Banana Day

Objective:
The students will explore banana seeds and learn how bananas grow in comparison to other fruits.

Materials

• A slice of banana for each pair, or small group, of students.  

• A magnifying glass for each group. 

• Print outs or a computer with the following site displayed  How Bananas Are Grown. (If available, a book which has pictures of banana plants in it would also work.  One suggestion would be Bananas by Elaine Landau.) 

• A classifying worksheet for each student.

Procedure

1. Give each pair of students a slice of  banana and a magnifying glass.  Have them look at the seeds in the bananas. Talk about other kinds of  fruit seeds, where they are on the fruits, and what they look like. Explain that banana plants do not grow from these seeds.  Actual banana plants grow from "suckers" which are small plants that grow around the base of a banana plant. Banana farmers cultivate the suckers to grow into new banana plants.

2. Show the students pictures of banana plants and explain how they are not trees, but actually very large plants.  They do not have a woody stem like trees.  Banana plants grow clusters of flowers, which then turn into bananas.  Each cluster of bananas is called a hand and the individual bananas are called fingers.

3. Give each student a worksheet and as a class brainstorm different fruits and where they should be placed on the sheet.

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Bring a variety of fruit seeds (apple, orange, grape, peach, watermelon, etc.) in to school and have the students try and determine from what fruit each seed came.  This can be set up in separate centers around the room.  The students can travel from center to center, fill out an observation journal about each seed and from what fruit they believe it came.  The class can then reconvene and the teacher can give the answers regarding each seed.  See the Observations Journal Sheet to reproduce for the students to record their data.

2. Inform students of the "5 A Day for Better Health" campaign which promotes eating 5 servings of  fruits and vegetables every day.  Have them write a list of 5 fruits and vegetables they like to eat to fill this nutrition requirement. The following link has a variety of 5 a Day information for teachers and students http://www.dole5aday.com/