Pollination Power

Lesson
Title/Focus

Question of the day: How does pollination

work?
Book focus: The Reason for a Flower by Ruth
Heller

Date

Day 14

Subject/Grad
e Level

Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts

Grade 1

Time
Duratio
n

50 minutes

Unit

Working Together as a Community

Teacher

Roosmarijn Pastink

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

Science:
GLE 1-11: describe some common living things, and identify the needs of those living things
10: give examples of ways in which plants depend on animals. Ex: particular plants may serve as a
source of food and shelter; animals may help spread pollen and seeds
Social Studies
GLO 1.1
SLO:
1.1.3 examine how they belong and are connected to their world by exploring and reflecting upon the
following questions for inquiry:
in what ways do we benefit from belonging to groups and communities?
English Language Arts:
GLO 1:
1.1 Discover and explore
o Talk with others about something recently learned
o Make observations about activities, experiences with oral, print and other media texts
GLO 2:
2.1 Use Strategies and Cues
o Use previous experience and knowledge of oral language to make connections to the
meaning of oral, print and other media texts
o Talk about print and other media texts previously read or viewed
GLO 3:
3.1 plan and focus
Connect information from oral, print and other media texts to topic of study
ASSESSMENTS
Observations:
Observation
Question and answer
Discussion
Key Questions:
What does pollination look like?
How do the bees in the book pollinate the flowers?
Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

How does pollination help the bee?

What other insects also pollinate flowers?
How does pollination help the flower?
What does pollination look like?
How do the bees in the book pollinate the flowers?
How does pollination help the bee?
What other insects also pollinate flowers?
How does pollination help the flower?
Who would be called the pollinators
Why do you think that the flowers were bright colors ( how might that
help attract butterflies and bees)
Do you think the flowers smell helps attracts insects?
What did the juice boxes represent (why would the insect drink the
nectar)?
What did the Cheetos represent?
From the video you could see that you all were wiping your hands on
other flowers and getting the pollination dust (cheese dust) on every
flower what does that do?
Products/Performances Reading of the book The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller
:
Pollination power movement activity
Discussion and debrief about pollination
LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED
MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT
Pollination Power idea Bag of Cheetos (a few per student)
http://aroundthekampfire.blogspot.ca/2014/04/poetry- 1 juice box per student
and-painting-and-butterflies-oh.html
Flower cutout per student
Napkin/paper towel per student
Video camera or I pad
Hook up to the computer
The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller
PROCEDURE
Introduction
Time
Attention Grabber
The hook in this lesson is going to be that at the beginning
30
of the lesson you tell students you have something VERY
seconds
exciting to tell them. Today they are going to be acting like
bumblebees and participate in the pollination of flowers.
Assessment of Prior
Write the word pollination on the board and ask students to
Knowledge
name anything that they know has to do with the word
2 minutes
pollination. It can be what they already knew or what they
had learned from reading The Reason for a Flower by Ruth
Heller last class.
Expectations for
4 minutes
Remind students of the expectations when we are at the
Learning and Behavior
carpet and reading a book

While you are explaining the pollination power activity

write out what the activity will look like and what it will

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Advance
Organizer/Agenda

Transition to Body
Learning Activity #1

sound like.
Today we are going to reread The Reason for a Flower by
Ruth Heller and we are going to focus on pollination today!
Then we are going to do an activity where you all will be
acting like bumble bees and we are going to learn about
how pollination works
Get out the book The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller
Body
Reread The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller
Ask students what they remember about the book before
reading
Have them turn to one of their elbow buddies and tell each
other one thing they remember about reading the book
Tell students that this time we read the book you really
want them to focus on pollination!
Read the book!
Key questions
What does pollination look like?
How do the bees in the book pollinate the flowers?
How does pollination help the bee?
What other insects also pollinate flowers?
How does pollination help the flower?
Who would be called the pollinators

Assessments/
Differentiation:

Learning Activity #2

30
seconds

Time

10
minutes

Observation of student answers during the discussion and

questions asked after the reading of the book

Differentiation:
Strong readers could have the opportunity to read the
book with an EA in the hallway
Some students may need to sit on wiggle chair instead of
the carpet
Fidgets may be used by some students during the story time
Some students may need to work with an EA to have a more
hands on approach to reading this story using a story board
and bee manipulatives to fully understand the concept of
pollination
Pollination power

N/A

20
minutes

How to set up this activity prior to the lesson

Each student will need a bright colored flower die cut
on top of a juice box and a few Cheetos on their desk
Die cut flower print out attached print out on bright
colored cardstock (appendix A)

