Activity 1: Mapping the Story of The Empty Pot

1. Discuss with students how symbols on a map indicate notable features. In addition, discuss the symbols that students see every day at home, school, and when traveling. These include symbols on the restrooms at school; stop, warning, and directional signs while traveling; and symbols used to represent different games or apps on smart phones and tablets. Explain to students that stories can be mapped using symbols to help remember the characters and the story.
2. Read The Empty Pot to the students. Encourage students to visualize the characters, settings, and events as they listen. After reading the story, they will be mapping it. 
3. Discuss the setting, main characters, and problem presented in the story and chart the sequence of events. You may wish to use the Story Map handout to facilitate this process. Ask students to list all of the events that took place in the story and write them on the board. Review the story, focusing students’ attention on the sequence of main events. Emphasize what happened first, next, and then... 
4. As students agree upon the order of listed events, number these in sequence. 
5. Ask each student (or group of students) to illustrate one of the story’s events. Story illustrations can then be displayed in a vertical or a horizontal sequence, in a circular pattern, or as a winding trail that traces the movements of the characters. The story map the class creates will not only help students retell the story, but will also increase their comprehension and retention.
6. Another strategy to assist with reading comprehension is “concept mapping” or “concept webbing.” Concept maps use a web of words or pictures and connecting lines to associate concepts and vocabulary. Go back to the text of The Empty Pot, and have the students find words that are plant- or garden-related (e.g. seed, soil, etc.). Place the word in the center of a whiteboard or piece of paper and then connect other associative words to it with lines. For younger students, pictures can be used in place of words. 

Activity 2: Science Journal

1. Tell students that they are now going to explore what plants need to grow so that they can be as knowledgeable about plants as the Emperor from The Empty Pot. Explain that it is important to learn about plants because they provide us with the food that we eat. Vegetables, fruits, and grains all come from plants. Even meat and dairy foods cannot be produced without growing plants. The livestock that produce meat and dairy need plants to eat. 
2. Based on the anticipatory set discussion about how weather affects plant growth, review how weather events like rainfall can affect the planting or harvesting of plants. Some water is necessary for plant growth, but too much water can make plants sick, and a flood can wash away a whole garden or farm field.
3. To demonstrate the effects of weather on plants, conduct an experiment by planting seeds into two-liter bottles containing soil. Planting the seeds next to the perimeter of the bottles and wrapping the bottle with black construction paper will ensure that the roots grow into view. This activity will take four to five days of observation. The following procedure may be conducted by the students or as a demonstration by the teacher for students to observe. 
4. Divide the class into four groups. Each group will need a two-liter bottle containing potting soil and four to five seeds.
5. Ask each group to do one of the following to see how moisture affects seed germination (light is not necessary until the seeds germinate or sprout):
   • Plant seeds into moist soil and then place the bottle in a warm location. (Don’t add water while you are waiting for the seeds to germinate. Seeds should germinate and sprout in four to five days.)
   • Plant seeds into dry soil. Don’t water these seeds. Place the bottle in a warm location. (These seeds should just stay dormant, not growing. If they are watered later, they will sprout).
   • Plant seeds into saturated, wet soil. Place the bottle in a warm location and keep the soil soggy wet. (These seeds should not germinate well and may begin to rot or grow mold.)
   • Plant seeds into bottles with moist soil, then place bottles in a cold location (outside in the winter or in a refrigerator). (These seeds should either not germinate or take a longer than the others to germinate.)
6. Have students observe, record, and draw the results that they observe. You may choose to have students make and decorate their own journal for this purpose using the Science Journal Pattern. 
7. After the experiment is completed, review with the students the things needed for plant growth: 
   • water (not too much and not too little)
   • temperature (not too warm and not too cold)
   • light (for photosynthesis)
   • nutrients (provided by soil which also holds water and supports plant roots)
   • air
8. Ask students to identify whether each of these things needed for plant growth is living or nonliving. Discuss how living plants depend on nonliving things. 
9. Ask students if they think plants depend on any living things. Discuss the once-living component of soil called organic matter. Explain that organic matter comes from decomposing things that were once alive or came from a living thing, like fallen leaves and manure. Organic matter is essential to healthy soil because it provides nutrients that plants need to grow and helps the soil absorb and hold water. Potting soil, like that used in the experiment, is mostly made up of organic matter.