Garden Explorers Investigating Plant Heredity

Students explore how plants pass traits to their offspring by examining seeds, leaves, flowers, and vegetables. They learn that young plants inherit characteristics from their parent plants, ensuring that a sunflower seed always grows into a sunflower.

Seeds are Baby Plants

Students examine various types of seeds and learn that they are 'baby plants' containing instructions for growth. The class starts a germination experiment to observe seeds coming to life.

Matching Leaves and Shapes

Students go on a nature walk to match young leaves with mature ones based on shape and patterns. This activity highlights that young plants share the same structural design as their parents.

Flower Colors and Patterns

Focusing on flowers, students explore how color and patterns are inherited traits. They model this process by coloring offspring to match parent flower models.

Vegetable Matching Market

In a 'market' simulation, students match seeds inside produce to full-grown vegetables. This reinforces the consistency of heredity in familiar foods like pumpkins and peppers.

The Garden Prediction

Students complete a mastery assessment by drawing seedlings based on parent plants and justifying their choices. They demonstrate their understanding that offspring resemble their parents.

Garden Explorers Investigating Plant Heredity

Colville Forest Explorers

An immersive 1st-grade GLAD unit focused on the Colville National Forest ecosystem. Students explore food chains, interdependence, seasonal changes, and local keystone species through visual charts, rhythmic chants, and rewarding literacy achievements.

Chelsea Moore

Sun and Space Experts

A 1st-grade science unit where students work in expert groups to explore Earth, the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus in relation to the Sun. Each group reads specialized text and sketches key observations to build collaborative knowledge.

Courtney McGregor

Venus Expert Group Worksheet

A 1st-grade GLAD style expert group worksheet for Venus. It includes four core categories (Location & Distance, Description, Patterns & Cycles, and Fun Facts) with simple, high-frequency text and blank boxes for student sketching and note-taking.

Courtney McGregor

Spine Squad

A five-day modified animal classification unit focusing on the five main vertebrate groups, designed with extensive visual support, sentence frames, and tracing options for modified learning.

katie_conklin

Ice and Forest Duel

A thrilling comparison lesson focused on polar bears and grizzly bears. Students read a themed comparison passage, complete fact-retrieval questions, and play a write-in bingo review game based on the book 'Who Would Win? Polar Bear vs. Grizzly Bear'.

Lynn Zendano

Jupiter Expert Group Worksheet

A 1st-grade GLAD style expert group worksheet for Jupiter. It includes four core categories (Location & Distance, Description, Patterns & Cycles, and Fun Facts) with simple, high-frequency text and blank boxes for student sketching and note-taking.

Courtney McGregor

Ocean Zone Explorers

An immersive 1st-grade GLAD science and literacy sequence that guides young learners from the sunny surface to the deepest, darkest trenches, using cooperative learning, narrative inputs, and hands-on modeling.

Chelsea Moore

Elephant Island STEM Rescue

An interactive STEM challenge and read-aloud experience based on Leo Timmers' 'Elephant Island'. Students design and build floating island rafts to rescue Arnold and his friends.

Shannon Mueller

Moon Expert Group Worksheet

A 1st-grade GLAD style expert group worksheet for the Moon. It includes four core categories (Location & Distance, Description, Patterns & Cycles, and Fun Facts) with simple, high-frequency text and blank boxes for student sketching and note-taking.

Courtney McGregor

Painted Lady Patrol

A hands-on 2nd-grade science unit where students study the Painted Lady butterfly's anatomy, trace its life cycle, and compile their findings into a guided research report. Includes interactive visual slides, a multi-page student lab book, and a detailed teacher facilitation guide with grading rubrics and answer keys.

Lenny

Earth Expert Group Worksheet

A 1st-grade GLAD style expert group worksheet for Earth. It includes four core categories (Location & Distance, Description, Patterns & Cycles, and Fun Facts) with simple, high-frequency text and blank boxes for student sketching and note-taking.

Courtney McGregor

Cosmic Cycles GLAD Chants

A set of beautifully color-coded GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) Here/There chants that introduce students to repeating solar and lunar cycles. Includes classroom-ready anchor chart posters for rotating Earth patterns and changing moon phases.

Garden Explorers Investigating Plant Heredity

Seed Secrets Slides

Seed Lab Log Worksheet

Leaf Detective Slides

Leaf Field Guide Worksheet

Flower Family Slides

Flower Family Portraits Worksheet

Vegetable Matching Market Worksheet

The Garden Prediction Assessment

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Colville Forest Explorers

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Sun and Space Experts

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Venus Expert Group Worksheet

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Spine Squad

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Ice and Forest Duel

Lynn Zendano

Jupiter Expert Group Worksheet

Courtney McGregor

Ocean Zone Explorers

Chelsea Moore

Elephant Island STEM Rescue

Shannon Mueller

Moon Expert Group Worksheet

Courtney McGregor

Painted Lady Patrol

Earth Expert Group Worksheet

Courtney McGregor

Cosmic Cycles GLAD Chants

Courtney McGregor