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How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?

Plant Traits
Lesson narration:
English Spanish
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Suppose you wanted to break this rock in two—and you weren’t in a rush. Instead of using tools to break it open, can you think of a way that a plant could help you do it?
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Drop a seed into a crack. Wait for a tree to sprout. Then wait another 20 years. As the tree grows, its roots will break the rock!
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Tree roots don’t just break boulders. Seeds can sprout between stone blocks in buildings too. Check out these ancient—and modern—buildings! I wonder what they’ll look like in 100 years!
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This brick sidewalk has an opening for a tree to grow in. What do you think the tree will look like as it gets older?
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Roots can grow into any crack. Over time, the cracks shape the way the roots grow.
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This isn’t a purple house. It’s a house covered in purple flowers from flowering vines! How long do you think it takes vines to grow?
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In just over a month, vines covered this little house. Why do you think the vines climbed on the house? Are they searching for something?
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Other plants, like trees, grow tall so that their leaves are closer to the sunlight. Vines need light too! So they get tall by climbing up trees and buildings!
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Trees may not seem like they are unstoppable. After all, you can just cut them down. But what happens to the stump after you cut down a tree?
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Sometimes, trees grow back! A tree’s roots may have enough food to create a new sprout, like these. Even when a tree falls over...
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...it can grow back! These fallen trees have roots in the ground. Their branches have grown straight up, each trying to become a tree.
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Someone thought it was a good idea to nail this sign to a tree. What do you think? Do you have any idea what might happen?
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Check it out! Trees are unstoppable! If something gets in a tree’s way, the tree might just grow around it! Weird! But that’s not all...
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Some people add googly eyes to make trees look like they are munching on the things that got in their way. Yum!
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How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?
Plant Traits
Lesson narration:
English Spanish

Overview

In this mini-lesson, students will learn about a few species of poisonous plants and how to identify them.

Jump to

Exploration

5 mins

Extend this lesson

Writing

Writing

Here are some writing prompts to help students reflect on the mini-lesson. Feel free to copy and paste them into an assignment.

  1. How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?

  2. What did this lesson make you curious about? What other questions do you have about poisonous plants?

Activity

Activity

Bonus Activity: You can discover patterns in the plants around you! Find two different plants. You can look at trees, flowers, or even weeds. Compare the plants. Look at the stem, leaf shape, and color of the leaves or flowers. What is the same in both plants? What is different? Draw each plant and label what you notice. If you like, make a plant journal with pictures of the different plants that you draw!

Credits
 
How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?

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