What is the life processes of plant and animal?

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kevin Fri, Jan 14, 2022 08:08 PM UTC

If appropriate, ask students to speculate about living things that might not need sunlight, air, food, or water. Some organisms live without sunlight in the deep ocean and in caves. Some tiny living things called bacteria can get the energy to live without using oxygen.

1. Delta
Reader Plant and Animal Life Cycles
Delta Science Readers are nonfiction student
books that provide science background and
support the experiences of hands-on activities.
Every Delta Science Reader has three main
sections: Think About . . . , People in Science,
and Did You Know?
Be sure to preview the reader Overview Chart
on page 4, the reader itself, and the teaching
suggestions on the following pages. This
information will help you determine how to plan
your schedule for reader selections and activity
sessions.
Reading for information is a key literacy skill.
Use the following ideas as appropriate for your
teaching style and the needs of your students.
The After Reading section includes an assessment
and writing link.
O VERVIEW
Students will
discover facts about the life cycles of
In the Delta Science Reader Plant and plants, animals, and fungi
Animal Life Cycles, students read about the
learn the different parts of flowering plants
life cycles of a variety of plants, animals,
and fungi. They learn how some living and how these plants reproduce
things grow, change, and reproduce. They read about ways plants reproduce other
also read about a famous wildlife than by seeds
biologist—Jane Goodall—and her unique,
learn about birds, mammals, insects,
long-term study of chimpanzees in Africa.
amphibians, fish, and reptiles
Finally, students learn about emperor
penguins and compare the sizes and discuss the function of a table of contents,
weights of some newborn animals. headings, and a glossary
interpret photographs and diagrams to
answer questions
complete a KWL chart
organize information in a variety of ways
delta science modules Plant and Animal Life Cycles 123
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2. READING IN THE think will happen to the goose’s eggs?
(Baby geese will hatch from them.) What
CONTENT AREA SKILLS other animals do you know that hatch
• Compare and contrast plant and animal from eggs? (Students will probably mention
life cycles different kinds of birds. Some may know
that insects and most fish and reptiles lay
• Recognize causes and effects in the
eggs.) Read the title aloud, and invite
process of pollination
students to share what they know about the
• Draw conclusions from text information topic from their personal experiences and
• Identify main ideas and supporting hands-on explorations in science.
details about ways plants reproduce
• Describe the sequences of events in To stimulate discussion, ask questions
metamorphosis and in life cycles such as these: What do you think a life
cycle is? How might the life cycles of
• Demonstrate critical thinking
plants and animals be different? How
• Interpret graphic devices might they be the same?
• Summarize
Begin a class KWL chart by recording facts
students know about life cycles in the
K column. You may wish to copy the KWL
NONFICTION TEXT ELEMENTS chart and ask students to maintain their
own charts as they read.
Plant and Animal Life Cycles includes a
table of contents, headings, photographs
and illustrations, captions, diagrams, a table, K W L +
What What What What
boldfaced terms, and a glossary. I Know I Want I Learned I Want to
to Know Explore
Further
CONTENT VOCABULARY
The following terms are introduced in
context and defined in the glossary:
amphibian, bird, conifer, decompose,
dormant, fish, flowering plant, fruit, fungus,
germinate, hibernate, insect, larva, life Preview the Book
cycle, life span, mammal, metamorphosis,
migration, nymph, ovary, pistil, pollen, Take a few minutes to have students look
pollination, pupa, reproduce, reptile, root, through the book. Explain the steps
seed coat, seed food, spore, stamen, involved in previewing nonfiction: think
tiny plant, yeast. about the title, read the table of contents,
optional vocabulary: cold-blooded, read the headings, read boldfaced words,
warm-blooded; endoskeleton, exoskeleton; and examine any photographs,
invertebrate, vertebrate illustrations, charts, and graphics.
Call attention to the various nonfiction text
B EFORE READING elements and explain how they can help
students understand and organize what they
Build Background read. Point out that the table of contents lists
all the main headings in the book and their
Access students’ prior knowledge of plant page numbers. Ask, How do the headings
and animal life cycles by displaying and help you know what you will learn about?
discussing the cover. Ask, What do you Point to some of the photographs and ask
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3. questions such as, What does this picture • Whole Group Reading Read the book
show you? How do you think it will help you aloud with a group or the whole class.
understand the text? Explain that the words in Encourage students to ask questions and
boldface type are important words related to make comments. Pause as necessary to
plant and animal life cycles. Remind students clarify and assess understanding.
that these words are defined in the glossary.
