Below are ideas for extending this topic beyond the activity & exploration which you just completed.

• Lesson Assessment and Answer Key
• Reading with suggested activities: The Giant Saguaro
• Activity: How a Cactus Stores Water
• Activity: A Plant with a Water Tank
• Web Resource: Games, activities, and information from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
• Art Extension: Grassheads With Style
• Distance Learning: Substitute Activity

Using paper towels and wax paper, this simple activity shows students how the thick, waxy stems of cactus or the thick leaves of a succulent hold water.

If you have access to any succulents, bring in a few stalks and leaves. Let your students slice the leaves open and see the moist interior.

The bromeliad, a plant that lives in the rainforest, avoids the shade of the forest floor by growing on the branches of tall trees. Living high in a tree, the bromeliad can't get its roots into the ground. So it stores water in a bowl made of its waxy leaves. This water tank is home to frogs, as you can see in this video.

The pineapple is a kind of bromeliad that you can grow and experiment with in your classroom. Find out how at this site from the Rain Forest Alliance.

At Mystery Science, we couldn't resist adding a bit of style to our grassheads. If your class would like to do the same, you'll find plenty of inspiration online. Your grasshead could wear a mohawk or a cute little bow. You can add googly eyes, pipe cleaner eyeglasses, and paper clothes. The possibilities are endless.

Here are supplies you may need:

• pipe cleaners (for eye glasses)
• peel-and-stick googly eyes
• construction paper for "clothes"
• ribbons for hair bows
• scissors for grasshead barbers and stylists

If you are learning remotely, you can read about cacti and their adaptations.

Assign pages 4-14 in Prickly Plants, an Epic! digital book.

Ask students to discuss: “Why do cacti have spines?”

Ask students to draw their favorite cactus.