OBJECTIVE

Students will vote on what plant variety they prefer to grow for the plant sale

Students will appreciate that there are different varieties of plants

Students will be able to state two facts about a given plant variety

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How do gardens grow community?

How do I grow food?

MATERIALS

• Introduction to Plant Sale Slideshow
• Laminated Crop Option Card
• Voting Cards
• Pencils

PROCEDURE

This is the first lesson of the plant sale unit.

Introduction:

Share that we will be working on a months-long project – a school garden plant sale! Ask students if they have heard about the plant sale at school. What have you heard from siblings, friends, the community?

Show students the Introduction to Plant Sale Slideshow. Each slide covers the steps taken to prepare for the plant sale: choosing seeds, seeding, caretaking, making posters, advertising, practicing with money, etc. 

Share with students that even though it is winter and the sale is months away, we need to start preparing by choosing which plant varieties we want to sell. Once we pick the varieties, we can order the seeds. Today, we will choose the varieties, or types, of certain crops to sell. 

Have the class select the varieties for one plant type slicing tomato, cherry tomato, hot pepper, sweet pepper or flower during this class. Go to the slide that pictures 5 varieties of cherry tomato (or whichever plant varieties you are choosing). Ask students how many cherry tomatoes are on the board, but how many do we have to choose to sell? 5 tomatoes, but choose 3.

Activity

Instruct students that in groups, they will be assigned a cherry tomato. Read the information on the back of the card, and come up with two important facts you want to share about the cherry tomato. Then, we will present the variety, and you need to try to convince the rest of the class to vote for it. You need to “sell” this tomato!

Break students into groups and give them a cherry tomato Crop Option Card. circulate the room asking students questions about their tomato, assisting with reading, and choosing a classmate to be the primary speaker.

Call students back to their desks to listen to each of the groups present their variety. Teacher can supplement with questions on Slide 6.

Pass out voting sheets to students and have them write down their top 3 tomatoes that they want to sell at the sale.

Wrap Up/Assessment: 

If time, you can do a live tally and discover what you will be selling. Kids love this!

FOLLOW UP/EXTENSIONS

• Vote on the other plants varieties to grow!

• Plant Sale: Reading A Seed Packet

MA CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Comprehensive Health

• 2.7.CE.2 Identify ways that the communities people live in can impact their health and well-being.
• 2.7.CE.5 Encourage peers and family to help in the community 
• 5.1.NE.8 Recognize that individuals have different food related needs, preferences, and traditions.
• 5.7.CE.4 Describe ways that the community can impact the health of people within that community.

Science and Technology/Engineering

• 2.LS.4.1 Use texts, media, or local environments to observe and compare (a) different kinds of living things in an area, and (b) differences in the kinds of living things living in different types of areas.
• 3.LS.4.3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular environment some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive. 
• 4.LS.1.1 Construct an argument that animals and plants have internal and external structures that support their survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.