Hands-On- Looking at plant structures and functions: -Students collect a variety of leaves from different kinds of plants and make a chart to compare and contrast their texture, color, size, and shape; infer what each of these leaf traits might do for survival of the plant. -Go on a nature walk and compare different stems (tree trunks, flower stems, etc.); discuss how these particular stems support these particular plants in the best way -Obtain several small flowers and plants from a nursery or garden and inspect the roots; compare and contrast them and discuss how they help each plant survive and grow.

Performing Arts: Have small groups of students create skits that act out the process of photosynthesis; they should take the parts of the sun, carbon dioxide, oxygen, leaves, stem, roots, water, nutrients; they can make simple props or labels and come up with creative ways to act out what happens in photosynthesis.

Investigation/Experiment: Obtain a couple of plants with large leaves. Wrap one plant's leaves with foil and leave the other uncovered. Give them the same amount of sunlight and water. Uncover foiled plant after a week and record observations. Repeat if you don't see much difference between the two. After you begin seeing the differences, talk about how what a plant needs to carry out photosynthesis, and where in a plant this takes place. Why did the two plants look so different?

Technology: After reading/discussing the chapter, students can use the internet to locate pictures of foods or objects that make use of plants. Classify the findings in as many ways as possible. Use Power Point or Photo Story (or even KidPix) software to create a slide show of the importance of plants. Have students record their voices to add to the words and pictures to create a photo narrative.

Vocabulary: Use "Plants are Important" Inspiration-created content dictionary (see Upload Files) to introduce vocab, supplement textbook, and review concepts