We suggest students work in pairs. Homeschool students can work on their own.

Teacher Background

For animals that give birth to live young, their birthday is straightforward. For those animals that lay eggs, we use the day that they hatch from their egg as their birthday. Many science standards state that all animals are born, equating hatching with birth.

We suggest students work in pairs so they can share their ideas with a partner. Homeschool students can work on their own.

We have provided three Bug Off! worksheets, each picturing a different location in town. In a class, we suggest giving students a choice of which site they’d like to work with. You could also choose to have everyone come up with a solution for the same site. If students finish early, you can have them work on other sites so they can think of multiple solutions to the mosquito problem.

We suggest students work in pairs. Homeschool students can work on their own, but will need to make two flower models and may need a partner to help with a few steps of the activity.

Prepare “Pollen” Cups

So they can observe that pollen is transferred from one flower to another, you will need to provide students with two different kinds of pollen. In half the cups, spoon about a tablespoon of one of the “pollen” types (e.g. cinnamon). In the other half of the cups, spoon about a tablespoon of the other “pollen” type (e.g. ground coffee). Groups of four students will be sharing two cups of “pollen."

Classroom Management Tip

To avoid distractions, we suggest waiting to distribute the “pollen” cups to students until Step 9 of the activity.

Slice Fruits and Vegetables Before Class

We suggest slicing foods before class. We used the foods listed above, but you can use other foods in place of these. Just be sure to include a mix of vegetables that have seeds, such as tomatoes and cucumbers (science fruits), and ones that don’t, such as celery, potatoes, and radishes (science vegetables). If you want to challenge your students, use less familiar produce, such as pineapples, eggplants, and kiwis (science fruits), as well as brussels sprouts (science vegetables).

Place one slice of each type of fruit or vegetable onto a paper plate for each student so that each student will have the opportunity to examine all the produce.

Before students examine the sliced fruit and vegetables and look for seeds, you will show them one whole fruit or vegetable so that they can first make a prediction. So be sure to reserve one of each grocery item to show students.

We suggest students work in pairs. Homeschool students will need a partner to play the game.

Teacher Background

All the plants in the activity game are annuals, which means they die every winter and must be replanted every year from seed. We do not discuss annual versus perennial plant life cycles in this particular lesson.

Extend This Activity

In the extensions, we have another set of Plant Cards with different annual garden plants. Check out the Extensions for further instructions.