DIXIE STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

ELEMENTARY 3rd SEMESTER LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

(1/25/13)
Teacher Candidate __Paula Finlinson_____ Grade Level _2__ Title ____Animal Characteristics____
CONTEXTUAL FACTORS (classroom factors)
Contextual Factors:
20 Students
10 girls
10 boys
1 Pacific Islander
4 Hispanic
1 Behavior IEP
3 Academic IEP
3 Speech IEP
2 High level learners
2 SPED students

Classroom environment:

Large room. Multi colored rug at the front of the room. Students are organized in tables
of 4 with all of the students facing the front of the room. The room has a Promethean
board, 4 ipads, clickers, and projector. Large tiki reading hut in the corner.
WALK-AWAY (As a result of this lesson, what do I want the students to know, understand, and be able to do?)
State Standard/Objective:
2nd Grade Science
Standard 4 Objective 2.b Communicate and justify how the physical characteristics of living things help them meet their
basic needs.

Content Walk-Away:
Students will understand the physical characteristics of some animals that helps them meet their basic needs.

Language Walk-Away:
Students will write what characteristics helps certain animals meet their basic needs.

Vocabulary:

Physical characteristics, experiment

ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE (What evidence do I need to show the students have
learned the Walk-Away?)

tions (ELL, IEP, GATE, etc.)

Formative Evidence (checking for understanding throughout the lesson):

Observation, question, evaluate responses.

Content Walk-Away Evidence (Summative):

I will observe and record some animals physical characteristics.

Language Walk-Away Evidence (Summative):

I will observe and record some animals physical characteristics.

Approx
.

Modifications/Accomoda-

ELL: Allow them to

verbally tell me the
physical characteristics
instead of writing the
letter.
Low: Give guidance and
suggestions while they
are writing the letter to
me.
High: Ask if they can
think of another animal
that uses the same
physical characteristics
to meet their basic
needs.

ACTIVE LEARNING PLAN

Time
Activate/Building Background Knowledge
In our last lesson we learned about how an animals habitat is suitable for them and how they wouldnt be
able to survive in a different habitat. Do you remember that we talked about how a rattlesnake from the desert
wouldnt be able to live in the tundra and a polar bear wouldnt survive in rainforest. Animals also have
physical characteristics or certain body traits that help them survive in their environment.
SIOP 1,2,3,7,8,9,19
Formative assessment: Students will recall lesson 3 (habitats being suitable).
Learning Goal
Students will understand that
animals have physical
characteristics that helps them
survive in their environment.

Success Criteria
Students will listen intently.

Modification/accommodations: (ELL, IEP, GATE, etc.)

ELL: Pre-teach what physical characteristics are.
Low: Pre-teach what physical characteristics are.

Assessment Strategy
Observation

High: Ask why a polar bear wouldnt survive in the rainforest.

Focus Lesson (I do it)

As we go through these pictures ill talk about the physical characteristics of the animals that helps them
survive in their environment. Then, well do some experiments to help you see how those characteristics help.
This first picture is of an elephant. Which habitat do elephants live in? Right, they live in the rainforest. Now,
think back to when we learned about the rainforest. Is it hot or cold in the rainforest? Right, its very hot and
humid. Elephants dont sweat to keep themselves cool like humans. The very large ears of the elephant are
used as a fan to keep them cool. Watch this clip of the elephant using its ears to fan itself. Their large ears are
a physical characteristic that they use to survive in their hot habitat. These are pictures of many different
types of birds. Do birds live in just one habitat or do they live in many different habitats? Thats right, many
different ones. Because birds live in many different habitats, they eat very different foods of all shapes and
sizes. Look at the beaks on these birds, do you notice how they are all different sizes? The different sizes of
beaks is a physical characteristic that helps them survive. Their beaks are the perfect sizes to pick up and
crack open their food. What kind of animal is this? (zebra). Which habitat does the zebra live in? Zebras have
black and white stripes. You would think that the stripes would help the zebras stand out to their prey but the
stripes actually help camouflage them. A predator like a lion has a hard time picking out one zebra because all
he sees is a sea of black and white stripes. This is a physical characteristic that helps the zebra survive in the
desert. The last picture is of a duck. Some of you might already know what physical characterstic that helps
them? Good, their feathers are covered in oil. This oil helps keep them from being soaking wet all the time
since they spend the majority of their life in the water.

Formative Assessment: Students will listen and answer questions.

Learning Goal
Students will understand that
physical characteristics are traits
that help the animal meet its
needs.

Success Criteria
Students will answer questions.

Assessment Strategy
Questioning and discussion.

