Looking for a lesson for your younger students? This K-2nd grade lesson will allow students to investigate the three types of honey bees in a colony, identify their roles, and recognize honey bees as part of a community that works together. The lesson includes three activities, vocabulary words, recommended reading, and a "making honey" lab! 

In this activity, kids will work on two fundamental early math skills – sorting/classifying, and graphing. There will also be some great fine motor skill practice! Includes place-based discussion questions, activity instructions, extension activities, songs, and student graph worksheets.

NGSS: K-LS1-1, 1-LS1-1, partially meets K-ESS3-1 (book and discussion)

Common Core: MP.4

Time: 45 minutes

Matierals: bag of dried beans ("16 bean soup"), paper bowls, glue, chart paper, the book "One Bean" or similar book about growing food plants, especially beans.

Students will create a mural of a coral reef environment in the classroom. There will be many materials available in which to create 1-2 examples of their favorite parts of the coral reef.

This lesson introduces the idea of soil as an ecosystem and as a carbon sink.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students view a timelapse video that demonstrates the difference between soils with and without invertebrate decomposers.

Step 2 - Investigate: Students learn about the concept of soil as a carbon sink and examine soil samples to learn how to define soil.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students draw and record their findings demonstrating understanding of soil as an ecosystem and create a model of their soil artistically using found materials in the classroom.

Did you know that broccoli, cauliflower, and artichokes make a lovely bouquet of flowers? The students will examine the functions of flowers and determine that some flowers are edible, even tasty! This K-2nd grade lesson includes background information, vocabulary words, step-by-step procedures, links to other lessons about plants, and plant lifecycle illustrations. 

Objectives:
- To help students learn which food is fruit.
- To introduce the concept of healthy food.
- To introduce concept of where food comes from.

In this activity students will make a “growing” bracelet and learn about the basic elements plants need to grow and thrive. Includes activity instructions, extension activities, songs, and additional reading list.

NGSS: K-LS1-1, 1-LS1-1, K-ESS2-2 (extension activity)

CCSS: L.K.5, SL.K.1, SL.K.5, SL.1.4

Social Sciences: Partially meets 3.13

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: "One Bean" book, chenille stems/pipe cleaners, and pony beads (yellow, brown, blue, clear, green, and red.

Download this comprehensive, 60-page elementary unit that was co-developed by the Fast Plants Program and Emily Miller (ELA/science elementary science education specialist) who helped author the Next Generation Science Standards) as an exemplar for supporting three-dimensional learning. Developed in 2014, the lessons in this unit that fall during the time when Fast Plants are flowering and being pollinated are the same lessons that were extracted as a stand-alone Bee-ing an Engineer unit, also used as an NGSS-aligned exemplar.

Objectives:
To understand what fruit is.
To explore how fruits are developed.

Explains what a growing plant needs to stay healthy and what happens when a plant is lacking a necessary factor. Includes group activity, individual activity, and homework.

This lesson plan explains how seeds can be dispersed, describes seed adaptations to ensure dispersal and explain the importance of this process.

Explains what a growing plant needs to stay healthy and what happens when a plant is lacking a necessary factor. Includes group activity, individual activity, and homework.

The purpose of this lesson plan is to learn about the process and importance of decomposition while creating actual compost.

Astronauts cannot just flip on a faucet when they want to wash their hands. Learn about water conservation on the International Space Station.

Monarch Mystery is an early elementary curricular program that is grounded in a local phenomenon about migrating monarch butterflies and is shared through the story of a migrant girl named Violeta. Combined with the story, this unit uses interactive activities to teach to the Next Generation Science Standards and the Washington State Environmental and Sustainability Education Learning Standards. It is also guided by a framework for Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. We included literary opportunities to develop ELA skills in support of multilingual learners. Rounding out the program are outdoor activities, arts, and written activities that enable students to practice skills, and build toward an action project informed by their understandings and experiences. Monarch Mystery is an early elementary curricular program created by EarthGen. For this unit, we offer professional development training and assistance with implementation. If you are interested in implementing this program at your school or district, please let us know! Please contact info@earthgenwa.org for more information. 

Students watch video clips of animals and plants in their natural environments to determine what living things need to survive. They will then complete an illustration of their own real or imagined plant or animal fulfilling one or more of their needs for survival, within their natural environment. While this lesson does a good job explaining how animals meet their needs through their environments, additional lessons and experiences with plants would need to be provided in order to meet the full standard.

PhD Science Grade Levels K–2 is available as downloadable PDFs. The OER consists of Teacher Editions and student Science Logbooks for every module.

With PhD Science®, students explore science concepts through authentic phenomena and events—not fabricated versions—so students build concrete knowledge and solve real-world problems. Students drive the learning by asking questions, gathering evidence, developing models, and constructing explanations to demonstrate the new knowledge they’ve acquired. The coherent design of the curriculum across lessons, modules, and grade levels helps students use the concepts they’ve learned to build a deep understanding of science and set a firm foundation they’ll build on for years to come.

Cross-curricular connections are a core component within PhD Science. As an example, every module incorporates authentic texts and fine art to build knowledge and create additional accessible entry points to the topic of study.

Three-dimensional teaching and learning are at the heart of the curriculum. As students uncover Disciplinary Core Ideas by engaging in Science and Engineering Practices and applying the lens of Cross-Cutting Concepts, they move from reading about science to doing science.

Great Minds® is the creator of Eureka Math®, Wit & Wisdom®, Alexandria Plan™, and PhD Science®.
Published by Great Minds PBC. greatminds.org
Copyright © 2021 Great Minds PBC. Except where otherwise noted, this PK-2 PhD Science® content is published under Great Minds OER License #1. Use limited to Non-Commercial educational purposes.
COMMERCIAL REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.

See OER license details here:
https://s3.greatminds.org/link_files/files/000/003/991/original/Final_Form_OER_PhD_Science_K-2_limited_public_license_%282.10.21%29.pdf

An interactive lesson plan that entails reading the book, "A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds, and the planting of a fruit and a flower as a learning comparison. By the end of the lesson students should be able to understand what seeds are and that if two objects have a seed than they are most likely related; such as fruit and flowers.

Animals have physical and behavioral traits that help them survive. Some traits help animals be more successful in survival than others.