LibGuides: Educator Guide: Sweet Peas: Home

Sweet Peas

Tips to Come Prepared

Before you visit the Genovesi Environmental Study Center (GESC) with your class, review the Educator's Guide to prepare for your students.

Read the Essential Questions (p. 1) and Connections to Standards (p. 2) to decide how you want to link your curriculum with your field trip
Complete the Pre-Visit Lesson (p. 3) with your class activating student interest and engagement
Come to GESC ready to engage and learn with our experiential, hands-on field trip program, Sweet Peas

Library Finds

A Fruit Is a Suitcase for Seeds by Jean Richards; Anca Hariton (Illustrator) "Many seeds travel inside fruits. The fruit is like a suitcase for the seeds. It protects them on their trip." Readers will learn how fruits are designed to protect a plant's seeds and also to help the plant spread its seeds to new places.
What Do Plants Need? by Josephine Selwyn This Level A Reader offers consistent model sentences - one per page...and building the routine of tied photos and text. Activities and Critical Thinking skills included.
Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn O. Galbraith; Wendy Anderson Halperni (Illustrator) Eloquent text and stunning illustrations combine to explore the many ways seeds are distributed. A farmer and her son carefully plant seeds in their garden. In the wild garden, many seeds are planted too, but not by farmers' hands. Different kinds of animals transport all sorts of seeds, often without knowing it. Sometimes rain washes seeds away to a new and unexpected location. And sometimes something extraordinary occurs, as when the pods of Scotch broom burst open explosively in the summer heat, scattering seeds everywhere like popcorn. Kathryn Galbraith's lyrical prose seamlessly combines with Wendy Halperin's elegant, crisp illustrations to show that many elements-some unexpected-work together through the seasons to create and sustain the wild meadow garden.
My Sunflower by Mar Ferrero (Illustrator); Martin Taylor (Design) Learn how a seed turns into a sunflower through amazing 3-D pop-ups! My Sunflower explores the metamorphosis of the sunflower--from a tiny seed to a gigantic, beautiful flower--through colorful, pop-up illustrations and spreads. Children learn about the stages of a sunflower's life and the biology of plant growth, from planting the seed and watering the sprout to watching the bud bloom into beautiful petals. Each spread opens and lifts into a striking, colorful paper-engineered 3-D pop-up that showcases each specific stage of the sunflower's growing cycle. My Sunflower introduces young children to the basics of garderning and farming, instilling a love and awe of nature that will fuel their curiosity for many years to come.
The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller "[An] extravagantly beautiful creation. It is unusual in its ingenious way of teaching botany and interesting words to the littlest of readers." --Publishers Weekly "Ms. Heller's colors and drawings are as electrifying as ever." --Los Angeles Times The reason for a flower is to manufacture seeds, but Ruth Heller shares a lot more about parts of plants and their functions in her trademark rhythmic style.

Essential Questions

What are the parts of the plant? What function does each part of the plant have?
How do plants grow and change over time?
In what ways do all living things depend on plants?
Why do scientists study plants?

Our Educator Guide

Explore the Sweet Peas Educator Guide Click the "Sweet Peas Educator's Guide" to access information regarding your trip to GESC, pre- and post- lessons, as well as tips on how to make your field trip successful.

Sora eBooks

Access these free ebooks by signing in to the Sora app with your NYC DOE credentials.

All about Flowers by Claire Throp Books in this series introduce children to different parts of plants. Simple, accessible text breaks down crucial concepts and key vocabulary, and stunning photographs of a wide variety of plants show how diverse plants can be. In All About Flowers, children learn about flowers, including where they can be found, what they look like and the vital job they do for plants.
All about Stems by Claire Throp Books in this series introduce children to different parts of plants. Simple, accessible text breaks down crucial concepts and key vocabulary, and stunning photographs of a wide variety of plants show how diverse plants can be. In All About Stems, children learn about stems, including where they can be found, what they look like and the vital jobs they do for plants.
All about Roots by Claire Throp Books in this series introduce children to different parts of plants. Simple, accessible text breaks down crucial concepts and key vocabulary, and stunning photographs of a wide variety of plants show how diverse plants can be. In All About Roots, children learn about roots, including where they can be found, what they look like and the vital jobs they do for plants.
All about Seeds by Claire Throp Books in this series introduce children to different parts of plants. Simple, accessible text breaks down crucial concepts and key vocabulary, and stunning photographs of a wide variety of plants show how diverse plants can be. In All About Seeds, children learn about seeds, including where they can be found, what they look like and the vital job they do for plants.
All about Leaves by Claire Throp Books in this series introduce children to different parts of plants. Simple, accessible text breaks down crucial concepts and key vocabulary, and stunning photographs of a wide variety of plants show how diverse plants can be. In Leaves, children learn about leaves, including where they can be found, what they look like and the vital job they do for plants.
A Seed Is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston; Sylvia Long (Illustrator) Award-winning artist Sylvia Long and author Dianna Hutts Aston have teamed up again to create this gorgeous and informative introduction to seeds. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, the book introduces children to a fascinating array of seed and plant facts, making it a guide that is equally at home being read on a parent's lap as in a classroom reading circle.
Grow It! by Mary Boone Introduces early readers to environmentalist concepts including urban gardening; locally sourced foo options, and the safety of pesticides, and what they can do to help the environment. Features real-life examples like the Houston East End Greenbelt, which have made a difference.
Seeds Move! by Robin Page (Illustrator) Discover the fascinating and surprising ways that seeds move and find a place to grow in this gorgeous picture book from Caldecott Honoree Robin Page. Every seed, big or small, needs sunlight, water, and an uncrowded place to put down roots. But how do seeds get to the perfect place to grow? This exploration of seed dispersal covers a wide range of seeds and the creatures that help them move, from a coconut seed floating on waves to an African grass seed rolled by a dung beetle, to a milkweed seed floating on the wind.
Old Manhattan Has Some Farms by Susan Lendroth; Kate Endle (Illustrator) In this new take on "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," the farmers are city dwellers and the farms consist of rooftops, empty lots, hydroponic labs, patios, and other urban nooks and crannies. No matter where you live, you can grow food! The book includes a link to a free downloadable song.

Sweet Peas

Materials for Pre-Visit Lesson

Materials for Post-Visit Lesson

Powerful Plant Facts

The wood in an average sized tree can make about 170,000 pencils.
Bamboo grows really fast. Some kinds of bamboo can grow almost 3 feet in one day. If you are in kindergarten, that means it can grow almost as tall as you in just one day!
The oldest tree in the world is 5,062 years old. It is called the Great Basin bristlecone pne in the White Mountains of California.
Do you like eating chocolate? Thank a plant! Chocolate is made with cocoa beans.
Plants use sunlight to make their own food.

Educator Guide: Sweet Peas: Home

Sweet Peas

Tips to Come Prepared

Library Finds

Essential Questions

Our Educator Guide

Sora eBooks

Sweet Peas

Materials for Pre-Visit Lesson

Materials for Post-Visit Lesson

Powerful Plant Facts

Connections to Standards