Student-facing resources for this unit could include:
What’s Inside a Flower? (Mentor Text) by Rachel Ignotofsky was a core text that I used for
content learning and its presentation to students in this unit. This is a beautifully illustrated text that
includes many diagrams, examples, and color pictures to engage young learners about flowers. It also follows a
logical scope and sequence for learning about flowers, such as teaching about the parts of a flower, then
pollination, and then the different types of flowers. This is similar to how I envisioned this unit and it works
well for planning purposes to utilize this text in sequence. It is factual and provides many references and
resources to learn more as well!
Xander’s Panda Party (Mentor Text) by Linda Sue Park is a great model for how to plan a party,
and how to consider what guests to invite. In this story, Xander is the only panda at the zoo, and he slowly has
to expand his invitation list to include more and more species. While this text does not focus on pollinators,
it would be helpful to use for student to visuals what kinds of different guests they may need to consider. It
also teaches about some of the social-emotional skills required for a party, such as including others.
The Epic collection on pollinators (Text Set) is a digital resource that includes fiction and nonfiction texts
across various reading levels about pollinators. One of my favorite parts about Epic is that there are read
aloud options, which is critical in kindergarten, and students can engage in a text of their choice rather than
one that is just assigned to them. This allows students to interact with a range of pollinators and plants
depending on their interests, rather than this just being teacher-directed.
I have planned to create gardening toolkits for each of my students that includes shovels, gloves, hand lenses,
journals, and pencils so that they can easily engage in observation and hands-on learning in the garden. Many of
these items can be found at dollar stores so they do not require you to break the bank as a teacher!
This year I am trying out a permission slip that gets signed by guardians at the beginning of the school year
that allows me to take my students to our neighboring park throughout the year. This way we can take advantage
of weather and learning opportunities to engage with our local nature year-round. If this is something you may
be interested in doing with your class, I encourage you to reach out to your administration to see if this is
possible to do at your school.
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