Choose one word and have students find its • Shared Reading Have students form
definition in the glossary. pairs or small groups and read the book
together. Ask students to pause after each
Preview the Vocabulary text section. Clarify as needed and discuss
any questions that arise or have been
You may wish to preview some of the answered.
vocabulary words before reading, rather than
waiting to introduce them in the context of • Independent Reading Some students may
the book. Possibilities include creating a word be ready to read independently. Have
wall, vocabulary cards, sentence strips, or a them rejoin the class for discussion of the
concept web. book. Check understanding by asking
students to explain in their own words
For example, some of the words can be what they have read.
categorized according to whether they are
plants, animals, or fungi. Develop a three- Tips for Reading
column chart like the one that follows:
• If you spread out the reading over several
Plant Animal Fungus days, begin each session by reviewing the
conifer amphibian mold previous day’s reading and previewing
flowering bird mushroom what will be read in the upcoming session.
plant fish yeast
insect • Begin each text section by reading or
having a volunteer read aloud the heading.
mammal
Discuss what students expect to learn,
reptile based on the heading. Have students
examine any illustrations or graphics and
read accompanying captions and labels.
Set a Purpose
• Help students locate context clues to the
Discuss with students what they might expect meanings of words in boldface type.
to find out from the book, based on their Remind them that these words are defined
preview. Encourage them to use the questions in the glossary. Provide help with words
on the KWL chart to set an overall purpose that may be difficult to pronounce.
for reading.
• As appropriate, model reading strategies
GUIDE THE READING students may find helpful for nonfiction:
adjust reading rate, ask questions,
paraphrase, reread, visualize.
Preview the book yourself to determine the
amount of guidance you will need to give for
each section. Depending on your schedule
and the needs of your class, you may wish to
consider the following options:
delta science modules Plant and Animal Life Cycles 125
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4. Think About … (pages 2-13) summarize the information in the text.
(A flower forms fruits and seeds. A seed
Pages 2, 3 What Is a Life Cycle? and contains a tiny plant and stored food. It
Plant Life Cycles: Plants from Seeds stays dormant, or not growing, until it
gets enough warmth and moisture.
• Have students read the text on page 2. Then the seed splits open, and the tiny
Have them compare and contrast the plant sends out roots and shoots.)
information about living things. Ask,
How are most living things alike? • Have students read the text about
(They grow, change, and reproduce. conifers in the second column and
Most need sunlight, air, food, and look at the photograph and caption.
water.) How are they different? (They Assess understanding by having them
have different life cycles and life spans.) summarize the difference between a
conifer and a flowering plant. (Conifers
• If appropriate, ask students to speculate do not have flowers; they grow cones in
about living things that might not need which the seeds form.)
sunlight, air, food, or water. (Some
organisms live without sunlight in the • Invite students to share what they know
deep ocean and in caves. Some tiny about conifers such as pine trees and
living things called bacteria can get spruce trees. (Their needles don’t all fall
energy to live without using oxygen. off in the fall as leaves on other trees
Green plants, algae, phytoplankton, and do. The trees stay green all winter.) Tell
some bacteria make their own food using students that another name for these
energy from the sun. Some bacteria conifers is evergreens, because they are
and microscopic worms can survive always green.
indefinitely without water.)
Conifers were some of the first plants
• Then have students look at the diagrams on Earth to reproduce by making seeds.
and labels. Explain: The words cycle
and circle are related. Just as you can Pages 4, 5 Inside a Flower
run your finger around and around
a circle, a cycle repeats itself in the • Have students read the text about
same order. Ask, How do the arrows flowers on page 4. Then have them look
help show that the life cycles keep at the photograph and read the caption
repeating? (They go around in a circle.) and labels. Have students point to the
labels on the flower. Ask, What is the
• Guide students to compare and contrast purpose of the pistil, stamens, ovary,
the plant and animal life cycles. Ask, and pollen? (They make seeds.)
How does the plant start? (as a seed)
How does the animal start? (as an egg) • Have students read the first paragraph
What is the same about plant and on page 5 to learn what pollination is.
animal life cycles? (Young plants and Ask, What effects does the pollen
animals grow into adult plants and have when it contacts the pistil? (The
animals.) flower begins to make fruit and seeds.
The ovary swells and ripens.) What
• Have students read the text on page 3 happens to the ovary? (It becomes
in the first column and look at the a fruit.)
diagram and labels. Ask, How does
the diagram of the seed help you • Have students study the photograph
understand its parts? (It shows what above the first column and read the
the text is talking about.) Assess caption. Then assess their understanding
understanding by having students of the definition of fruit: What is a fruit?
