| LU Title: Life Cycles | Author(s): Michelle Glasso |
| Grade Level: Kindergarten | School : St. Peter's School |
| Topic/Subject Area: Science | Address: 400 Floyd Ave.Rome, N.Y. 13440 |
| Email: amglasso@borg.com | Phone/Fax:315- 375-8814/315-375-8604 |
Overview
The purpose of this unit is to make the students aware of the different stages of life in different creatures.
Content Area
| Declarative | Procedural |
| -life cycle of a butterfly | -how to compare / contrast two things |
| -life cycle of a ladybug | -sequencing |
| -life cycle of an ant | -sorting |
| -life cycle of a chick | |
| -life cycle of a bee | |
| -life cycle of a frog |
Essential Questions
What is a life cycle?
Why is each stage important?
Initiating Activity
Students will need to bring in a baby picture of themselves. Teacher will collect all of the pictures, then show them to the class one picture at a time. Students will have to guess who the baby picture is of. After the students guess, teacher should ask them, what changes have they seen in the person. This will get them thinking of how they’ve changed from being a baby until now.
Learning Experiences
Learning Experience 1:
The students will know and understand:
concept: Every creatures life cycle is not the same.
Experiences/ Activities:
-create a Life Cycle mini book
Strategies:
listening
coloring
What will be done:
Teacher will hand out the mini What is a Life Cycle? book. Teacher will read it with the students. Students can color it.
Extending and Refining:
The students will create a Life Cycle folder. They will keep all of their work on this unit in the folder. The students can decorate their folders with theme-related pictures from the web or their own personal drawings.
Learning Experience 2:
The students will know and understand:
concept: Butterflies were once caterpillars.
Experiences/activities:
read Butterfly Story Anca Hariton
create a butterfly mini book
Strategies:
sequencing
What will be done:
Teacher will read the book and discuss it. The teacher will show the life cycle picture cards of a butterfly and discuss the four stages of development.
Extending and Refining:
The students will be given a sheet of paper with the four stages of development. The students will color, cut, and put the pages in the correct order to make a mini book.
Learning Experience 3:
The students will know and understand
concept: There are four stages in the life cycle of a ladybug.
Experiences/ activities
-read Ladybug Emery Bernhard
-create a life cycle wheel
Strategies
sequencing
What will be done:
Teacher will read the book and discuss it. The teacher will ask the students to recall the life cycle of the ladybug.
Extending and Refining:
The students will color, cut out, and fasten together the ladybug life cycle wheel.
Learning Experience 4:
The students will know and understand
concept: The life cycle of a bee.
Experiences/activities:
-read The Life and Times of the Honeybee
-worksheet on the four stages
Strategies:
recalling facts from the story
What will be done:
Students will be give a worksheet that has 4 boxes on it. Below each box, is a description of the four stages of life for the bee. The students will draw a picture in each box to match the description.
Extending and Refining:
Students can learn more about this topic, by going to www.honey.com. They can work on the computer with a partner.
Learning Experience 5:
The students will know and understand
concept: The life cycle of an ant
Experiences/Activities:
-read Life Story: Ant Michael Chinery
-draw the four stages of the ant life cycle
What will be done:
Teacher will read and discuss the book. The teacher will describe the ants life cycle. Students will create a mini poster of the 4 stages.
Learning Experience 6:
The students will know and understand:
concept: The life cycle of a frog
Experiences and Activities:
-read Frogs- How They Grow Scholastic Let’s Find Out
-make a mini book about the life cycle of a frog
Strategies:
-sequencing
-observing
What will be done:
Teacher will read about frogs. Teacher will go over the details of the life cycle of a frog. Students will be given the handout for the frog book. Teacher will do it with the students.
Extending and Refining:
In an aquarium, you can have tadpoles. Students can observe and keep a journal on the changes that they see in the tadpoles.
Students can work with a partner on the computer, to learn more about this topic at http://cgee.hamline.edu/frogs/
Modifications:
Students that can’t spell yet, can draw pictures in their journals instead of using words.
Learning Experience 7:
The students will know and understand:
concept: The life cycle of a chick
Experiences and Activities:
-create a life cycle wheel
Strategies:
class discussion
What will be done:
Teacher will introduce the activity with the question: “Where do you think the eggs you buy at a store come from?” Then ask the students : “Can chicks hatch out of the eggs we buy at the store?” This should start a class discussion.
Pass out the reproducible life cycle wheel and have the students cut it out and fasten it together.
Have the students work in pairs and discuss the different stages of the chicks life.
