Plant Growth Activities for 5th Grade Science

Help students uncover the science behind plant growth with this engaging 5E lesson! Designed for student-led learning, it explores key questions like how photosynthesis supports plant growth and where a plant’s mass comes from. The unit follows the 5E Model, beginning with engaging discussions and vocabulary support in English and Spanish. Students then dive into a multimodal station lab with hands-on experiments, reading passages, research activities, videos, and interactive exercises. They demonstrate learning through categorization, writing, illustrating, and assessments, with an optional challenge station for deeper exploration. Editable presentations, interactive notebooks, and note-taking templates reinforce understanding, while student-choice projects enhance learning in the Elaboration phase. Assessment questions aligned with STAAR 2.0, along with review worksheets, support evaluation. Available in both print and digital formats, this lesson ensures accessibility for diverse learners, making it perfect for any classroom setting. The resources below will give students a comprehensive understanding of plant growth. All of the following materials are also included in the Kesler Science Membership.

The Kesler Science Plant Growth 5E Lesson is a comprehensive Earth science unit designed for engaging, student-led learning. It includes editable presentations, worksheets, choice projects, and assessments, requiring little to no prep. The lesson explores essential questions such as how photosynthesis supports plant growth and where a plant’s mass comes from.

Following the 5E Model, the unit begins with engaging discussions and activities, supported by vocabulary resources in English and Spanish. In the Exploration phase, students engage with a differentiated, multimodal station lab featuring hands-on experiments, reading passages, research activities, videos, and interactive exercises. Output stations encourage students to demonstrate learning through categorization, writing, illustrating, and assessment. An additional challenge station offers extension activities.

For Explanation, editable PowerPoints, interactive notebooks, and note-taking templates help solidify understanding. The Elaboration phase includes student-choice projects, while Evaluation provides assessment questions aligned with STAAR 2.0, along with review worksheets for discussion or homework.

This flexible resource is available in printable and digital formats, making it ideal for both in-person and virtual learning. Spanish translations are included for key materials, ensuring accessibility for diverse learners.

Engage your 5th-grade class with this student-led station lab on plant growth, designed to foster independent learning while minimizing prep time. Students will explore and compare the factors influencing plant growth through nine interactive stations featuring hands-on tasks, research, readings, and digital activities.

The modular stations provide multimodal input and output experiences. Students conduct hands-on investigations, analyze research from websites, read differentiated passages available in English and Spanish, and watch videos to deepen their understanding. They demonstrate their learning by organizing information, illustrating models, responding to prompts, and completing assessments. A challenge station offers extension activities such as crosswords, games, and mini-projects for early finishers.

This flexible resource supports both in-class and virtual learning, allowing students to engage with content independently or in small groups while the teacher facilitates their exploration.

The Plant Growth Student Choice Projects lesson aligns with NGSS science standards, allowing middle school students to select a project that matches their preferred output style. A project page outlines six student-led options plus a “design your own” project, all supported by an editable rubric for teacher, peer, or self-assessment.

These flexible and multimodal projects provide students with creative ways to demonstrate their understanding. Two versions of the project page support differentiation, with modified options for students needing remediation and challenge options for advanced learners. Teachers can customize the rubric to fit their grading needs.

The projects use standard classroom supplies like paper, markers, and scissors, with many options available for digital completion. Some crafting supplies may be useful for building models.

The 5th Grade Life Science Interactive Notebook is a comprehensive resource designed to engage students in key life science concepts through hands-on activities. Available in both print and digital formats, this interactive tool is perfect for traditional classrooms, 1:1 learning environments, and distance learning. The digital version includes a unique PowerPoint that can be uploaded to Google Slides and integrated with platforms like MS Teams, Schoology, and Canvas. It features reflection pages, space for student notes, a teacher answer key, and a modified version for students with accommodations.

The paper version includes blank and pre-filled interactive notebook templates, along with color photos demonstrating their use. Covering essential life science topics such as plant growth, cycling of matter in an ecosystem, living vs. nonliving, energy and impacts on ecosystems, fossil evidence, structures and behaviors, and inherited traits and learned behaviors, this resource helps students develop a deeper understanding of key scientific principles.

These interactive notebook templates are also included in the Kesler Science 5E Lessons, which offer a complete instructional package with presentations, notes, homework, student projects, station labs, assessments, and engagement activities.

The Plant Growth Science Writing Activity engages 5th-grade students in a persuasive essay exercise to test their life science knowledge. Designed for both print and digital use, this activity encourages students to extend their science reasoning and writing skills while supporting virtual and in-person learning.

Aligned with NGSS 5-LS1-1, this low-prep, student-centered resource includes teacher directions with rubrics and project ideas, projection and print handouts, and a digital interactive version in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Full-sized and half-sheet handouts provide writing prompts, student self-checks, and pre-writing strategies, making them ideal for interactive notebooks or journals.

This versatile writing activity works well as a cross-curricular exercise, pre-test formative assessment, student choice project, or enrichment for early finishers. It can also serve as extra credit, make-up work, a TELPAS sample, or a differentiation exercise. Perfect for classroom display or student anthologies, this engaging prompt helps reinforce key science concepts in an interactive and meaningful way.

The WIKI Tickets© Life Science Set provides engaging, flexible formative assessments for 3rd–5th grade science. This set includes 28 assessments, each available in five formats: a full-screen display for projection, three print handouts in different sizes, and a digital interactive version compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Aligned with NGSS and TEKS standards, these assessments cover key topics such as cycling of matter, ecosystem changes, food webs, inherited traits, plant growth, and the structure and function of living organisms. Some standards have multiple tickets, ensuring comprehensive coverage. A Table of Contents file is included to show standard alignment.

WIKI Tickets© can be used in both in-person and virtual learning settings. They work as exit tickets, bellringers, or quick assessments to gauge student understanding. Teachers can project an assessment, provide printed copies, or assign the digital version for remote or 1:1 learning. These vibrant, engaging tools make assessing student progress simple and effective.

Year-Round Resources

These year-round activities will increase your students' understanding of many middle school science topics. All of these activities are also included in the Kesler Science Membership.

Visual Data & Graphing

You're not alone if your students struggle with understanding graphs, charts, and tables. It's a skill that takes an enormous amount of practice. This resource will help students build a strong foundation in analyzing data and creating their own data visualizations.

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Bell Ringers and Warm-Ups

These middle school science bell ringers are an excellent way to engage your students as soon as they walk into your classroom. This comprehensive FULL YEAR resource includes everything you need to start off each science class with an interesting warm-up activity.

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Review Board Games

Each game board has been carefully designed to keep students engaged. There are 10 different action spaces on each board and dozens of question cards. All of the actions are related to science concepts and keep the students motivated throughout the game.

Each game is ready to play. Simply print out the board and the cards and let the students enjoy reviewing nine different units.

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Essential Questions and Standards

Below are the essential questions and standards associated with the lessons and activities included in the plant growth unit. This topic is only one of more than 100 middle school science topics included in the Kesler Science Membership.

Essential Questions

How does photosynthesis help a plant to grow?
Where does a plant’s mass come from?

Standards

NGSS - 5-LS1-1 Plant Growth