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Lesson plan: Introduction to frog life cycles Goals & Objectives SWBAT understand and explain the various

us stages in the life cycles of frogs IOT begin developing a generalized understanding of animal life cycles SWBAT arrange and write descriptive texts IOT depict stages in frog life cycles

Standards 4.4.K.C Observe and describe stages of life cycles for plants and animals. CC.1.4.K.A Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/ explanatory texts CC.1.4.K.J Make logical connections between drawing and writing.

Materials & Prep Materials: Book introducing frog life cycles (tentatively Growing Frogs, by V. French). Template with images of frog life cycle stages Large template on which to arrange life cycle stages Scissors, glue sticks Pencils, crayons/colored pencils Prep:

Prepare all templates Make sure all student supply bins are adequately stocked

Classroom arrangement & management issues I will essentially follow the procedures consistently followed within our classroom. That means that little additional arrangement will be required. Activities in this lesson will take place in two locations: the back carpet and student tables. The back carpet will be set up for a read-aloud: students will be positioned facing a rocking chair and easel where I can read the book, and I will have the rainstick which we use as an attention aid. Students will be prearranged into established tables, and supplies will be in bins assigned to each table. Students will follow pre-established routines for transitions, for gathering supplies, etc. The plan (Note: Im leaning towards using Growing Frogs as my shared text for this section but Im not certain yet Im waiting for a lot of books to come into the library, including some on frogs that I might use instead. I bring this up because, once I have settled on a text, I will prepare much more elaborately for my presentation of it including connections to prior classroom activities and literacy lessons embedded in the text.) 1. Part I: Read-aloud: Growing Frogs

a. Gather on back carpet for read-aloud. b. Assess student knowledge of frog life cycles through open-ended questions i. Start with just some basic questioning What do you know about frogs? ii. Transition to topic: Were going to be talking about how frogs change over their lives from when theyre born until theyre fully grown. Does anybody know anything about frogs before theyre grown up? iii. Will have a picture/model of a tadpole, and see if students know anything about tadpoles; if students are not sure, I will ask them to predict how a tadpole becomes a frog. c. Introduce literacy content, including book vocabulary along with the term transformation (planting this concept ahead of ultimately teaching the life cycle framework of origin, transformation, maturity) d. Read-aloud, with embedded literacy and science content, prompts for connections and critical thinking, etc. e. Discuss the text afterwards introduce the term life cycle (without going into depth in this lesson) and ask students to collaboratively reconstruct the life cycle of frogs. 2. Part II: Independent work (cut-out and arrange) a. Back at their desks, students will receive templates with pictures of the four different stages of the frogs life. b. Students will cut out the images from the template, glue them on a separate template, and label them (E.g. egg, tadpole, froglet, adult frog). c. The template will also have space for students to write brief descriptions of each step in the labeled life cycle d. Students who finish can color and decorate their templates. Anticipating students responses and your possible responses Obviously one possible challenge is the fact that I am approaching this without knowing students levels of knowledge about frog life cycles. While I could do a pre-assessment, I dont think that is necessary. If students are totally unfamiliar with the topic, then the book should serve as a good introduction. If some students are familiar, then the discussion will provide a good opportunity to share what they think they know and generate whatever questions they might have, which they can then hold in mind during the reading. Some students may finish their independent work more quickly than others; there are thus multiple steps built in (cut and paste, write, color) to ensure that all students have time to finish the most essential components (arranging and labeling the life cycle, and providing at least some written indication of understanding). During writing, students may be reminded of an anchor chart indicating transition words (first, next, then, etc.) to help them make their writing more advanced. Assessment of goals & objectives Student responses to questions and prompts during read-aloud Accuracy and detail in student representation and description of frog life cycles

Accommodations

Students more proficient in writing will be encouraged to add more details in their life cycle descriptions; Students who are more likely to struggle with the writing task will be individually assessed orally regarding the science content; they will still be asked to write, but their assessment will be primarily based upon this oral interaction

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