Lesson Plan: Physical Adaptations of Kangaroos

Date: 04/27/2017
Time: 8:55-9:25
Objectives:
Content: Students will use a non-fiction text (referring back to it as needed) to identify examples
of a kangaroos physical characteristics.
Students will determine ways those identified physical characteristics help the kangaroo to
survive.
Language: Students will use vocabulary from the unit when discussing the task with group
members. Words like physical, adaptation, and survival should be used during this activity.
Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.3
Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text,
including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.6
Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific
words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of
being (e.g., quizzed, whined, stammered) and that are basic to a particular topic
(e.g., wildlife, conservation, and endangered when discussing animal preservation).
Context:
Before this lesson: We are in the middle of our Animal Adaptations unit, and the day before this
activity, I will do a read-aloud with the students of a non-fiction text on kangaroos and their
physical adaptations. I have included a focus in this weeks lessons on gathering information
from non-fiction texts because this is an area the teachers think the students need more practice
with. Before the read aloud, I will tell students to pay close attention and listen for information
about any physical adaptations the kangaroo has (they already know this term physical
adaptation). If they hear a piece of information that sounds relevant, they will stop me, and we
will discuss and take notes. These notes will be useful for the activity described in this plan.
After this lesson: The day after this activity, students will use the graphic organizer they filled in
to write a short essay on how the kangaroos physical adaptations help it survive in its habitat.
Lesson Outline:
1. Warm-Up: Ask students to take one minute to brainstorm ideas about yesterdays
kangaroo article. What do you remember about the kangaroos body? Turn and talk for
one minute in table groups, share for one minute.
2. Pass out graphic organizers. Share goals with the students: My goal for you today is that
you are able to find physical characteristics of the kangaroo and think about how they
help the animal live every day. We will try to use as much vocabulary from this unit as
 we can. Tell students this activity will happen in three steps. First, they will work
independently to find examples of physical adaptations of the kangaroo (ask someone to
remind the class the meaning of this term) and why they are helpful to the kangaroo.
Remind them they can refer back to their copies of the text as needed. Tell students they
will have about 8 minutes to work on this independently.
3. The next step of the activity is to open it up for conversation at table groups to encourage
students to use the language of this unit and also learn from each other. The teacher will
write some discussion sentence frames on the board for students to use if they feel like
they will be helpful. (One physical characteristic/adaptation I found was ________. This
helps the kangaroo because __________). Students will share their ideas, and they will
add to their own graphic organizers if they hear new ideas from their classmates. This
will also last about 8 minutes. Note: I may pull a group I often work with as an
intervention group and facilitate this discussion with them. I plan to circulate during the
independent phase of this activity to determine who may need the extra guidance during
this small group step.
4. The last phase of the activity is for all students to come to the rug, where we will work
together to fill in a poster version of the graphic organizer. I will tell them that this poster
will be available to them tomorrow when they are working on writing their short essays.
This step will also last about 8 minutes.
5. Wrap-Up Question: Why do physical characteristics matter? Why are they important to
animals? (We are trying to get the students to make connections about why animals
bodies are the way they are. For instance, camels eyelashes are not long so they can look
pretty. They serve a purpose and help the animal survive in its habitat)
Wrap-Up question 2: Do you think we achieved our goal of finding physical
characteristics of the kangaroo and discussing how they help it survive?