Title: Animate versus inanimate
Students classify different objects and living organisms according to being either animate or inanimate and later sort them by which of the five kingdoms or groups of living things they think they belong to. At first, they will only have the animal kingdom and the kingdom of plants to draw from. This lesson will be taught in the students' dominant language, as a whole class, followed by an activity where students will work in small groups.
Students will be offered a set of pictures including objects, animals and plants (i.e. tree, giraffe, table, fly, rose) and discuss if they are animate or inanimate. At the completion of this lesson, the students will come up with two categories of cards, one for organisms and another for objects. This lesson will be later repeated by adding different cards. Once the students have a clear understanding of the difference between animate and inanimate, the activity is repeated only with live organisms and begin classifying them according to one or another kingdom (i.e. plant vs. animal)
Performance Task I- Categorizing
The lesson plans have been broken down further into tasks and have been written with the student in mind. The descriptions give the student a clear understanding of what they are expected to do, how they have to do it, and how they are going to be assessed. The students will receive copies of the assessment by which they will evaluate their own work.
I don't assume that the students have had much experience with performance tasks learning. Therefore, it is important to model the first few lessons as a class. This will ensure students' success in completing the different steps expected of them. For such a purpose I suggest the use of an LCD or overhead projector to go over the process.
The performance tasks are to be given to the students prior to the beginning of the task. It is the road map that the student, will use to be able to perform what we are asking them to do. As part of the process the students will also be able to preview the assessment tool by which they will be evaluated. Please look at the Appendix for a sample of the evaluation rubrics.
Background: There are millions of living organisms that are classified according to five kingdoms or groups of living things. The kingdoms all have in common that the organisms are made up of one or more cells, take in food, grow and reproduce or split to make new cells.
Task: You will work with your group in classifying the picture cards between animate and inanimate objects. Then, you will classify the cards of living (animate) organisms between plants and animals.
Purpose: To differentiate between living (animate) and non-living (inanimate) and to classify living organisms between plants and animals.
Procedure: Begin by cutting two 3 by 5 cards in half. Write one label in each of the cards: animate, inanimate, plant kingdom, animal kingdom.
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- Take the two cards labeled animate and inanimate and place them on the table in front of your group.
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- Taking turns with your classmates, begin placing a card at a time under each of the labels.
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- Before you move on to the next card, the student's whose turn it is will ask to the rest of the group the following question:
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Is the …… animate or inanimate?
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- The rest of the group will respond with the following phrase:
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The …… is an animate/inanimate because …
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- When you finish, take some construction paper; individually write the labels animate and inanimate, and write under each column the name of each of the objects in front of the group.
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- Repeat the same steps with the labels plant and animal using the following sentence starters:
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Is the ……. a plant or an animal?
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The ….. is a plant/animal because….
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- Finally, write on the other side of the construction paper the labels and the names of each of the animate organisms in front of your group.
Audience: Classmates and teacher
Assessment: Please see Appendix - Performance Task Listing/Classifying
Extension: This lesson can be repeated as an integrated lesson, making sure that the names of each of the objects and organisms are listed on the card. Additionally, other cards can be added that include organisms from the kingdom monera, protista, or fungi.
Home-School Connection: Students will observe their backyard or closest plot to their homes, create a data table that depicts the number, and draw some of the most common ones according to whether they are a plant or an animal.
Integrated Lesson
Title: Food chains
All living organisms are important whether they are in the bottom or the top of the food chain. The interdependence among organisms creates a balance that when disturbed at any level affects everyone else.
Students in groups will create simple food webs and chains with cutout pictures to demonstrate the interdependence of human on other plants, animals, and organisms for our growth, development, and wellbeing. They will proceed by labeling each of the pictures and the relationships among them.
First, we will begin reading any of the poems of
Abecedario De Los Animales
by Alma Flor Ada (1990). We will discuss the poem and talk about how the animal is alike and different to us. What do they need to live? How often do we eat? Where does our food come from?, etc. Next, we will read the following key concepts and look for examples in our lives.
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- Humans depend on other species as sources of food, shelter, and economic gains
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- Life on earth is dependent on food chains, webs and pyramids
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- Humans have direct and indirect effects on our environment and habitat
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- There are many types of habitats and ecosystems
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This will be followed by a shared reading activity of
Ecosystems and food chains
(Sabin, 1985). As the different food webs, chains, and pyramids the teacher will depict on a chart how the different organisms are related and dependent on each other.
This will be followed by an activity where each group of students glues a series of pictures that include the sun, plants, rabbits, trees, owl, children, and a cow. The children glue the sun in the middle of the page and the rest of the pictures around it. Then, the connections between each of the pictures will be made by drawing a line to reflect the dependence on each other for food. Each picture will be labeled with its name and whether it is a primary producer, primary consumer, or secondary consumer.
Second language development
Title: Naturalist Journal Fieldwork
Students in groups will observe periodically one square yard permanent plot of land and look for evidence of life. Students will pose questions, conduct simple experiments, gather data in the form of species richness, diversity, and evenness; and communicate their findings orally and in writing as they compare two permanent plots through the seasons.
First, we will begin with a choral reading (all students read at the same time) of one of Alma Flor Ada's poems introduced in the previous lesson. Next we will do a shared reading activity of
One Small Square: Backyard
(Silver, 1993) and create an experiential chart about the school lawn or the backyard. We will create a list of those plants and animals they have observed around the school or backyard. At the completion, we will be reading the key concepts of the unit.
