Strawberry J. Plant a good model of a
plant? In what ways was she not a good model of what really happens in plants?