Unit 8 — Time to Grow!
Description
Students investigate the needs and growth cycle of plants. Through informational texts, legends, and realistic fiction, students learn about water, light, soil, air, and space required for plant growth. The unit develops skills in gathering information, understanding cause and effect, and recognizing text features that support learning. Students also explore folklore and cultural stories related to plants.
Essential Questions
- What do plants need to live and grow?
Learning Objectives
- Identify main ideas and supporting details in informational texts
- Use text features and illustrations to gather information
- Understand how events are connected in narratives and legends
- Apply suffixes -es and -s for verb and noun forms
- Use prefixes mis- and dis- to understand words
- Write informational texts with facts and descriptions
- Decode multisyllabic words with vowel team patterns and diphthongs
Suggested Texts
- From Seed to Pine Tree — nonfiction (week 1)
- The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush — legend (week 2)
- The Patchwork Garden — realistic fiction (week 3)
Supplemental Resources
- Graphic organizers for plant growth stages and requirements
- Printed informational texts and diagrams about plants
- Word cards for prefix and suffix practice
- Chart paper for recording plant observations
- Markers and colored pencils for plant illustrations and labeling
Language
Reading: Informational Text
Reading: Literature
Speaking and Listening
Writing
Students engage with informational texts about plant growth, weather patterns, habitats, and animal life. Reading and writing skills are applied to scientific topics including plant needs, weather effects, and ecosystem relationships.
Formative Assessments
- Plant observation and growth tracking activities
- Information gathering from text features and illustrations
- Suffix -es, -s and prefix practice with application
- Cause and effect identification in plant-related narratives
Summative Assessment
Selection quizzes, weekly assessments, and module assessment on informational and narrative comprehension
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to questions about plant needs and growth, with support from illustrations or photographs. Teachers may provide word banks, simplified texts, or allow students to point to pictures or use gestures to show comprehension of cause and effect relationships in plant growth.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
During informational reading about plant needs and growth cycles, provide visual supports such as labeled diagrams and picture-supported texts to help students access main ideas and supporting details. For decoding tasks involving vowel teams, diphthongs, and multisyllabic words, offer additional repetition, chunking strategies, and audio support as needed. Allow students to demonstrate comprehension of cause-and-effect relationships and plant-related vocabulary through oral responses or dictation rather than written output alone. Shortened word study practice focusing on the most functional examples of -es, -s, mis-, and dis- can support mastery without overwhelming students.
Section 504
Ensure students have adequate time to complete reading tasks, information-gathering activities, and written responses connected to plant topics and informational text features. Preferential seating and a low-distraction environment will support focus during close reading and word study work. Providing printed copies of any board-displayed text or directions—particularly for cause-and-effect or text feature tasks—removes access barriers without altering content expectations.
ELL / MLL
Introduce and preview plant-related vocabulary—such as terms for plant parts, growth stages, and environmental needs—using visual supports like illustrated word walls, labeled diagrams, and realia where possible. Directions for information-gathering and writing tasks should be given in clear, simple language with visual cues, and students should be invited to retell instructions before beginning. Connecting plant folklore and cultural stories in the unit to students' home cultures and languages can build background knowledge and increase engagement with narrative comprehension.
At Risk (RTI)
Activate prior knowledge about plants and growth before introducing new informational texts, helping students build a foundation for understanding main ideas and cause-and-effect relationships. Provide entry points into word study by connecting suffixes and prefixes to familiar, concrete words related to the unit's plant theme. Structuring informational writing tasks with visual organizers or sentence frames gives students a manageable starting point and supports growing independence in expressing facts and descriptions.
Gifted & Talented
Encourage students to go beyond identifying main ideas by analyzing how an author's use of specific text features—such as diagrams, headings, or captions—shapes the reader's understanding of plant science. Students may explore the relationship between folklore and factual content by comparing how different cultures explain plant growth through legend versus scientific text. Informational writing can be extended toward more complex structures, such as incorporating multiple text features of their own design or examining how cause-and-effect relationships in plant life connect to broader environmental systems.