March 2024

Super Seed Spreader?

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Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Students will recognize that animals disperse seeds, and that scientists conduct investigations to learn which animals are doing it.

 

Reading Level:

Lexile: 520L; GRL: M

 

Next Generation Science Standards:

2-LS2-2: Animals disperse seeds

2-LS4-1: The diversity of life in habitats

Practice 3: Planning and conducting investigations

 

Vocabulary:

disperse, germinate, shoot

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

 

1. When an animal disperses seeds, that means it ____ seeds.
(spread)

2. Which animal did not even try to eat the apples?
(monkey)

3. Were the elephants good seed spreaders? Why or why not?
(Answers will vary.)

4. How did scientists know that elephants helped the seeds grow better?
(Answers will vary.)

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

 

  • Scientists call elephants the gardeners of the forest. Elephants “plant” many trees when they poop out seeds.
  • Other animals spread seeds too. But some seeds are so big that only elephants can handle them.
  • Elephants also fertilize the soil with their poop. This helps plants grow better. Thanks, elephant gardeners!

Materials: manipulatives in three colors to act as seeds to be dropped and sorted, pencils, copies of the skill sheet

Overview:  A kid acts as an elephant, dropping manipulatives in three colors that represent seeds. Other kids (investigators) sort the seeds and analyze the data.

Directions:

  1. Remind kids that scientists in the article observed how far elephants traveled before they “dropped” seeds.
  2. Work as a class or in groups. One child is an elephant who takes a handful of “seeds” in three different colors.
  3. The other kids are seed investigators.
  4. With the investigators watching, tell your elephant to walk 3 steps and drop SOME (not all) of the seeds. 
  5. Investigators: Collect the dropped seeds. Put aside.
  6. Elephant: Walk 2 more steps. Drop more (not all) seeds. Investigators: Pick up the seeds. Put them aside, in a separate pile.
  7. Elephant: Walk 4 more steps. Drop the rest of the seeds. Investigators: Pick up the seeds. Put them aside, in a separate pile.
  8. Everyone: Using the skill sheets, sort and categorize the dropped seeds. If there’s time, try it again!