Emily Basham March 5, 2013 Growing Grasslands and Review State Standard: 4-2 The student will demonstrate

an understanding of the characteristics and patterns of behavior that allow organisms to survive in their own distinct environments. (Life Science) Indicator: 4-2.2 Explain how the characteristics of distinct environments (including swamps, rivers and streams, tropical rain forests, deserts, and the polar regions) influence the variety of organisms in each. Learning Objective: The student will be able to write a biome acrostic containing five facts about the grassland biome. Essential Question: How do the characteristics of grasslands influence the organisms that live there? Assessment: The teacher will collect the biome acrostic and check it for five facts about the grasslands biome. The teacher will record completion and correctness in an anything chart. Activities/Procedures: Opening Hook and EQ: The teacher will have a student read the EQ. The class will discuss how they may answer the EQ. The students will do a Whats inside my head? activity in which they will write everything they know about grasslands in a thought bubble. If the students cannot come up with things they know, have them write questions in their thought bubble. The students will science talk about what they know with a partner. Activities: The students will take notes in the Biome Chart as the teacher discusses biomes using a PowerPoint. The students will be encouraged to participate in the instruction through note taking, responding to pictures of grasslands, and answering questions. The teacher will brainstorm ideas for a biome acrostic and will model a short biome acrostic. Students will write a biome acrostic using any word that is five or more letters long. Each letter is to include a phrase or sentence about the grasslands biome. If students become stuck, they may brainstorm with a partner. Review game the teacher shows students pictures of plants, animals, landforms, and other features of biomes via PowerPoint. The students, who will be in small teams, will write their answers on a dry-erasable page protector. They will receive points based on their correct answers. The students will decide which biome the picture is describing. The teacher will ask the student to describe why they believe that picture is describing that biome. Closure/Answering the EQ: The class will science talk about adaptations. The teacher will ask the students to turn and talk about the EQ with a partner. Then the students will answer the EQ in a whole group discussion. Accommodations: ESL: The teacher will speak all directions as well as restate and reword as necessary. Each activity will be modeled before the students attempt it. The students will also benefit from multiple pictorial representations of grasslands and other biomes.

Special Education: The students will receive extra time and additional instruction as needed. Student may also select a short word to use as the base of their acrostic. The teacher may need to help students selecting an appropriate word for the acrostic. Filling in a graphic organizer will help students to determine which facts are important. Early Finishers: Options: 1) Challenge them to think of more details to add to their acrostic. 2) Work on unfinished class work. 3) Share acrostic with a partner. 4) Science talk with a partner. 5) Read or draw silently. 6) Write another acrostic. Materials: Biome Chart (one per student); Grasslands PowerPoint; pencil and paper for each student; Promethean Board; Review game PowerPoint; dry erase markers; sheet protectors; 1 paper towel per team (for eraser) Development of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: 1) What questions do you have about the features of grasslands? (Creating) 2) How are animal adaptations related to grasslands? (Analysis) 3) What are the differences between grasslands and other biomes? (Application)