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5. (A fruit is the part of a plant that covers and vertebrate an animal with a backbone, or
protects seeds.) Is an orange a fruit? (yes) spine (examples: human, bird, snake, fish)
Is a potato a fruit? (no) Why not? (It
invertebrate an animal without a
doesn’t have seeds.)
backbone (examples: insect, jellyfish,
worm, clam, octopus)
• Have students finish reading the page,
look at the photograph, and read the warm-blooded an animal that keeps its
caption. Ask, How are many flowers body warm through its own metabolism
pollinated? (They are pollinated by (examples: all birds and mammals)
insects, such as butterflies and bees, that
cold-blooded an animal whose
carry pollen from one flower to another.)
temperature changes with the
How do flowers attract insects? (Insects
temperature of its environment
are attracted to the nectar, colorful petals,
(examples: most reptiles, fish,
scent, and shapes of the flowers.)
amphibians, all invertebrates)
endoskeleton a hard skeleton inside an
Page 6 Plants from Spores and Other Ways
animal’s body (examples: all vertebrates)
Plants Reproduce
exoskeleton a hard skeleton that
• Have students read the text about plants surrounds an animal’s body and supports
from spores on page 6 and look at the it from the outside (examples: lobster,
accompanying photograph and caption. clam, scorpion, spider, beetle)
Ask, What are two differences between a
spore and a seed? (A seed is made by a • Before students read page 7, write the
flower and is inside a fruit. Spores are not word animal on the board. Ask, What are
made by flowers and are not inside fruits.) some kinds of animals? List examples
Encourage students to speculate about students suggest. If no one mentions
why so few spores out of millions live to animals in a given category, such as
make new plants. (Most spores do not insects, raise the subject: Is a
land in a spot with the right conditions.) grasshopper an animal? Is a clam?
Explain: Animals are living things that
• Have students read the text about other generally eat food and can move at
ways plants reproduce and look at the least part of their body. Insects and
photograph and caption. Ask, What is the many other creatures that you may not
main idea of this section? (Some plants think of as animals are members of the
reproduce from other plant parts.) What animal kingdom.
details tell more about this main idea?
(The bulbs of tulips and garlic divide to • Have students read the introduction
produce new plants. Potatoes are actually and the first paragraph on page 7. Tell
modified stems called tubers. The eyes students to think about animals they
are buds. New potato plants can grow are familiar with. Then ask, What makes
from these buds. New strawberry plants birds different from all other animals?
grow from nodes on runners. Gardeners (They have feathers.) Can all birds fly?
grow new plants from cuttings.) (no) Encourage students to name birds
that are unable to fly. (Students may
Page 7 Animal Life Cycles: Birds mention penguins and ostriches. Other
flightless birds are the emu and kiwi.)
• As appropriate for your class, discuss
the following at relevant points during • Have students read the second paragraph
the reading of Animal Life Cycles on and look at the photograph and caption.
pages 7–12: Ask, What surprised you the most about
hummingbirds? (Responses will vary.)
delta science modules Plant and Animal Life Cycles 127
© Delta Education LLC. All rights reserved.

6. • You may wish to share the following • Explain that antennae is the plural of
information about hummingbirds with antenna. Write both words. Tell
students: Hummingbirds are the only students that many science words come
birds that can fly backward, hover in from ancient Latin and Greek, and their
one place, and fly straight up or down. plural forms are different from the
They have a tubelike beak with a long plurals of English words. Antenna
tongue that lets them take nectar from comes from a Latin word.
flowers. Hummingbirds eat while
hovering. • Have students read the paragraphs
about insect life cycles and look at the
diagram and labels. Elicit that two kinds
Page 8 Mammals
of insect life cycles are described:
• Have students read the first paragraph (1) egg, nymph, adult; examples are
on page 8 to find out about mammals. grasshoppers, dragonflies, cockroaches;
Have students discuss what makes a and (2) egg, larva, pupa, adult; examples
mammal different from other animals. are butterflies, bees, flies, and beetles.
(It has fur or hair. It feeds on milk from
Point out and discuss each stage in
the mother.)
the life cycle of a butterfly. Assess
• Then have students look at the students’ understanding by having
photograph, read the caption, and read them describe the sequence of events
the rest of the page to learn about in the metamorphosis of a butterfly.
bears. Ask, What did you learn about (A larva hatches from an egg. Later, the
the life spans of mammals? (They’re larva forms a cocoon around itself and
different. Some animals live just a few becomes a pupa. The pupa changes
years, and others live for many years.) inside the cocoon and hatches into an
adult butterfly.) Explain that larvae is
A marsupial is a mammal that develops the plural of larva, another word from
inside a pouch. The young are not fully Latin. The plural of pupa is pupae.
developed when they are born. They
crawl into a pouch on the mother’s Further Facts
abdomen, where they feed on the
mother’s milk and continue to develop. • The adult life span of some species of
Kangaroos, opossums, and koalas are mayfly may be as short as 90 minutes.
marsupials. Adult life spans of other species range
from several hours to 14 days.
