2.2.3I can map ancestors’ places and explain how the family came to its community.
2.1.1I can use family interviews, photos, artifacts and documents to learn family history.
2.1.2I can compare the learner’s life with older family members or guardians.
2.1.3I can order significant life events on a timeline or storyboard.

Science

Your bookLesson 9

2-LS2-1I can test plants’ needs for light and water using controlled comparisons.

Grade 1 Social Studies book, p. 46–47Grade 2 Social Studies book, p. 44–45

Session 1, Read and notice: A map can hold a family story

Week 12 big question: What can our records show? What do we still not know?

Start with a story (optional) Tara Finds Her Stars — Read it hereSupporting match · Tara, a photographer, travels by train and boat to her ancestors’ village.

Families move or stay in many ways.

A blank space on a family map can leave you wondering. Where did an ancestor, someone from an earlier family generation, live? A family journey may cross an ocean or go between nearby towns. Other families stay in one place for years and years. So there is no one pattern. Some people know many places an ancestor lived, while others know only a few. You can keep private or unknown places off your map.

Draw only the moves that sources show.

To show a known family move, draw an arrow on a map. It links a family’s earlier home with where the family lives now. More arrows can show more steps if sources back up each one. But the line cannot prove which road or ship route someone took. Add dates and a timeline to show when those moves happened.

Use sources, and say what you do not know.

Why did they move? Historians ask how people came to a community to learn about those reasons. People have moved for work, family, safety, learning, and other reasons. Some were forced to move, so we must not guess about one family. With permission, use a source, like an interview or photo. Say where it came from. If you are uncertain, or not sure, mark what you do not know. Your map can leave room for a question you hope to answer.

Grade 1 · Source card

Writing on the walls

Angel Island Immigration Station is in San Francisco Bay. From 1910 to 1940, many people who had just arrived were kept there. Officials had to decide if they could enter the country. An immigrant moves to live in a new country. Some Chinese immigrants carved poems into the walls. Their writing is a primary source. It is a clue made by people who were there. Look at the photo. What does it show? What would you need another source to explain?

Lines of Chinese characters carved into a wooden wall. — **Chinese writing carved into a wall at Angel Island Immigration Station.**
Angel Island Immigration Station wall. Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), via Wikimedia Commons. Source thumbnail; no further changes.
Image source · CC BY-SA 4.0

A clue in the wall writing. Draw or point to the writing. Tell one thing you see in the photo.

Sources for this card

Grade 2 · Source card

Writing on the walls

Angel Island Immigration Station is in San Francisco Bay. From 1910 to 1940, officials kept many arriving people there. They were deciding whether the people could enter the country. Some Chinese immigrants carved poems into the walls. Their writing is a primary source. It is evidence made by people who were there. Look closely at the photograph. What can it show? What would you need another source to explain?

My source record. Distinguish the old wall inscription from the modern photograph. Name one supported fact and one unanswered question about a journey.

Sources for this card

Look and think

Show what you notice

Why might a journey map leave some parts blank?
What clues could show how a family came to live where it does?

Answer your waypointact it outtell or dictatewrite

Grade 1 Science book, p. 34–36Grade 2 Science book, p. 52–54

In your book

Session 2, Investigate: What our plants actually showed

A conclusion must come from what we really saw.

The ruler says a plant grew taller, but its leaves look pale. Is that plant really growing well, or do we need more clues? Plants need good light and water for healthy growth over time. In the dark, they may stretch tall without growing strong. Leaf color, new leaves, and drooping tell us more. When good light and water return, we watch for recovery. Recovery means signs of healthy growth. Keep these later records apart from the test records, since the care has changed. In our test, compare A with B for water. Compare A with C for light. Use real evidence for your conclusion. Plants might look alike, and the answer might be unclear. What other clues might help you find out?

Set up the test

Gather Weeks 9–11 actual plant records and seedlings · paper and pencil · permitted family sources and timeline · appendix maps · daylight log

Safety Share only approved family details; use broad place labels rather than private addresses. Continue care for plants and wash hands after soil contact. No travel or contact with unfamiliar people is required.

Put your plant records in date order. Mark the test days and the recovery days.Adult: Do not fill in missing notes from memory.
Compare A and B, then A and C. Use the first and last test records.Adult: Look at height, leaf color, and drooping. The child may point or tell.
Make a claim about each pair, using what you really saw. Is a tall, pale plant healthier?Adult: If the evidence is not clear, the child says so.
Look at the recovery records on their own. How could a next test be better?Adult: For example, use more plants for each condition. Add a dated daylight checkpoint from real entries only.

Try the model

A model to try after your real test.

Getting the model ready…

Grade 1 Social Studies book, p. 48Grade 1 Science book, p. 37Grade 2 Social Studies book, p. 46Grade 2 Science book, p. 55

Compare · What our plants actually showed

1A and B: water evidence

2A and C: light evidence

What the test showed, and one limit

Use the dated entries on the plant data record, p. 237. Add a daylight checkpoint on p. 234.

Fill this in on your workbook page.

