Plants: Supplemental Guide 3C | The Life Cycle of a Plant 97 Show image 3A-5: Acorn and oak
Now let’s explore the life cycle of another plant—an oak tree.Here’s an acorn that contains the seed of an oak tree.Have you seen acorns before? Where did you see them?[Call on two students to share.] Show image 3A-6: Squirrel eating an acorn
Tell your partner how you think squirrels help acorn trees to
reproduce—or make new acorn trees.[Allow fifteen seconds for students to talk. Call on two partner pairs to share
their answer.]
Squirrels spend all day running around looking for food. They also
spend a lot of time hiding food. Squirrels bury so many acorns that
they forget where they put some of them. An acorn that the squirrel
forgets stays in the soil, giving the oak seed inside a better chance to
germinate underground.Once the seed sprouts, it will quickly grow into a seedling, but the
young tree will grow only a foot or two in its first year.[Have students show you what they think a foot or two looks like.] Show image 3A-7: Young oak
After a few years, it will turn into a sapling. A sapling is a young tree.
A sapling can grow to be over ten feet, but it is still considered a
young tree.[Have students show or tell you what they think ten feet looks like.]
This tree will still be called a sapling for several years to come. Show image 3A-8: Mature oak
Oak trees take a long time to mature and become adult trees. In
fact, it takes about fifty years for an oak tree to mature and be able
to make a lot of acorns. An oak tree can produce over ten thousand
acorns in its lifetime. Only a few of those acorns will germinate and
grow into new oak trees.