things: what they are, how they behave, their basic needs ... · PDF file• how animals grow, move, ... what they are, how they behave, their basic needs, and how humans can affect

Learning Goals: Students will have opportunities to learn

• how to correctly use the terms living thing, root, seed, seedling, stem, life cycle, senses, and environment

• how to identify and describe living things• how animals grow, move, and change• how plants grow and change• what plants and animals need to survive• why senses are important to humans• how living things depend on one another and

share the environment

Discussion Prompts:• What are living things?• Can you name some living things in your area?• Are you a living thing?• What is your favourite plant?• What is your favourite animal?• How can you help to keep Earth healthy?

Assessment Prompts:• Do students demonstrate, in their discussions

and answers to questions, understanding of the science vocabulary used in the cards for this unit?

• Assess students’ responses during discussions. - Do students understand that plants and

animals—including humans—are living things? - Do students understand that living things grow,

take in food to create energy, and reproduce? - Can students list the basic needs of living things

(air, water, food, shelter)? Do they understand that these needs are met by the environment?

• Can students explain how different animals behave in different ways?

• Do students treat living things with care and respect?

Links to PCSP Student Book It’s Alive!:Card 1: see Lessons 1 and 4Card 2: see Lessons 1 and 2Card 3: see Lessons 1 and 3Card 4: see Lessons 1 and 5 Card 5: see Lessons 6 and 7

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Students explore living things: what they are, how they behave, their basic needs, and how humans can affect them.

Focus:

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PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes

Introduce students to the topic with the video that shows a rabbit. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

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Students explore living things and how they move.

Focus:

Activity Description: Students hear jungle sounds and look at a jungle scene. They are asked to drag labels onto the illustration to show the different forms of movement animals exhibit (e.g., swim, hop, and so on).

Learning Goal: Students learn that different kinds of animals move in different ways.

Ask Students: How do three different animals move?

Assessment: Do students’ responses show that they understand that different animals move in different ways?

Activity Description: Text poses two simple questions before responding to the Think question in one clear statement. Students click on the orange icon that leads to a drag-and-drop activity. Students place the (five) living things in the circle.

Learning Goal: Students identify living and non-living things.

Ask Students: Can you name some other non-living things?

Assessment: Do students understand the difference between living and non-living things?

Activity Description: The text provides the answer to the Think question in two short paragraphs. Students click the red dots to make detailed labels appear on the illustration of a plant.

Learning Goal: Students explore how plants make food.

Ask Students: How do plants make food? Where do they store the food?

Assessment: Do students’ responses show a good understanding of how plants make their own food?

Activity Description: Text answers the Think question in two simple statements. Three inset photographs and one background photograph illustrate these points, showing both plants and animals.

Learning Goal: Students learn that

living things need food and water.

Ask Students: What do living things need?

Assessment: Do students’ answers show that they understand the two basic needs of living things (food, water)?

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Activity Description: Corresponding to page 4 of the card, this screen includes a two-part matching activity called “Who Owns These Bones?” This is a timed activity.

Learning Goals: Students reinforce their learning about how animals move in different ways.

Ask Students: What does the skeleton tell you about how the animal moves?

Assessment: Do students understand that different animals move in different ways?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 3

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Activity Description: Two simple sentences provide the answer to this Think question. A photograph shows a girl watering a plant.

Learning Goal: Students enhance their understanding of what plants need to survive and grow: water and sunlight. Activity Description: After

clicking on this orange icon, students see a screen called “Seeds and Seedlings.” Students drag and drop the labels into the correct position on the photograph of two seedlings.

Learning Goal: Students learn the basic parts of a plant.

Ask Students: Can you name the parts of a plant (using a diagram or live plant)?

Assessment: Have students correctly identified the main parts of a plant?

Activity Description: Text answers the Think question, saying plants change as they grow. An illustration depicts “The Pumpkin Life Cycle” with labels.

Learning Goal: Students explore the ways in which plants change as they grow.

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Introduce students to the topic with the video of growing pumpkin plants. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Activity Description: Text answers the Think question. A full-screen photograph shows a gardener with a basket of vegetables.

Learning Goal: Students enhance their understanding of how plants help animals, including people.

Ask Students: How do plants help you? Have you eaten any plants today?

Assessment: Do students understand how plants help animals?

Activity Description: Students click on the photographs to learn how seeds spread.

Learning Goal: Students explore the different ways that seeds disperse, which enables plants to reproduce and spread.

