Georgia Southwestern State University Lesson Plan Guidelines

Created by GSW School of Education

EDEC 4200 Spring 2016
(Revised by L. Larsen)
Animal Parents and their Babies
Name: David Handley
Lesson Date: March 2, 2016
Lesson Start Time: 12:00 PM

Lesson End Time: 12:50 PM

Classroom/Lesson Context
Whole Group _____ Small Group _____ One-on-One
Please specify the number of students:
9 Girls 7 Boys
Learning Central Focus
A. Lesson Plan Title: Animal Parents and their Babies
B. Grade Level: Kindergarten
C. Central Focus:
The central focus is the similarities and differences in groups of organisms such as
parents and their babies.
D. Content Standard:
SKL2. Students will compare the similarities and differences in groups of organisms.
c. Recognize the similarities and differences between a parent and a baby.
d. Match pictures of animal parents and their offspring explaining your reasoning.
(Example: dog/puppy; cat/kitten; cow/calf; duck/ducklings, etc.)
Student Learning Goal(s)/ Objective(s):
A. Skills/procedures:
Students will identify similarities and differences in parents and babies, and match
pictures of offspring to their parents.
B. Prior Academic Knowledge and Conceptions:
Students must have prior academic knowledge about what an animal is. Students must
also know what the parent animal looks like in order to compare the offspring to the
parent. Students must also know that parents and offspring will have similarities and
differences. Students must also know that though the offspring may look different from
their parent, the offspring is still that animal.

Common Errors, Developmental Approximations, Misconceptions, Partial

Understandings, or Misunderstandings:
There are many misconceptions students may have about animal parents and babies. Some
examples of these misconceptions are:

All animal babies look like their parents

All animals live on land
All animals are large

I will address these misconceptions by explaining to students that not every animal baby will
look like a parent. I will use humans as an example to show that even though we may look
different than our parents we are still their babies. I will also explain that some animals can live
in the water such as a seal, which is discussed in our big book, and not all animals are large,
such as an ant or ladybug.
Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks
A. Launch: 10 Minutes
I will begin by asking students if they can think of an animal, any animal. I will remind the
students we must raise our hand before answering, then will call on a few students to
share. Then I will show the students pictures of animal babies and ask them to identify
the animal. This will allow me to asses background information to see if students can
identify animal parents.
B. Instruction: 20 Minutes
I will begin the lesson by reading a big book entitled Animals and Their Babies by
Melvin Berger. This is an informative, big book that explains animals and their babies, as
well as some things that the parents teach their babies. After reading the book, I will do a
picture read through the book looking at each individual picture of parents and babies. I
will review some similarities shared between the offspring and parent in each picture,
such as the lion cub has spots but the mama lion does not. I will also review the names
of offspring as I point to a picture. If students are unsure of the name I will inform them
what the name is, such as foal for a baby horse. I will then review the similarities and
differences by asking differentiated questions. What did our book talk about today? Can
you list one similarity I talked about when I re-read the book? Can you list one difference
I talked about when re-reading the book? Do all parents and babies look alike?
C. Structured Practice and Application: 15 Minutes
WE WILL
We will create a pocket chart diagram using laminated pictures of parents and babies. I
will show the students a picture and they will have to determine if the picture is a parent
or a baby. The student will then place the picture in the pocket chart. When a student
receives a picture of an animal baby we will say out loud the name of the baby like we
learned during our picture reading. After all parents have been matched to their baby we
will review the names of the parents as well as the babies. We will then discuss
similarities and differences as we look at the pictures in the pocket chart.

THEY WILL
The students will independently complete a parent and baby cut and paste. After
students have finished they will get their answers checked by me. I will ask the student
to name the parent as well as the baby before they are officially completed. If students
finish early I will ask them to turn over their paper and draw me an animal and baby we
have talked about today. Worksheet is attached.
D. Closure: 5 Minutes
I will close by playing Who am I with the students. I will use information we have
learned today to describe different animals and their babies, such as my I am spotted
but my mama is not to describe a baby lion. This is a great way to see what the students
have learned but also have a little bit of fun.
Differentiation/ Planned Support
A. Differentiation plan:
For the students with gaps in prior knowledge, I will pull a small group and review the
prior knowledge that they need in order to be successful.
If there are students who are not grasping the content, I will pull a small group of
students and review the material while the other students are completing the
independent practice, and if needed review the WE WILL activity.
If the students are not grasping the content as a whole, I will take another day to review
the content in terms that the students may better understand.
B. Student Interactions
In this lesson students werent specifically placed into groups for interaction. However,
during the they will activity students are allowed to interact with one another as they
agree or disagree with the picture matching. At the end of the activity all students will be
allowed to name the parents and babies out loud.
C. What Ifs
During the they will portion of the lesson students may not be as actively involved as I
would like. If this occurs I will call on individual students to answer my questions.
This lesson may also take more time than intended. If this happens, I will find a good
stopping point, and save the remainder of the lesson for after lunch.
Theoretical Principles and/or Research Based Best Practices
The tasks associated with this lesson are supported by the constructivist theory. This theory
states that learning is the active construction of knowledge, and says students are more
successful if they are engaged. This theory also views learners as innately curious. In this
lesson, students are engaged through the use of the big book, matching the parent and baby
pictures in the pocket chart, as well as coloring, cutting, and pasting the babies to their parent
match in the independent worksheet.

Materials
-Pictures of animal parents and babies

-Animals and their Babies Big Book

-Pocket Chart

-Cut and Paste matching worksheet

-Crayons

-Glue

Vocabulary
-Parent

-Baby

-Alike

-Different

-Features

-Similarities

-Differences

-Offspring

-Foal

-Cub

-duckling

-gosling

Analyzing Teaching
A. Worked/Didn't Worked
The big book worked great because the kids loved the colorful pictures and the new
animals that were presented to them in the book. What didnt work was that for this
particular classroom I should have printed pictures in colors for some students because
several students spent the majority of their time coloring the pictures and making sure all
animals were colored correctly, therefore not cutting and pasting to make the match
between the parents and babies.
B. Adjustments
I need to prepare things for students to do if they finish early. For some students coloring
took less time than planned so they needed an activity to keep them busy. I was able to
tell them to just get a book and silently read while they waited, but a lesson to better
enforce the topic covered today would have been better.
C. Proposed Changes
If I taught this lesson again I would possibly show students videos of animals in their
natural habitat to also show them different examples of the animal parents and babies,
other than the pictures I have presented.
I would also give explicit guidelines as to what I expected during the lesson. I would also
be more apt to correct students behavior if they are talking while I am talking. I would be
prepared to move bones, the schools behavior management system, if needed.
Justification
These changes would improve student learning because they provide students with new
experiences showing them animals they may have never seen before. Piaget felt that a
students learning was strongly based upon their experiences. This would also allow for
all students to experience this to the best of their abilities will all students participating
and behaving appropriately.