Project Overview

Fruit and Vegetable Mystery is a set of notecards created by first grade students at The Odyssey School in Denver, CO. Each card has a written description of a fruit or vegetable on one side and the name and illustration of the corresponding fruit or vegetable on the other.

The cards were created as a final product for an expedition on plants and soil. Through the course of this expedition students visited a farm, learned about plant life cycles, plant parts and functions, what a plant needs to grow and what plants grow in Colorado. They also learned about what makes up soil, how soil is formed, how soil helps things grow and how they can help keep soil healthy.

For the notecards, students went through a series of writing workshops to plan, draft and revise their fruit and vegetable descriptions. Student had the following learning targets:

I can use the writing process to plan, revise and edit my work.

• I can brainstorm topics for my fruit/vegetable mystery piece.
• I can use pictures or organizers to plan my writing.
• I can use the rubric and feedback to make my writing better.
• I can write clues (for my mystery) using precise science language to give hints to my reader.
• I can use descriptive details to paint a picture in my reader’s mind.
• I can use science vocabulary about soil to teach my reader true facts.

I can create a final draft of my fruit/vegetable mystery

• I can capitalize the first word in each sentence.
• I can check the spelling of soil words on the science wall.
• I can use the correct punctuation at the end of a sentence.
• I can put a two-finger space between all of my words.

The completed cards were displayed in the produce section of the local Whole Foods Market.