The second grade performance expectation 2-LS2-1 asks students to: “Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.” In our second grade informational text for this performance expectation, Seeds Everywhere! by Sarah Wassner Flynn, students learn different ways animals spread seeds. You can access the text here.
After students have read the text, you might interest students in playing this interactive game online where students are challenged to collect seeds that are dispersed in different ways:
This is a great engineering lesson plan that aligns well with the performance expectation. Students are asked to design a seed that could travel a long distance. The plan includes videos that show students different ways seeds are dispersed and discuss how the design of the seed is important to the process.
> Project Learning Tree: STEM: Have Seeds, Will Travel
Seeds Everywhere! is found in, StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way, a collection of informational texts written specifically to address every K-5 NGSS Performance Expectation. All texts in the collection begin with a phenomenon photo and are written at six different Lexile levels, so all students can read the same content at their reading level. You can find out more about StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way here.
