Hello Teachers,

Each title below reaches suggestions for lessons or discussion. These and other downloads are explained below (with links in the text) AND offered on a Download page you reach by clicking on the button. Will you let us know what you want on this page to help you deliver and assess good lessons?

Teachers, how else can we help you?

Science: We've taken our wildly popular sunflower sprout germination lesson, featuring the amazing and fun Lid Poppin' Kit, and made it easy to teach other parts of your curriculum in the same unit. Lid Poppin' Kits are all you need to sprout, grow, measure and eat (or transplant) a crop of delicious and nutritious organic sunflower sprouts. A growth chart and a map to go with Jack's life story come with the kit. Watch the miracle of germination through the clear plastic trays as student anticipation builds for the tray to audibly 'pop' open!

After the sprouts have raised their heads, chart each student's sprout growth on Jack's growth charts, which are included in the kit. Start the project on a Monday, Thursday, or Friday so the students will be in class when the trays start to 'pop' like crazy. If the sprout crops ever droop - due to lack of watering - just water them well and they'll stand back up in a hurry.

Math: Each student gets a growth chart to track sprout growth and see the layout of the Beaver Creek Meadow, Jack's home. Many standards can be addressed by use of the growth chart: measurement, fractions of inches, and strategies for estimating the number of seeds supplied in the kit. Use rulers to measure sprouts. In most states, third grade benchmarks require introduction of rates, so charting each student's rate of growth integrates well with Math standards.

Add a distance scale of your choosing to the map and make up word problems that challenge second and third grade students to calculate distances in the Beaver Creek Meadow.

Language Arts: Award winner Betsy Curtis (http://www.betsyko.com) reads the story “Meet Jack Sprout”. This is good small-group listening and comprehension practice for ESL/ELL students. It's captivating for an entire class!

Jack's story is compelling because he doesn't grow like the other sprouts. He discovers that he has separated from his roots and, although he continues to get bigger, he isn't developing into a sunflower plant like his friends in the field. He feels that he has to hide from the farmer, but the prairie dog who tills these fields tells him he is growing this different way because he is going to be the next new farmer for the meadow. Will he be able to accept the challenge? He decides to become a farmer, but will he get out of the field in time -- before the harvest? Download - at the Stories page - the text of this first installment of 6 chapters of Jack's life so far. The germination unit can use just the first chapter or skip the Language Arts component, but most teachers see better retention of the growth pattern of sprouts with a story connection.

Map Reading: Understanding maps and connecting the Beaver Creek map to Jack's story is an important skill for comprehension and for map reading in its own right. The map on this link can print larger than the one that comes with the kit.

In discussion with your class, come up with categories for the places and story connections on the Beaver Creek map. Color map elements by category and make a legend to describe the categorization. Put a distance scale of your choosing on the maps and give older students the challenge of calculating the distances shown by the scale. Connect the map to the story elements with a poster that features the map or has students' own drawings of the map.

Music: You can order a CD to play on your sound system in the classroom or download a file of Betsy Curtis singing “Our Jack Sprout”. That mp3 file can be played either on a computer or burned to a CD for use in a traditional player. Lyrics are on the Song page and offered on a student worksheet which can be found here.

Art: There's also an art sheet of garden roots to color. The story can be illustrated by individual students. Teams might make bound copies with illustrations as a jigsaw lesson.

Nutrition: Harvest, package, label and sell. Each Lid Poppin' Kit produces $5 worth of organic sunflower sprouts to sell at the bake sale or fundraiser. Start your crop 10-12 days before the event. Have the students harvest, wash, and place the sprouts in a zip lock bag. Refrigerate. Students have fun making their personalized labels. Price the bagged sprouts at $5 and sell. That's around $100 for a standard size classroom, and you have nearly free kits after you used them to teach important curriculum lessons.

Social Studies: Economics, Agriculture, how societies work together... all of these are well covered in the Jack Sprout unit. Some schools teach Nutrition as part of Social Studies, so the page devoted to Nutrition is also attached. Support documents with questions for students to stimulate thinking in these areas can be found here.

Keep Growing,