A monotreme is a mammal that lays
eggs! After they hatch, the young feed • Most butterflies live only a few days to
on the mother’s milk. There are only weeks after emerging from the pupa but
three species of monotremes: the duck- some species of butterfly that migrate
billed platypus and two species of spiny or hibernate can live up to 8 or 9
anteater. months or longer.
• A queen honeybee will live for about two
Page 9 Insects
years but worker and drone honeybees
• Have students read the first paragraph live from 20 days to 4 months.
on page 9 about insects. Explain that an
• A queen leaf-cutting ant can live
insect’s head contains its mouthparts,
10 years or more. Queen termites may
eyes, and other sense organs; its thorax
live up to 30 years.
is where its legs and wings (if it has
wings) are; and the abdomen contains
the organs that digest food.
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7. • After 17 years of dormancy underground, • Have students read the other paragraphs,
one species of cicada emerges for five look at the photograph, and read the
weeks and then dies. caption. Ask them to summarize the
sequence of events in the life cycle of an
Page 10 Amphibians Atlantic salmon. (A young salmon hatches
from an egg. After two years, it swims
• Have students read the first paragraph on downriver to the ocean. It lives in the
page 10 about amphibians. Tell students ocean until it is an adult. Then it migrates
that even as adults, amphibians other back up the same river. The female salmon
than toads usually live in damp places or lays her eggs. After that, most adult
near water. Toads, however, live mainly on salmon die.) Tell students that only some
land, returning to water only to breed and fish migrate as salmon do.
lay eggs.
Page 12 Reptiles
• Have students read the next two paragraphs
and study the diagram. Ask, What other • Have students read the text about reptiles
animals undergo metamorphosis? (insects) on page 12. Then have them look at the
Assess understanding by having students photographs and captions. Ask, What are
summarize the differences between some kinds of reptiles? (crocodiles,
tadpoles and adult frogs. (Tadpoles live in alligators, turtles, lizards, snakes) What
water, breathe with gills, have no legs, and are the main ideas you learned about
have a long tail. Frogs live on land, breathe reptiles? (They have dry skin, scales, and
with lungs, have legs, and have no tail.) breathe with lungs. Most lay eggs, and
some give birth to live young. Most young
Further Facts reptiles can live on their own right away.)
• Amphibians evolved from fishes that had Primitive reptiles evolved from amphibians
stubby leg-like fins. They emerged from about 320 million years ago.
the oceans and moved onto dry land
about 360 million years ago. Page 13 Fungus Life Cycles
• Salamanders and newts keep their tails as • Before students read page 13, challenge
adults. Salamanders breathe using lungs them to name something that looks like a
or gills or by absorbing oxygen through plant but is not a plant. Give a hint: You
their moist skin. can see these in the produce section of
the market. Many have short, thick
• Amphibians have soft, leathery eggs that stems and a broad cap. They are good
must be kept moist. They lay their eggs to eat. (mushrooms)
in water.
• Then have students read the first
• Some tree frogs lay their eggs on paragraph to learn about fungi. Ask, What
vegetation near ponds. When the eggs is a fungus? (It is a living thing that is not
hatch, the tadpoles drop into the water. a plant or an animal.) What are two
examples of fungi? (mushrooms, bread
Page 11 Fish mold) Explain that fungus comes from
ancient Latin, and its plural is fungi.
• Have students read the first paragraph on
page 11. Ask them to summarize the main
ideas. (Fish come in many kinds, sizes, and
shapes. Most fish lay eggs, and others give
birth to live young. Fish breathe with gills.
Most fish have scales.)
delta science modules Plant and Animal Life Cycles 129
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8. • Remind students that plants make their • Encourage students to discuss what
own food. Explain that what makes personal qualities made Jane Goodall a
fungi different is that they absorb food good scientist. (She was patient, hard-
substances from dead or living matter. working, spent many hours observing
Ask, What important role does this chimpanzees, and took careful notes.)
way of getting energy serve? (Fungi What hardships do you think she had
break down and recycle dead plants to face? (Students may mention
and animals.) loneliness, boredom, and the physical
problems of jungle life.)
