Plant Adaptations

Tags: Grade 3-5, plant adaptations, anytime, outside, inside, all seasons, fall, spring, winter, summer

Time : 30-40 minutes

Outline

Greeting and Review	Meet in your regular spot Review last week’s lesson and/or review garden class expectations
Main Lesson	Plant Adaptations
Activity 1	Define Plant Adaptations – As a whole group meet in the classroom or outside in an area where all students can see and hear. Materials Needed: adaptation pictures or physical examples of plants with adaptations (Venus flytrap, cactus, different leaves from various trees/plants, )
Activity 2	Give students 15 minutes to walk around the garden and identify and record plants and their adaptations Come back together and have students share their findings Materials Needed: plant adaptations recording sheet, pencils
Cleanup	None
Goodbye	Line class up in their regular spot
External References	Native and Adapted Plants for Central Texas
Worksheets	Plant Adaptations Recording Sheet

Gather together where everyone can see and hear.
Ask, “What are the 5 basic needs of plants?” What they need to survive. (water, air, sun, soil/nutrients, space)
Explain that sometimes it is hard for plants to meet their needs in their environment if they are not native to the region. Define native and non-native plants. Therefore they adapt to meet their needs. Native plants will already have these adaptations in place.
Ask “Can anyone think of a plant adaptation?”
Show pictures of plant adaptations and discuss.
Adaptations of Texas Plants – Our native plants are adapted to handle Texas soil and weather. In Central Texas, we have: Alkaline soil, heavy clay to thin caliche soil, hot summers (Death Star), cold winters drought, and flash floods.
Leaf Adaptations – talk about how leaves play a big role in a plant and have adaptations that help a plant meet its needs.

Move – Have students work in pairs and go around the garden to identify adaptations in the garden using the adaptations sheet found here Plant Adaptations Recording Sheet.
Come together– after 15 minutes come back together and share findings