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In this Read-Along lesson, Jin plants some sunflowers in a sunny spot and some in a shady spot, watches to see which grow best, and then figures out why. The lesson includes a short exercise where students stand up and pretend to be sunflowers, turning their faces to the sun as young sunflowers do. You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Plants on the Move, where students observe that plants respond to light by bending toward the light source.
Student slideshow: English | Spanish
Teacher printout: English & Spanish
After you complete the lesson and activity, try this extension.
These videos, which show sped-up views of growing plants, will let your students watch each plant’s movements.
This video shows corn seedlings that have been raised in the dark. When the experimenter puts a light bulb above them, they begin bending toward the light, just like the sunflowers in the story do. The video condenses 18 hours into 30 seconds.
This video shows tomato seedlings over several days. In the corner, the word “water” appears whenever the tomatoes are given water. What happens right after the plants are given water?
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