• Have students read the second
paragraph and look at the photograph • Inform students that in all, Goodall
and caption to find out about the life spent fifteen years studying the
cycle of fungi. Then ask them to chimpanzees of Gombe. Ask, What do
summarize the stages of the life cycle. you think made her continue this
(A spore grows threadlike structures study for so long? (Accept reasonable
called hyphae. The hyphae produce responses, such as her love for the
more spores.) Ask, What other living chimpanzees and her desire to learn
things reproduce using spores? about them.)
(mosses and ferns) Why do you think
mosses and ferns are classified as Further Facts
plants, not fungi? (They make their own
food as other plants do.) • Jane Goodall was born in London,
England, in 1934. Her work at Gombe
• Have students read the third paragraph began in July 1960.
about yeast. Ask, How is the way yeast
cells reproduce different from the way • In 1965 Goodall received a Ph.D. in
mushrooms and molds reproduce? ethology (the study of animal behavior
(Yeasts don’t produce spores. The cells under natural conditions) from
divide in two in a warm environment Cambridge University in England.
with nutrients and water.) Ask, What is
one useful thing yeasts do? (They • Goodall’s famous account of her life
make bread dough rise.) among the chimpanzees, In the
Shadow of Man, was published in 1971.
People in Science (page 14)
• Goodall wrote that after watching
Jane Goodall, Wildlife Biologist chimpanzee mothers with their infants,
she used some of the same techniques
• Before they read, ask students how in raising her own child Hugo (who was
they think scientists learn about animal called Grub).
life cycles, behavior, and life spans.
(by observing the animals) Then have
them read page 14 to find out about a
famous woman scientist who studied
chimpanzees.
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9. Did You Know? (page 15)
About Emperor Penguins
AFTER READING
Summarize
• Before they read, ask students whether
they have ever seen penguins at a zoo or Complete the KWL chart you began with
an aquarium. Invite them to share what students before reading by asking them to
they know about these unusual birds. If share the answers to their questions. Call on
necessary, tell students that penguins volunteers to retell each text section. Then
cannot fly. They use their short, stubby have students use the information in the KWL
wings as flippers to swim underwater. chart to write brief summary statements.
• Then have students read page 15 to find Discuss with students how using the KWL
out about emperor penguins, look at the strategy helped them understand and
photograph, and read the caption. Ask, appreciate the book. Encourage them to
What is the most interesting or share any other reading strategies that
surprising fact you learned about helped them understand what they read.
emperor penguins? (Responses will vary.)
Direct attention to the fourth column in the
• Have students study the table of Newborn chart and ask: What questions do you still
Animal Sizes. Engage students in a have about plant and animal life cycles?
discussion and comparison of the facts What would you like to explore further?
presented. Ask, Which of these animals Record students’ responses. Then ask: Where
has the largest newborn? (the gray do you think you might be able to find this
whale) Which has the tiniest? (the information? (Students might mention an
opossum) Which newborn animal do you encyclopedia, science books, and the
think has the biggest parent? (the gray Internet.) Encourage students to conduct
whale) What size do you think an adult further research.
giant panda is? After students speculate,
tell them that an adult giant panda is Review/Assess
1.5 m (5 feet) tall and weighs 100 kg
(220 pounds)! Use the questions that follow as the basis for
a discussion of the book or for a written or
• Explain that opossum young are so tiny oral assessment.
because when they are born they are not
fully developed. They continue growing in 1. What is a life cycle, and what do the life
a pouch on the mother until they are old cycles of plants, animals, and fungi have in
enough to leave the pouch. They are common? (A life cycle is the changes that
marsupials. take place during a living thing’s life from
when it begins to when it ends. All these
living things grow, change, and reproduce.)
2. What parts of a plant are involved in
making seeds, and how do they do this?
(The pistil, stamens, pollen, and ovary
make seeds. The stamen makes pollen.
When pollen is ripe the stamen releases
the pollen. The ovary is where new fruits
and seeds form.)
delta science modules Plant and Animal Life Cycles 131
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10. 3. What are the six main categories of
animals discussed, and what do they
have in common? (The six categories of
animals are birds, mammals, insects,
amphibians, fish, and reptiles. Almost all
animals come from eggs. Most need air
to breathe, water, and food to eat. They
all reproduce.)
Writing Link/Critical Thinking
Present the following as a writing
assignment.
Jane Goodall spent fifteen years studying
chimpanzees. She made many important
discoveries. How can a study of any living
thing be useful and important? Explain
what we can learn from studying living
things. (Accept reasonable responses.)
If you could spend time studying a living
thing, what would you choose? Why?
Science Journals: You may wish to have
students keep the writing activities related
to the Reader in their science journals.
References and Resources
For trade book suggestions and Internet
sites, see the References and Resources
section of this teacher’s guide.
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