Extending and Refining:
Have the students investigate what’s inside an egg. Divide the class into groups. Give each group a raw egg, hand lens, a bowl, and paper towels.**Remind students to keep their hands away from their mouths and to wash their hands after handling the raw egg.**
Help the students crack their egg in the bowl. Have the students use the hand lens to take a closer look at the shell,
then the egg in the bowl.
Present the students with some questions about what they are observing.
On chart paper, list and describe the different parts of the egg that they saw.
Learning Experience 8:
The students will know and understand
concept: Many animals lay eggs.
Experiences and Activities:
-read An Extraordinary Egg Leo Lionni
-play a sorting game
Strategies:
-sorting
-matching
What will be done:
Teacher will start a class discussion by asking: “ What animals lay eggs?” Teacher will list the answers on the board. Then read and discuss the story.
Divide the students into groups. Give the students a copy of the eggs sheet. Have them match the eggs to the animals that are listed on the board.
Extending and refining:
Fill a basket of plastic eggs with a variety of animals. Have the students pick an egg. Before they open it, read them a riddle about the animal on the inside. After they guess it, they may open the egg, to see if they are correct.
example:
My egg is soft and leathery; when I come out, I’m all slithery. (snake)
Modifications:
Students can create riddles for other students to guess.
Learning Experience 9:
The students will know and understand
concept: Baby animals are similar to their parents
Experiences/Activities:
-read Are You My Mother? P.D. Eastman
-Animal Match-up reproducible
Strategies:
matching
What will be done:
Teacher will read and discuss the story. Hand out the worksheet with the animals. Do it as a class, discussing the similarities and differences in the animals. On the back have the students draw another set of animal baby - parent pictures.
Extending and Refining:
Students can look through magazines or on the web for pictures of adult animals and baby animals. They can glue each picture to an index card. If each child brings in a set, the class can play a match game with the animal cards.
Learning Experience 10:
The students will know and understand
concept: We need to eat to grow.
Experiences and activities:
-read The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle
-keep a log for one day
Strategies:
keeping a log
What will be done:
Teacher will read and discuss the book. Teacher can start class discussion, by asking, “Why do you think the caterpillar was very hungry?” Explain that we need food to grow.
Teacher will give students a copy of the log that they are to fill in. Students will record all the food that they ate for one day.
Learning Experience 11:
The students will know and understand
concept: what a grown up is.
Experiences and activities:
-read Theodore All Grown Up Ellen Stoll Walsh
-make a time line picture
Strategies:
sequencing
What will be done:
Teacher will read and discuss the story. Start a class discussion on what it means to be an adult. Teacher will present pictures of a variety of people. Students need to put them in order by age. Teacher should discuss and point out the changes in the people.
Extending and Refining:
Have the students interview a grown up. Have the students ask them what it is like to be a grown up, what they can do now, that they couldn’t when they were little, etc. Students can either draw their responses or write them if they can spell.
Culminating Performance
Students will create a “Then and Now” scrapbook. Teacher will give the students their baby pictures back. The students will glue it to their first page of their book. Then the students will write down what they were able to do as a baby. The students can either draw pictures for the other years or include real photos. Students need to write down how they have grown and changed each year. Students can use the computer to type it. The last page of their book should include a picture of them now and a list of what they can do now.
Students will present their books to the class.
Rubric for cumulative activity
scale organization creativity project completed
2 organized creative yes
1 not organized not creative no
Useful websites:
www.insectlore.com
-you can order caterpillars, egg incubators, and a frog
hatchery kit from this site.
http://cgee.hamline.edu/frogs/
www.honey.com
www.butterflies.org
www.fulcrum-resources.com
Connections to the Learning Standards:
English Language Arts
Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
-follow directions that involve a few steps
-present information clearly in a variety of oral
and written forms
Standard 4- Language for social interaction
- take turns speaking and responding to others’
ideas in conversations on familiar topics
- take part in oral presentations of projects
Health, Physical Education, and Home Economics
Standard 2- A safe and healthy environment
- work constructively with others to accomplish
a variety of goals and tasks
Math, Science, & Technology
Standard 1- Ancalysis, Inquiry, and Design
-scientific inquiry: ask “why” questions in attempt to
seek greater understanding concerning objects and
events they have observed and heard about
-organize observations and measurements of objects
and events through classification and preparation of
simple charts and tables.
-interpret organized observations and measurements,
recognizing simple patterns, sequences, and relationships.
Standard 2- Information Systems
-use a variety of equipment and software packages to
enter, process, display, and communicate information
- access needed information from printed media
Standard 3- Mathematics
-collect and display data
Standard 6- Interconnectedness:Common Themes
-Ancalyze data by making tables and graphs and looking
for patterns of change.