Plant reproduction – literacy and numeracy learning links

Plant reproduction is a topic that lends itself to many areas within the junior and middle school curriculum. This teacher resource provides a number of literacy and numeracy links to New Zealand Curriculum levels 1 and 2.

Note: This resource is intended to encourage links across the curriculum areas. Reading or writing about science concepts is only one aspect of a science programme. An effective science programme challenges students through activities, discussion and reflection.

Below are suggestions for:

• reading

• writing

• numeracy.

Reading

The science articles The seed-flower life cycle and Seed dispersal were written with younger students in mind. Consider using these as shared reading or for small group reading.

Dandelion seeds

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Dandelion seeds float away in the wind. To make sure at least some of the seeds land in a suitable growing place, the plant has to produce lots of seeds.

Rights: Daniel Blunt, CC BY 2.0

Here is a selection of readers appropriate to this topic. Please check your own reading resources to supplement this list.

Ready To Read

• This Leaf (red)

• Growing Pumpkins (orange)

PM

• Sally’s Bean (yellow)

Foundation

• Be a Plant Scientist (purple)

Sunshine

• The Seed (yellow)

• Seeds, Seeds, Seeds

• Seeds Grow

• Plants and Seeds

• From Flowers to Fruit

Junior Journal

• (22) Taking the Scraps Out (2000)

School Journal

• Seeds That Wear Life Jackets (Pt 1 No 5 2003) (Year 4)

• Seeds for the Birds (Pt 2 No 4 2007) (Year 4)

• King of the grapes (Part 1 No 4 2000) (Year 5)

• Hidden Seeds (Pt 4 No 1 1995) (Year 7)

Connected

• Seeds (No 1 1999)

• Grow your own ferns (No 3 2002)

• Moturoa students (No 2 2010)

• Garden with science (Level 2 2014)

• Gardening in the living room (Level 2 2017)

• Whakaotirangi and her kete of kūmara (Level 2 2020)

Te Tāhuhu O Te Mātauranga

• Ngā Rau

Writing

• Write a recount of one of the student activities. Develop a list of subject-specific vocabulary for students to use.

• Write about dispersal from a seed’s point of view. This is creative writing, but suggest students use the appropriate dispersal method and subject-specific vocabulary.

• The activity Seed dispersal puppet play has a written storyboard and opportunities for a written voiceover to narrate the play.

• The activity Pollination role-plays has a written component.

• The activity Student-led investigations about seeds has a written component.

Finger puppet pollinators

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Simple finger puppets take on the roles of insects and birds to simulate different methods of pollination.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

Numeracy

• Use plant parts (for example, fern fronds or flower petals) as a means of non-standard measurement. Students work in pairs to measure a distance by counting the number of times they can place the frond or petal end to end.

• Extend the activity by using different sized fern fronds or petals. Leave it to the students to notice the different measurement outcomes. Then discuss why we have standard units of measurement like the metre or centimetre.

• Graph results from the Student-led investigations about seeds activity.

• Check out this rates and ratios activity Seed packets (Proportions and Ratios, AP, Stage 8).

Planting seeds

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Sprouting and growing seeds does not require costly resources. Recycled containers make useful pots, as do mugs and other items from the cupboard. Seeds can be sourced from foods or from plants from the garden. Introduce numeracy aspects by recording the time it takes for seeds to emerge, measuring stem growth, or count the number of leaves and/or flowers the seedling produces. Mustard and cress seeds sprout and grow quickly, and are edible, making them ideal seeds for young learners.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

For more resources linking science and gardens and plants, see our Garden collection – full of resources to support planning to develop a school garden. Log in to make this collection part of your private collection, just click on the copy icon. You can then add additional content and notes and make other changes). We also have a Garden science Pinterest board.