A tulip bulb is an amazing container: a swollen underground stem that stores food energy. It contains a miniature plant with flower, leaf, and root parts, all ready to spring forth when conditions are right. View the slideshow and use its accompanying activities and resources to explore this essential question:

Tulip Bulbs:
The Inside Story

3. Preview vocabulary using Word Cards. Assess students' background knowledge by asking how each word relates to what is stored inside a tulip bulb. Encourage them to predict how the words may be related to each other.

Read the slideshow together. Stop occasionally to spotlight key ideas or ask questions. Encourage students to share their own questions sparked by the images and text.

The printable booklet can be used for partner or at-home reading.

1. Explore the inside of a tulip bulb. Carefully dissect tulip bulbs for students to examine. Have them identify each part of the bulb. Encourage them to summarize the facts they learned from the slideshow. Use word cards or revisit the text, if needed.

2. Study diagrams. After students have a chance to explore, draw, and describe the parts of a tulip bulb, use labeled diagrams to review facts about the "science inside" a bulb.

3. Read with fluency and expression. Pair students. Provide a copy of the text-only page. Invite them to read aloud the text together in a variety of ways. This text page can also be used as an oral reading assessment.

4. Ask Reflective Questions. Encourage readers to think beyond the text with questions like these:

• How do the inside parts of a tulip bulb work together?
• What factors may impact the tulip bulb's winter survival?
• What factors may impact the tulip bulb's spring growth?
• Why do you think people describe tulip bulbs as "underground storage containers"?
• How can similes help us describe tulip bulbs and its parts? Examples: A bulb is like...because...
  The tulip root is like...because...
  The tunic is like...because...
• How do you think different bulb parts will change in the spring?
• What do you think will cause bulb parts to change?
• We've explored many characteristics of a bulb: size, shape, color, weight, texture, etc. Which characteristics do you think will affect when or how the bulb grows next spring?
• What is a bulb? (A bulb is any plant that stores its complete life cycle in an underground storage structure. The primary function of these underground storage structures is to store nutrient reserves to ensure the plants' survival.)

5. Assess understanding with Word Cards. Revisit the essential question: What is stored inside the tulip bulb? Place students in small groups and distribute the word cards. Challenge them to write a response paragraph that answers the question using as many of the vocabulary words as they can. Encourage them to describe the primary function of each part found inside the tulip bulb.

For detailed instructions, see:

• Observing Bulbs: Part I: All About the Outside
• Observing Bulbs: Part II: The Mystery Inside