Lesson Plan #5
Duration: 1 day
Objectives:
Students will gain a better understanding of how desert plants survive the harsh climate.
Students will recognize that plants go through adaptations to accommodate harsh conditions.
Students will compare and contrast adaptations of living things to a desert habitat.
Materials:
Book, The Desert is Theirs by Byrd Baylor
Learning Log
Computer with Internet Access
Key Vocabulary:
Adapt: to make fit
Dormant: when a living thing remains still and inactive, as though asleep, to save energy and survive bad conditions
Photosynthesis: catching the energy in sunlight and converting it into the energy in foods and nutrients for living and growing
Succulent: having fleshy tissues designed to conserve moisture
Procedures:
1. Read the Desert is Theirs.
In the book, The Desert Is Theirs, you have read about many of the plants that live in the desert. In this activity, you will learn more about some of those plants and look at photos of many of them. What special ways do these plants have of surviving in the harsh desert?
2. Have students keep a list of all the plants mentioned in the book:
Greasewood, mesquite, saguaro, yucca
3. Have students:
look at three different Web sites.
choose three to five plants from the pictures and information about desert plants.
write about the plants in their Learning Log.
A Learning Log is a written response to literature but may be used to respond to other texts. The left column entries may be verbatim text, research notes, lecture notes, vocabulary, or questions. The right column entries are student responses to, interpretations of, or analyses of the left column entries.
Make sure one of the plants they write about is the giant Saguaro cactus.
Be sure that the students write some interesting facts about each plant.
4. Sites to Explore:
5. Find information on the Saguaro cactus and write about it in your Learning Log. Choose two to four other plants from these sites. Write their names in your Learning Log. Draw pictures of these plants. Write interesting facts that you have learned about each of them.
Assessment:
Students will be evaluated on the information collected in their learning logs.
Your Learning Log entry is neat and easy to read.
You have written at least three plant names.
You have written some facts about each of the plants.
Home Learning:
Students will create an imaginary plant that can survive in the desert. They will create a model and write a description of the plant and how it has adapted to live in the desert environment.