Ask Students: How can seeds spread? (by animals, wind, water)

Assessment: Have students identified at least two different ways in which seeds can be spread?

Students explore plant life. Focus: Activity Description: A screen appears, which is titled “Adventures of an Oak Tree.” By clicking the sound icon for this 4-screen comic strip, students may listen and read along. continued next page

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Ask Students: What two things do plants need to survive and grow?

Assessment: Do students identify “water” and “sunlight” as the two main things plants need to survive and grow? Some students may include other things in their response, such as air and shelter or space.

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Ask Students: Choose a plant. How does it change as it grows?

Assessment: Check that students are able to explain how plants change as they grow.

Learning Goal: Students learn how trees help many animals.

Ask Students: What did you learn from this story? Why was the tree important?

Assessment: Can students explain why trees are important to other living things?

continued from page 4 continued from page 4

Activity Description: After clicking on the orange icon, students will see the screen called “How Plants Grow.” Students then drag and drop photographs into the correct position in a sequencing activity. On completion, students will see six information “cards” on the screen, which they can read.

Learning Goals: Students do the following: 1) reinforce their learning about the needs of plants; 2) review ways in which people and animals use plants; and 3) explore how people can help plants.

Ask Students: What do plants need? (water) How can people help plants grow?

(water them) Why do people like trees and plants? (for shade, to climb; to eat)

Assessment: Have students create their own picture card with one sentence about a plant. Do students’ cards include a sentence about what plants need (water, light) or how it grows, or what it can be used for? Do students show an understanding of the topic?

Activity Description: Corresponding to page 4 of the card, this screen includes the same activity.

Learning Goal: Students learn that seeds are living things that will sprout and grow.

Ask Students: What did you give the seeds to help them grow? (water, warm place) Would the seeds grow without water?

Assessment: Do students understand that seeds are living things? Do they know that water is a basic need of the seeds?

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Introduce students to the topic with the video of dolphins searching for food. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Students explore animal life.Focus:

dolphins searching for food. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Activity Description: Students click the orange icon and go to a screen titled “Desert Animals.” They drag and drop the labels to the animals pictured.

Learning Goal: Students explore some of the different animals that live in one environment—the desert.

Ask Students: What are these animals doing? How does the environment help these animals?

Assessment: Do students understand that the environment helps animals hide, find shelter, food, and drink?

Activity Description: Students see a photograph of a leopard with her cubs. Text answers the Think question. When students click on the second Think question within this screen (“How do some animals keep their babies safe?”), they can click on pictures of different animals to answer this question. For each animal baby, students can “Click to

look inside” to find out more about how the babies keep safe.

Learning Goals: Students reinforce their knowledge that baby animals need food. They also learn that baby animals need to be warm and safe.

Activity Description: This screen is titled “The Life Cycle of a Bird.” Illustrations accompanied by descriptions show the growth of a bird from an egg to an adult bird. When students click the orange arrow button, another screen appears. The life cycle is now missing the pictures of the birds in different stages of development. Students drag the correct pictures into the diagram to complete the life cycle.

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Learning Goal: Students discover how living things change as they grow.

Ask Students: Can you draw a picture to show the life cycle of a bird?

Assessment: Do students’ drawings include 1) an egg; 2) a baby bird; 3) a young bird; 4) an adult bird?


Activity Description: Corresponding to page 4 of the card, this screen includes the same word find, but with a slightly different layout. Students must click and drag the cursor over the letters they want to highlight. Then a green check mark will automatically appear beside the picture of the animal they found. This is a timed activity.

Learning Goal: Students reinforce their knowledge of the names of some common animals.

Ask Students: Which of these animals do you see in your community? Can you describe the environment they live in?

Assessment: Are students able to read and recognize the names of seven common animals?

Ask Students: What things do baby animals need?

Assessment: Can students explain that baby animals need food to live? Do they also know that baby animals need to be warm and safe?


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Introduce students to the topic with the video that shows a herd of giraffes. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Students explore the importance of senses and how animals use their senses to survive.

Focus:

Activity Description: This screen, called “Senses in Action,” includes a series of photographs, the first of which is a girl smelling a daisy. Students may complete a drag-and-drop activity to label each of the photographs with the correct sense.

Learning Goal: Students identify the senses human use.

Ask Students: What are the five senses?

Assessment: Can students respond to the above question accurately?

Activity Description: Students go to “Senses in Action,” which includes a photograph of a lion in front of a herd of water buffalo. The text includes the answer to the Think question.

Learning Goal: Students learn how animals use their senses to help them survive.

