This document outlines a 5-week school project to teach students about the importance of plants, the environment, and the government. The project will involve students writing letters to congress, cleaning up the school grounds, planting flowers with donated funds, and examining plant structures. The goal is for students to learn key science, writing, and civic standards while collaborating on a beautification project and making a positive impact on their school and community.

1. How are flowers important?

2. Some of the questions that the students will have to answer… Essential questions: How can you get involved with your community, government, and/or country? How do plants work and why are they important? Unit questions: How can you get involved? How do plants work? Are plants an important part of life and why? Content questions: What do the petals on flowers do? Where do plants get their food? How can you ask congress for help? Who is the government run by?

3. Summary of Unit In this unit we will be learning the importance of the government, plants, and the environment. We will be learning these things through many different activities that will lead up to the end of the project. The entire class will participate in this activity and the activity will last a total of 5 weeks to complete. Below are some of the activities that will be part of the project. First each student will write a letter explaining why they think we need to improve our school’s beauty outside. The letters will be then sent to congress along with a letter from me telling the importance of this project and how we need help to fund it. The next activity we will do is cleaning up the trash around our school, which will help teach students about the importance of keeping the environment clean. We will then use the money that we collect to plant flowers around the school and this will show students what all plants need to survive. Finally, we will examine the plants and the different parts of the plants. The students will keep a detailed journal that will be turned in at the end of the project.

4. Role of the Teacher My role in this project is to make sure that we get a grant or funds of some kind to pay for the plants that we will plant. I will also be evaluating each student during the project to make sure that each student is contributing to the project and that all students complete work on time.

5. Role of Parent Parents will need to sign off on the permission slips stating that their child can participate in the project. Parents should also ask the student about the project through out the week to see their progress and to keep track of what they are learning.

6. Role of Student The students are to: Keep a detailed journal of each day that the class works on the project Complete all activities Ask questions to teacher and other students Work in groups Write a letter to congress Write a paper answering all of the questions at the beginning of the newsletter

7. Benefits of this unit This unit will teach students the importance that the government plays in people’s lives Will show students that they can make a difference in their school and environment Will teach students to take care of their environment Will let all of the school have a hands on way to show the different parts of a plant.

8. Standards that will be met Science (2005) Grade(s): 2 Web Links: 0 Lesson Plans: 9 5.) Identify the relationship of structure to function in plants, including roots, stems, leaves, and flowers. English Language Arts (2007) Grade(s): 2 Web Links: 2 Lesson Plans: 95 8.) Organize sentences into a paragraph to address a topic or tell a story. • Sorting information using graphic organizers • Generating a topic sentence and a concluding sentence in a paragraph • Drafting a written piece, including an introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph • Editing for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence variety • Publishing final draft • Using descriptive, narrative, and expository modes of writing Social Studies (2004) Grade(s): 2 Exploring Our Nation and World: People and Places Web Links: 0 Lesson Plans: 9 9.) Describe rights and responsibilities of citizens of the United States.

9. What is project based learning? Project-based learning is a way for students to get more involved in their work. It lets students work on one specific goal but they will be learning many objectives during the process. It will be a fun way for the students to learn and they will have accomplished a goal as a whole class. This project will be a good way for students to learn to work together to accomplish the goal.

10. Contacts You can contact me through email. [email_address] edu You can contact me through phone. (205)555-5555 Or you can contact me at the school.