A story about Leo and a sunflower he plants in his backyard runs across the first two of five pages in this 2nd grade reading sheet. The seed drinks water, grows a root and a sprout, flowers, is visited by bees and ends up dropped by birds in the field next door. Nine questions follow, from numbering four stages to explaining why new sunflowers may grow next door. It fits NGSS 2-LS2-2, and page 5 has the answer key.
2-LS2-2
“Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.”
Question 3 asks how the bees helped the flower make seeds, and question 8 asks why sunflowers may grow in a field where birds dropped seeds.
“Put the stages of a sunflower's life in order.”
Question 1 asks students to number the root, sprout, flower and bird stages from 1 to 4.
Five paragraphs about Leo's sunflower, from the seed soaking up water to bees in summer and birds in fall.
Students number four stages in order, answer two multiple choice questions on what the seed needed and how bees helped, then copy a phrase from the first paragraph.
A multiple choice question on the word anchored, a written answer on why the stem grew wide leaves, a true or false item about the sunflower staying shorter than Leo, and a written answer on why sunflowers may grow next door.
Students choose bees or birds as the bigger helper and support the choice with details from the story.
The stage order 2, 4, 1, 3, the multiple choice answers and sample responses for the written questions.
Read it twice
Read the story aloud on the first pass and let students reread it alone on the second. Page 1 ends mid-story, so tell them to turn over before they answer anything.
Teach the comparison
Question 4 is a good time to talk about similes. Students look in the first paragraph for the comparison to an object in their house.
Bees or birds
Question 9 has no wrong choice if the evidence fits. Let students who picked differently argue it out in small groups.
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