EDUC 2220 Lesson Plan Template.docx
Animals Lesson Plan
Erin Wallace
First Grade/Life Science
Common Core Standards:
Animals require basic habitat components, including food, water,
cover and space. The amount and distribution of the basic
components will influence the types of animals that can survive in
an area. Food sources might include insects, plants, seeds or other
animals. Water sources may be as small as drops of dew found on
grass or as large as a lake or river. Animals need cover for many
life functions, including nesting, escaping from predators, seeking
shelter from the elements on a cold winter day and resting. Animals
also need space in which to perform necessary activities such as
feeding or raising young. Seasonal changes affect the resources
available to living things (e.g., grasses are not as available in
winter as they are in summer).
Lesson Summary:
This lesson will allow children to pick their favorite animal.
They can do it by themselves or get in a group. Take time during
class to introduce different animals in different seasons, areas,
etc, and explain that all animals require different food, shelter,
and ways of living to survive. Once the children have picked a
group (or by themselves) they will decide on an animal to research.
They will have computers, iPads, books, and any other resources
necessary to research about their animal. They can look up
pictures, print them, draw them, make a collage, etc. They will
find out all about their animal of choice. Such as what they eat,
where they live, what they live in, how they protect themselves and
find out things like if the animals live alone or in a group, or
anything they find necessary to explain their animal best. After
they have all the information they need they can choose their own
way to present all of their information. On a poster, make models,
a power point, etc. Power points will be presented on the smart
board.
Estimated Duration:
This lesson will take roughly 3-4 class periods. (45-50
minutes). I plan to start the class each day by answering questions
and explaining what we are doing today, then give the rest of the
time for them to do their work while still walking around and
helping them with technology.
Commentary:
Getting students interested in this topic shouldnt be very hard.
They get to pick what they want to do the project on and also
design their very own power point, poster, etc with pictures,
colors, fonts, etc. The only challenge that will be very
inconvenient is that if the children chose to make a presentation
on a computer, all children do not know how to use a computer or
type on a keyboard. So I will need to be around a lot to help them
or have extra helpers come in for these days.
Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
On day 1, the teacher will start by bringing up animals. Start a
conversation and get them interested in animals by talking about
pets, animals they see outside, or animals at the zoo, etc. Ask
some of the children what their favorite animal is and start
writing them on the board. Tell the children that they are similar
because they are all animals, but then ask the what they think is
different Pick one of the animals and make chart on a big piece of
paper. Make rows down the side with questions on it. Ex: Where does
this animal live? What do they eat? How do they survive? Is there
anything special about this animal? The majority of the first class
day will be spent explaining the project to them. Announce to them
the groups (or if you trust them let them pick themselves) and tell
them to go sit together with their group. Then give them time (no
more than 5 minutes) to decide which animal they want to research.
Tell each group to pick a couple just in case another group wants
to research the same animal.
Day 2:
On the second day have the students go straight into their groups
and start their researching. There will be computers, laptops,
iPad, books and anything else they suggest. They will have access
to a big piece of paper, little paper, or their own notebooks to
start taking note. Research will most likely take up most if not
all of the class time. If they are ready to start making their
presentation they can draw their pictures, or print them, start
typing, etc. All the materials they need to make presentation will
be available.
Day 3:
Start the third class day by passing back any items, posters,
pictures they may have started the day before. This class time will
be used to fully start/complete their presentation. The teacher
will walk around offering assistance on any technology. Such as
printing, typing, etc. All materials for presentation will be
available. (poster board, markers, papers, glitter, glue, scissors,
etc). As they are finishing, give them places to leave their
projects and help them save to the computer. If students finish
early, make sure they clean up all of their materials and if there
is still time left give them some quiet work or free play, but
nothing to disrupt the kids still working.
Day 4:
This is the day the individual children or groups will show
their presentation projects and their animal to the class. There
will not be a requirement time since they are too young to know how
to really present something, but they will say all the information
they found and show all their pictures. At the end of each one
students have the opportunity to ask questions about the animal
being presented. Children listening to presentation will write down
and draw information they found interesting or important. Depending
on how much time they take researching and making their
presentation, some students may begin to present on day 3.
Pre-Assessment:
Pre-assessment can be done on day one while talking to the
students about different areas that animals live and what different
animals eat. It won't necessarily be a formal assessment, but the
teacher can observe what things the students know and what they
didn't.
Scoring Guidelines:
Teacher will judge on the information found and how it was
presented. Have a checklist of the basic things they should have
found. Also, look at the notes and pictures the students took on
otheer presentations.
Post-Assessment:
Ask questions about some of the presentations and see how well
the students were paying attention and what they wrote. See how
much they remember from their own presentations and from others.
This will not be a formal assessment either.
Scoring Guidelines:
This topic and this project was made to be a fun way to learn
and not necessarily something to be graded on toughly as apposed to
a math quiz or a test etc. But teacher will grade posters and
presentations based on how much effort they put into it. Which
involves actively going around on the days they were working to see
if they were really trying or not.
Differentiated Instructional Support
For students that are accelerated the teacher can choose to make
a list of harder questions to learn about the animal for those
students to look up or even have them research more than one
animal. Also, because of the fact that not all children know how to
use the technology, the gifted children can help by showing and
demonstrating how for the others. For kids who are struggling the
teacher can make up a sheet that has fill in the blanks (or other
scaffolding ideas) and help the children find the answers.
Extension
http://a-z-animals.com/
This website is so helpful for learning about all different
kinds of animals. It offers games, quizzes, and it is easy to
search for animals A-Z.
Homework Options and Home Connections
First graders are capable of doing homework, but nothing too
much or too challenging. Maybe send home the link to the website
and ask parents to help them look up and learn about different
animals, and have children share something they've
learned.
Interdisciplinary Connections
When describing where the animals live, have them construct with
play dough thee kind of house the animal lives in, this will
incorporate art and imagination. The teacher can also incorporate
language arts by finding a couple books to read to the class that
relates
Materials and Resources:
For teachers
Give students access to all the technology (ipads, computer,
smart board)
Books
Poster board
Markers, crayons, etc
For students
Same materials listed above
Key Vocabulary
Environment
Additional Notes
I know this will be a challenging project for a lot of the kids.
Some kids have access to a computer at home whereas other students
do not. For example, I knew how to use a computer since I was
probably three years old because my dad was a computer freak. And
that was a long time ago, but even now when children have more
access and rely more on technology, some households can't afford
it. I thought of this idea because when I helped with my first
grade class a year ago we did something similar to this with them.
And some were experts at using the technology and some could not
use it very well. That's why in this project I give students the
opportunity to use the technology or not. I would definitely
influence them to use it or at least watch and kind of learn and
get an idea of how to work it all.