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- Interconnections of species plays a significant role in the functioning of ecosystems
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- Humans have direct and indirect effects on our environment and habitat
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- There are many types of habitats and ecosystems
Next, we will talk about how we can gather data by making observations using our senses. Also, the importance of not disturbing a habitat will be highlighted and as a result the introduction of only working on a permanent plot will be presented as an alternative.
As described earlier in the introduction, this will be one of the most important lessons in as much as it will lay down the process and procedures to follow when doing fieldwork. The emphasis will be on gathering data using the senses, how to enter a journal entry, and on presenting the findings to the group and the class.
Performance Task II-Gathering data from permanent plot
Background: The Earth is made up of huge natural areas called biomes. Some examples of biomes are forest, deserts, and oceans. Within each biome there can be thousands of ecosystems. An ecosystem is a group of organisms and the place where they live including the factors that make life possible. A habitat is a geographical location where animals live. Urban habitats share many characteristics with other habitats in so much as there is interdependence among the different organisms that live there.
Task: You will create an entry in your naturalist log of everything you observe in the permanent plot.
Purpose: To gather systematic data of everything you observe in the backyard permanent plot and to begin discovering the interconnections between soil, plants and animals in an urban habitat.
Procedure: Take your naturalist journal.
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- Write today's date.
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- In the next line write the season (spring, summer, fall, winter.)
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- Next, write the time of the day that you are making the observation.
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- After, visit the permanent plot and draw all the organisms and plants you can observe without disturbing the plot or area you are observing.
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- Label all the plants and organisms that you can name.
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- Use the rubric to assess your work.
Audience: Classmates and teacher
Assessment: See Appendix - Performance Task Gathering Fieldwork Data
Extension: The same activity will be repeated with the sense of hearing, and smell. The students then can gather data by using all the senses at once to create a chart or data table that is labeled species richness (how many of each different species there are), species diversity (how many different species there are in all), and evenness (are all the species represented in the same numbers or not?).
Home-School Connection: Students observe their backyard or other lot and make a list of those plants and animals they observe.
Related L2 vocabulary: observe (observar), draw (dibuja), write (escribe), name (nombra), list (lista)
Core vocabulary: species (especie), senses (sentidos), sight (vista), hearing (oido), smell (olfato), touch (tacto), diversity (diversidad), environment (medio ambiente), soil (tierra), journal (cuaderno), permanent plot (recuadro permanente), plant (planta), Animal (animal).
Extended vocabulary: species richness (riqueza de especies), species diversity (diversidad de especies), species evenness (equilibrio de especies)
Specific language structures addressed (scaffold oral expression): ¿Cuáles son algunos de los animales que has visto/oido/olido/observado en el recuadro permanente? Los animals que he visto/oido/olido/observado en el recuadro permanente son…
¿Cuáles son algunas de las plantas que has visto/oido/olido/observado en el recuadro permanente? Los animals que he visto/oido/olido/observado en el recuadro permanente son…
And then there were more
The following lessons will share the same structure as the previous ones and are here listed as extensions. All of them will begin with a poem or a book from the teacher or student's bibliography, followed by some of the key concepts above listed. Then, we will discuss what we learnt in the previous lessons and will relate what we are about to learn to our lives. Consequently, the other standards listed on this unit will be targeted during the implementation of these activities.
Language arts: Creating a field guide that describes each of the species represented in the schoolyard by shape, color, size, color, pattern and sounds. As a written prompt, consider making an adaptation of a folk story such as Little Red Riding Hood, or the Three Little Pigs with food webs and chains in mind.
Art: Illustrate a field guide to the school backyard. Create a collage or mural with all the colors present in each of the permanent plots through the seasons. How would they be different?
Science: Comparing the school species richness, diversity, and evenness permanent plot to the nearest community garden, marshland, or shoreline. Make a science board describing the differences between two urban habitats throughout the fall and winter seasons. Where do organisms go in the winter months (migration and local habitats). Creating a moth trap with an ultraviolet lamp.
Social Studies: Color a map of North America, or other continent, with the most important biomes represented in it (i.e. forests, grasslands, shrub and scrublands, deserts, mountains, tundra)
From the backyard to the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers
Once the students have made multiple observations of the permanent plot at different times of the day, the control plot (that which will not be disturbed throughout the year) can begin to be observed and comparisons made in relation to the above mentioned criteria. Additionally, the children will begin building the butterfly garden as another habitat that they will observe and gather data about its species richness, diversity, and evenness as they closely look at the food chains, webs and pyramids.
The Fair Haven community in New Haven is lucky to have the affluence of the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers that can be used as comparisons sites when observing different habitats. Because they are within walking distance to our school, the children will be able to practice the data gathering and observation skills learned throughout the unit to compare and analyze the differences on species richness, diversity, and evenness to these or other sites around the city.
Additionally, a comparison of soil samples will be taken from each of the plots after, we looked at the gathered data and will be sent to the Connecticut Agricultural Station for analysis. These results will be added to the collected data and then compare the soils' results to the types of plants that grow on those plots.
Once the students have made multiple observations of the permanent plot at different times of the day, the control plot (that which will not be disturbed throughout the year) can begin to be observed and comparisons made in relation to the above mentioned criteria. Additionally, the children will begin building the butterfly garden as another habitat that they will observe and gather data about its species richness, diversity, and evenness as they closely look at the food chains, webs and pyramids.
