Elementary / Second grade
Second grade
Plant + Algae = Total Photosynthesis for the Earth
Second grade asks children to compare living things across different places, to show that plants need water and light, and to work out whether a change can be undone. Three lessons here land on second grade standards, and all three run off the same jar of green water.
What standards are covered
Living things are not the same from one place to the next
In plain words: Children compare what is alive in several different habitats and keep a record of what they find.
Lesson: What Eats Light? Three sealed bags are three habitats. One has a plant, one has algae, one has algae with animals in it, and by Friday they do not look the same.
Plants need water and light
In plain words: Children run an investigation that shows plants need water and light to grow.
Lesson: Do Plants Need Light? Same water, same seed, same jar. The only thing that changes is whether light reaches it.
Some changes can be undone and some cannot
In plain words: Children build an argument from evidence about whether a change caused by heating or cooling can be reversed.
Lesson: Where Did the Salt Go? The salt vanishes into the water and looks gone for good. Let the water dry off and it comes back. Children need to see a change that can be undone before they can argue about one that cannot.
If there is no second grade standard for it, it is not on this page
Why: Plenty of our lessons run well in a second grade room, but their standard sits in another year. Listing them here would make your planning harder, not easier.
Where they are: On the other grade pages, in the bar further down.
Check the grades either side of this one
Why: Both states introduce some of these ideas a year ahead of NGSS or a year behind, so a lesson filed under a neighbouring grade here can be exactly on grade in a Texas or Florida classroom.
On every lesson: The NGSS, Texas and Florida codes are printed on the cover page.
Lessons
Lessons for the Second Grade Classroom
What Eats Light?
Standard: 2-LS4-1, comparing what is alive in different places.
What happens: Three sealed bags go in the window on Day 1. One grows a radish, one grows algae, one grows algae with brine shrimp eating it. By Friday the bag with animals in it is less green than the bag without them. Nobody predicts that. One week, about ten minutes a day.
Document: ARS-K2-BBE-001, the kindergarten to second grade version. Word file.
Do Plants Need Light?
Standard: 2-LS2-1, plants need water and light to grow.
What happens: Identical jars, identical seeds, identical water. One set gets the window and one set sits in the dark. The children look after both and write down what they see. The answer is not a surprise, and that is the point. For a lot of them it is the first fair test they have run where only one thing was different.
Document: ARS-K5-BBE-002, one document covering kindergarten through fifth grade. Word file.
Where Did the Salt Go?
Standard: 2-PS1-4, whether a change can be undone.
What happens: Salt goes into warm water and disappears. The class argues about whether it is still in there. Then a shallow dish sits out for a few days and the salt comes back as crystals they can see, touch, and weigh.
Document: ARS-K5-BBE-005, one document covering kindergarten through fifth grade. Word file.
Free downloads
Downloads and where to go next
There is one document per lesson. The teacher material and the answer keys come first, then the student pages sit behind an orange PRINT FROM HERE divider, so you can print from that page on. There is one Administrator Guide for the whole of elementary, and that is the one to hand a principal or a curriculum director. Everything is free and editable whether or not you buy a kit.