Ask Students: What is the lion doing? (hunting) Why is the lion doing this? (it needs to eat to survive)

Assessment: Do students understand that senses help animals survive?

Activity Description: Again called “Senses in Action” this screen includes red dots for students to click. Labels appear showing which body parts are used for each of the senses.

Learning Goal: Students explore which body parts correspond to each of the senses.

Ask Students: Which body parts do you use for each of the senses?

Assessment: Can students connect each of the senses to a body part?

Activity Description: By clicking the four blue plus signs, students will see a new screen with an enlarged photograph of the young animals pictured, accompanied by text describing what the animal is learning.

Learning Goal: Students learn that different living things behave in different ways.

Ask Students: How do these behaviours help these young animals survive? (eating grass provides food, which helps the geese survive;

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Activity Description: Corresponding to page 4 of the card, this screen includes the same activity, but with a slightly different layout.

Learning Goal: Students investigate the five sense organs as they experience a short walk.

Ask Students: Did you use all five senses? Was there one sense you used the most? If so, which one?

Assessment: Did students comment on three or more senses during their walks? Did they label their picture correctly?


avoiding dangers helps to keep the lion safe from injury; running away from danger keeps the horse safe from enemies; playing with the ball teaches the kitten some hunting skills) What is the same in the photograph of the lion and the kitten? What

is different about what the lion and kitten are doing?

Assessment: Do students know that different living things behave in different ways? Can students make the connection between the animals’ behaviours and their safety, well being, and/or survival?


Activity Description: After clicking the orange icon, a new screen called “What’s the Sense?” appears. Students play a drag-and-drop activity labelling the five items pictured with the labels at the top of the page.

Learning Goal: Students reinforce their understanding of the sense organs and what they are used for.

Ask Students: Can you think of a second sense you could use for each item? (“See” the teddy bear; “Smell”

the apple; “Touch” the rose)

Assessment: Are students able to name the most important sense for each item?

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Introduce students to the topic with the video that shows seagulls by the ocean. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Students explore living environments and how plants and animals interact within them.

Focus:

Activity Description: Students click on the orange icons, which take them to two spreads: “A Seashore” and “A Forest.” As students click on the living things they find, labels appear, and a scoreboard tracks the number up to ten and twelve, respectively. Students may play again if they like.

Learning Goal: Students discover that many different living things live in different environments. continued next page

Activity Description: An enlarged view of the main illustration appears and students click the orange dots to make both a larger illustration and a written description of five animals appear.

Learning Goal: Students explore animal characteristics, behaviours, diets, and environments.

Ask Students: What do bats eat? What do snakes eat? What do geese eat? What do some animals use the long grass for? (wolves are hard to see in it, so it helps them hunt; geese make their nests in it, so that their eggs and young are hidden)

Assessment: Can students state two facts about one of the animals pictured?

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Ask Students: Why do the living things in the seashore environment live there? Why do the living things in the forest environment live there? (they get what they need from that environment)

Assessment: Do students understand that different living things live in different environments? Do they grasp the concept that different living things prefer different environments (fish prefer water; moose prefer forests)?



Activity Description: Corresponding to page 4 of the card, this screen includes the page 4 photograph and text. When students click the orange icon, a new screen appears: “Helping Earth’s Environments.” This screen contains several photographs of items made with recycled plastic (shoes, bags, and so on). Clicking on the blue plus signs, gives students an enlarged view of each item and text explaining which parts of the items are made from recycled plastic (e.g., the fuzz on tennis balls).

Learning Goal: Students gain an understanding of the many uses for recycled plastic.

Ask Students: Why is it good to recycle plastic? (plastic harms our environment ) How do you use plastic containers again?

Assessment: Do students show care and concern for the environment? Do students have an understanding of the benefits of recycling plastic?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes

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(Understanding Life Systems)It’s Alive

Overall Rubric You can use this rubric to assess students’ understanding of the unit as a whole, after they have completed the five cards for It’s Alive. To help you assess communication or presentation skills students may have used during the activity, use the Science and Technology Communication and Science and Technology Presentation rubrics in the Program and Assessment Guide.

12

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Relating Science and Technology to Society and the Environment (Application of Concepts and Skills)

Scientific Investigation and Technological Problem Solving (Inquiry and Design)

Understanding Basic Concepts (Knowledge)

The student

Documents

things: what they are, how they behave, their basic needs ... · PDF file• how animals grow, move, ... what they are, how they behave, their basic needs, and how humans can affect