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Explain to students that we will be doing a fun activity to

learn about what pollination looks and feels like!
Tell students that they will be acting as pollinators have
students choose which pollinating insect they would like to
be (butterfly, bee etc.)
Tell the students they are the pollinators
Explain to students what this activity will look like. Model
this for students will a juice box, die cut and Cheetos for
them to see exactly what they should be doing
Explain to students that there is a flower at each of their
desks. Their role is to fly over to their flower and drink of
their juice box and have their hands rest on the cheetos
Then the students are instructed to eat their Cheetos without
wiping their hands. (The cheese dust = pollen!)
After they finish their juice box, they fly around the
room to other flowers. When they land on other flowers,
they are to wipe their hands on another flower.
Tell student to pay special attention to what is happening to
all the flowers (hopefully they can see the power of
pollination!)

Before starting
Ask students what they think the juice box will
represent (nectar)
What do you think the Cheetos (cheese dust) will
represent? (pollen)
Explain expectations what will this activity look like
and sound like
Looks like:
Students flying around not running and being
carefully not to run into another student
Sounds like:
There can be talking and inside voices (model what
inside voices sounds like)
They can buzz like there insects
Have students quietly and safely fly over to their flowers and
start pollinating
Send them back to their table spots in groups so that not
all students are racing towards their table spots at the
same time
*video tape for a couple minutes while students are doing this
activity
Assessments/

Assessment:

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

N/A
4

Differentiation

Observation: are students drinking the nectar from their

juice boxes while touching the pollen dust and then
spreading it to other flowers?

Differentiation:
A student may need an EA to assist them and walk them
through the activity
If this activity is too busy for a student, a mini
pollination power activity can be set up in the hallway
or another room. That student can have their juice box
and flower, and then spread the pollen to other flowers
that are spread out.

Learning Activity #3

Allergies or diet restrictions

Juice if student is unable to have a juice box use either a
white or chocolate milk juice box or a cup with water and a
straw.
If students are unable to have Cheetos they could use
Video and discussion
*hook video up to the computer to show students
Show students a couple minutes of the video of them
drinking the nectar and spreading around the pollen.
Having students watch this may be beneficial because it
allows them to see the transfer of pollen better
Key questions about activity (debrief)
Why do you think that the flowers were bright colors
(how might that help attract butterflies and bees)
Do you think the flowers smell helps attracts insects?
What did the juice boxes represent (why would the
insect drink the nectar)?
What did the Cheetos represent?
From the video you could see that you all were wiping
your hands on other flowers and getting the pollination
dust (cheese dust) on every flower what does that do?

Assessments/
Differentiation

Main question: In pollination how are the insects helping the

plants? Do they need to work together?
Think, Pair, Share activity for this question
Assessment:
Student checklist Appendix B
Observation and discussion:
Student answers to questions and prompts
Can students make connections from their activity to
how pollination works
Think, pair, and share do students understand that
pollination is the act of the insects and the plants
working together? (The insects are helping the plants

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

10
minutes

N/A

grow)

Differentiation:
If student is having trouble understanding the concept of
pollination they may need to with an EA and
manipulatives in the hallway
Student may need to sit in rocker chair or wiggly chair
during conversations
Student may need a break
Higher level students may want to write a couple
sentences about the activity and what it looked like
If technology fails
Draw a diagram on the board of what it look like while
students were going around to every flower and wiping
their hands
Assessment of
Learning:

Feedback From
Students:
Feedback To Students

Transition To Next
Lesson

Closure
Assess observations and discussions throughout the lesson and
the movement activity.
As students are leaving the classroom for lunch ask each
student to tell you one thing they learned from todays lesson.
(Assess if they are able to name one thing associated with
pollination)
During discussion
Thumbs up if you liked this activity
Thumbs up if it helped you understand pollination?
Tell students what they did well today (noise level,
following directions, helping each other, answering
questions, listening etc.)
Tomorrow we will be talking about another way that animals
can help plants grow!

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Time

3 minutes

Appendix A

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Appendix B
Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Formative Assessment Checklist Pollination

Seem to
understand the
concept of
pollination
(YES/NO)

Could say one

thing they
learned from
todays activity
about
pollination.
Answer showed
growth in
learning
(YES/NO)

Student 1
Comments:
Student 2
Comments:
Student 3
Comments:
Student 4
Comments:
Student 5
Comments:
Student 6
Comments:
Student 7
Comments:
Student 8
Comments:

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

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