Our evidence exhibit

Choose a few things that tell a story your sources back up. You may share it with one trusted person or keep it private.

Ask first. Then mark where an older family member once lived and where you live now.Adult: Add only moves and reasons your sources show. If the family stayed nearby, show that. Leave private or unknown history marked “pending” rather than guessing.
Add your timeline. Compare your life with an older family member’s. Label one fact that is uncertain.Adult: Label where each fact came from: interview, photo, artifact, or document.
Show one plant conclusion from your real notes, and one community fact from Week 9.

Connect the ideas. Labels and dates tell visitors where facts came from. Why does that help?

Look closely

Tap a picture to make it big. Zoom in and find the clues.

Black-and-white photograph by Lewis Hine: an Italian family stands in a baggage room. A woman holds a baby, a young man carries a big striped bundle on his shoulder, and a little girl in a white bonnet stands in front. Trunks and bags are piled behind them. — Primary source · photographA family at Ellis Island, New York, 1905Lewis W. Hine · Public domain

Color photograph: a row of navy bean plants laid out from left to right, from a dry white seed to a tall seedling with long roots and two green leaves. — PhotographA bean seed growing into a seedling, 2017B. Domangue · CC BY-SA 4.0

Color photograph from above: a pinto bean seedling with wide green leaves grows in dark soil in a blue pot, with a thin stick beside it. — PhotographA pinto bean seedling in a pot, 2026Datadoggieein · CC0

Field trip

Visit with a grown-up. These open other websites in a new tab.

Grade 1 Social Studies book, p. 49Grade 1 Science book, p. 38Grade 2 Social Studies book, p. 47Grade 2 Science book, p. 56

My evidence page: A claim and its evidence

Show a family claim and its source. Show a plant claim and the real things you saw. Add something you do not know yet. Private details can stay off this page.

1Family claim, source, and one unknown
2Plant claim, evidence, and one limit

3Choose and explain · Checkpoint game

Listen, then choose. Finish the game to earn this week’s stamp.

The game needs JavaScript turned on.

For the adult · what each grade shows

Grade 1

Show one family detail with its source and one honest plant observation by drawing, pointing, or telling.

Grade 2

Explain your water and light conclusions using your real plant records and one limit.

Showing the Grade 1 line for your book.

Showing the Grade 2 line for your book.

Take a photo of the evidence page or the test. Add your child’s own words. It stays on this device.

Add to my portfolio

Parent corner

How to run this week, in a few minutes.

At a glance

Time: From the workbook: Read and notice about 20 min · Investigate 20–30 min, plus short checks · Record and make 20–30 min.
Core: Draw honest water and light conclusions from the plant records, and share a sourced family story.
Materials: Weeks 9–11 actual plant records and seedlings
paper and pencil
permitted family sources and timeline
appendix maps
daylight log
Safety: Share only approved family details; use broad place labels rather than private addresses. Continue care for plants and wash hands after soil contact. No travel or contact with unfamiliar people is required.
Short week: Read together, then do Investigate steps 1–3, Make step 3 and the evidence page. If you skip the ancestor-residence map and family-community connection, note it as “not yet” for your teacher.

Next week

Keep the daylight log active. Compare recorded durations across months or seasons when available; twelve lessons completed quickly do not create seasonal evidence. Save the exhibit for the final museum.

Library books

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say. A family story of travel between two homelands told through a journey.
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. A family plants and tends a garden through the seasons.

Answer key (for grown-ups)

Talk together

Why might a journey map leave some parts blank?
Missing or private details should remain unknown rather than invented. A classroom connecting line shows a relationship, not a verified travel route unless a source supplies it.
What clues could show how a family came to live where it does?
A permitted interview may explain reasons; a dated letter, photograph caption, artifact, or document can add evidence. Different accounts may require further checking.

What to expect in the investigation

Look for separate A–B and A–C conclusions from the test period, with recovery considered afterward. Plants need suitable light and water for sustained healthy growth, but this small short test may be inconclusive. Pale stretching is not evidence that darkness improves health. Compare leaf color, new leaves, and drooping, not just height; a plant in the dark may stretch taller without healthy growth. Damp starting soil, stored food in seeds, and natural plant differences may have limited the short test. Scientists use real evidence and say when another fair test is needed.

Checkpoint question

Choice C. A truthful inconclusive result is stronger science than invented confirmation.

Kindergarten this weekSocial Studies: Harvest, thanks and months Science: Where can it live?

A family journey exhibit

Story time optional

From the library

Standards this week

Grade 1

Social Studies

Science

Grade 2

Social Studies

Science

Session 1, Read and notice: A map can hold a family story

Writing on the walls

Writing on the walls

Show what you notice

Session 2, Investigate: What our plants actually showed

Try the model

Session 3: Record and make — Our evidence exhibit

Our evidence exhibit

Look closely

Field trip

My evidence page: A claim and its evidence

For the adult · what each grade shows

Parent corner

At a glance

Next week

Library books

Talk together

What to expect in the investigation

Checkpoint question