Learning the plants growth

Author names: Cristina Arroyo, Alexandra Delgado, Mireia Moncayo, Raffaella Scheck, Anna Tello

For Teachers 

Target Group

Third graders.

Learning objectives

• Students will be able to identify the essential needs that plants need to grow. 

• Students will be able to use the language related with plants.

How this fits into a larger lesson or unit: PLants didactic unit

This activity is thought to be implemented in a teaching unit of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Concretely, natural science with the L2, in this case, English.

The pre-task for the main activity will be done in a previous session. Students will learn the main part of the plant. They will do an activity based on a puzzle as the one shown in the table.

The main activity, explained in detail below, will consist of 3 main parts, a 360º image supported by a worksheeet that they will be completing as they observe the image. It will be the language support they will be using all through the session. We thought it was better to give them a glossary that they should fill instead of just giving them prepared since we believe it was an opportunity to make them read, and discuss which definitions and pictures related to the term. In this sense, it will make their learning more enriching and conscious. Once worked the 360º image, students will watch a video with some questions.

Regarding the post-activity, we wanted to implement an activity in which children could USE THE LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE, WITH A REAL AND AUTHENTIC PURPOSE. To do so, children will make a list of the materials they need to plant seeds in order to grow a plant in the school. Then, the teacher will tell them the following: "So... now that we hav the shopping list, we should buy those materials... And to do so a plant expert has come to our school. We should ask them for the materials that we need and for their prices. But... he is from England, so we need to speak in English with him because if not, he will not understand us!". Using this kind of role-play, we will engage and motivate students, making them use the language. This expert will also bring different seeds so this could led to a conversation regarding the different plants that might grow, and to refresh the knowledge learnt in the previous session about what do plants need to grow. Lastly, since they will have to communicate with the expert to buy what needed to plant the seeds, we will review some expressions regarding shopping such as: How much does it cost?; could we have x material please?...

The last activity of this unit will be planting the seeds and taking caree of the plants during this month, and during the rest of the year.

Main Learning Objectives:

• Students will be able to identify the essential needs that plants need to grow. 

• Students will be able to use the language related to plants to communicate.

Materials Needed

• Tablet

• 360º image

• Puzzle images

• Key words scaffolding worksheets

• Edpuzzle video

Activity Instructions

The teacher will show students the 360º image they will be using.
Firstly, s/he will explain them how does it work:

• How can they see the information added in the hotspots.

• How can they move all the image up, down, right and left.

Once the instructions are clear, the teacher will create groups with the puzzle strategy. There will be five pictures cut into four different pieces. The teacher will give each student one piece of the images. Their task is to find the people whose puzzle piece connects to theirs to form the whole image. 

Once the groups have been created, the teacher will give a tablet to each group to work with the 360º image.
With the tablet they will observe the 360º image, reading the information of the hotspots. While they do this, they will fill the worksheets of the key words. The objective of these worksheets is that students identify the key words or COL and understand them.

Once they have finished this first part, each group will watch the video prepared in "Edpuzzle" while answering the different questions that are formulated all through the video.

For Students 

The materials below are exactly what a student will  see (and need) to accomplish the activity we have described above: