The Wonderful World of Plants

The last unit I completed this school year with one of my small groups was all about plants. I included a variety of lessons, strategies, resources, and tasks in the unit and decided to document it all using Animoto. Animoto is a new tool I learned about in my grad class that is wonderful for creating short videos. I used my iPhone to record students and take pictures, then uploaded the images to Animoto, and created a short film. Before I show you the video, I will quickly explain the outline of the unit.

I began the unit with a text set of Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert, The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, and How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan. We used Planting a Rainbow to learn about the life cycle of a plant and complete life cycle graphic organizers.

We used The Tiny Seed to learn about what a plant needs to grow and thrive and what causes a plant to die. We completed the cause and effect graphic organizers.

Lastly in the text set, we used How a Seed Grows to learn how to plant a plant. The students participated in discussion and used that information to write their own how-to books. You will hear the students reading their how-to books to you in the video.

After writing their own how-to books, the students were required to plant a bean plant by following another student's how-to book. In an attempt to have students participate in discussion and give constructive feedback, I encouraged the students to give one strength/compliment and one area that needed improvement to the author of the how-to book. This was a great way for the students to think about what worked well in their writing and what they need to improve.

As a final activity with the unit, the students completed observation journals. Every time the small group came to my classroom, the three students would write a sentence or two documenting what they saw in their bean plants (dirt, stem, leaves, etc.) and draw a picture to match their sentence(s). The observation journals gave the students the opportunity to make predictions about their plants, give thoughtful reasons as to why their plants may not be growing, and participate in science.

Overall I my students LOVED using the iPhone to take pictures and videos. They loved being recorded and then commenting about their readings for the video. It was a great activity to introduce students to movie making and all the steps that are involved. I plan to have students use more technology to make videos and document their learning next year.

I thoroughly enjoyed this unit and I know the students did as well. Hope you enjoy the video!