Students come to class with diverse experiences and backgrounds, and the author tries to take advantage of that diversity in the plant unit. Every year the author secures the help of the two or three green thumbs or green-thumb wannabes to help take care of the collection of plants she brings from home in the fall. The author also invites students to bring in plants and to take one or two of her plants home with them at the end of the year. Having established the first week of school that plants are an important part of the environment, the author launches a study of plants that lasts through the year. This study begins early in the fall, while the weather is still warm enough for outside field trips to the school's back field and property lines, and while the trees, bushes, and plants all around the school still have leaves. Typically a classroom teacher should spend at least two weeks engaging students in the unit, through investigations such as those described in this article, which require (and develop) a variety of process skills. These activities help establish a classroom environment that supports inquiry, differentiated instruction, mutual trust, and respect. The activities described here are structured as a 5E lesson that takes place over five or more days and falls at the beginning of a larger unit on plants. (Contains 2 figures, 7 resources and 3 online resources.)