Modification/accommodations:
ELL: Say elephant, bird, zebra, and duck in Spanish.
Low: Pre-teach a few of the characteristics so that they can be involved in the conversation.
High: Ask if the students know ahead of time what the oil on a ducks feathers is for.

Guided Instruction (We do it)

We are going to do some experiment rotations to see how the physical characteristics help the animal meet
their needs. Im going to split you up into 4 groups and well rotate through the experiments. You have a
paper to fill out as you go through each of the stations. Make sure you fill in which animal for, The special
characteristic that animal has, and how it helps the animal. Experiment 1 youll do up here with me. We will
use tweezers of different sizes to pick up seeds. Well figure out which one works the best for which seeds and
discuss how it relates to bird beak sizes.
SIOP 18,21,23

Formative Assessment: Students fill in their observation worksheet.

Learning Goal

Success Criteria

Students will understand that

different birds have different beak
sizes to help them meet their
needs.

Students will conduct the

experiment and write down their
observations.

Assessment Strategy
Experiment and worksheet.

Modification/accommodations:
ELL: Ask them how to say some of the key words from the experiment in Spanish.
Low: Pre-teach them how we will do the experiment.
High: Ask them to hypothesize which one will work best and why.

Collaborative/Cooperative (You do it together)

Experiments 2, 3, and 4 youll do together in your groups at the back tables. Experiment 2 youll be looking at
how camouflage helps animals. You will lay down a flat piece of newspaper like this. Youll cut up the other
newspaper into rectangular shapes like this. Im going to assign one person to be the predator. The rest of
you prey will lay your rectangles down on the paper while the predator closes his eyes. After he opens his
eyes the predator will have 15 seconds to find as many pieces of the rectangular newspaper pieces as possible.
This experiment represents how it is difficult for a lion to pick a single zebra out of pack because they all look
the same when they stand around together. Experiment 3 is the duck feather experiment. Everyone will pick
up 2 feathers. dip one of the feathers in oil like this and leave the other without oil. Then youll dip the
feathers in the bowl of water and youll be able to see how the water doesnt soak into the feather that is
covered in oil. The last experiment is the elephant ear experiment. Each of you will pick up 2 of the small
notecards and 2 of the big cardstock papers. Hold the small one up to your ears like this first and flap them
like the elephants do to stay cool. Then use the big cardstock papers and do the same thing. Decide which
papers work better and how this relates to the size of the elephants ears. Youll only have 5 minutes at each
station so work quietly and efficiently.
SIOP 4,5,6,10,11,12,16,17,20,22,24

Formative Assessment: Students will conduct experiments in groups and record observations.
Learning Goal

Success Criteria

Students will understand 3

things: zebras use camouflage,
duck feathers have oil to keep
them dry, and large elephant ears
keep them cool.

Students fill in their worksheet

after conducting each experiment.

Assessment Strategy
Experiment and worksheet.

Modification/accommodations:
ELL: Pre-fill in portions of their worksheet.
Low: Make sure theyre split up into separate groups.
High: Pre-teach them ahead of time on how to do each of the experiments and have them help guide their

group.

Independent (You do it alone)

Now that you have done all of the experiments I want you to think about which one was your favorite. In
your science journal I want you to write me an entry that says which experiment was your favorite, what
animal it involved, the physical characteristic the animal has, and how it helps them meet their basic needs.
Your letter to me needs to be at least 5 lines long to include all of the information.
SIOP 25, 26

Summative Assessment: Students will write me a letter stating their favorite experiment, which animal it
involved, the special physical characteristic the animal has, and how it helps meet that animals basic needs.

Modification/accommodations:
ELL: Allow them to verbally tell me the animal and physical characteristics if they are more comfortable.
Low: Give them guidance and suggestions as they are writing their letter.
High: Ask them if they can think of another animal that has the same physical characteristics that helps them
meet their needs.

Closure/Review of walk-aways, vocabulary, and essential questions

I hope that you learned a lot about animal characteristics today. Why cant all animals live in the same
habitat? What would happen to a lizard if he tried to live in the ocean habitat? What did you learn from the
experiment at station 1 with the bird beaks? What was the most important thing that you learned at station
2 with the camouflage? How many prey was your predator able to catch? At station 3 you did an
experiment with duck oil. What do you think would happen to us if we put oil all over our bodies before we
jumped into the pool? The last experiment was with elephant ears. Do elephants sweat? So what do the
elephants have that helps keep them cool?
(Note: Closure includes student interactions, reflection, and/or demonstrations.)
SIOP 27,28,29,30

SIOP Indicators (Add SIOP number and description within the lesson plan)
Preparation: 1-Content objectives, 2-Language objectives, 3-Content appropriate, 4-Supplementary
materials, 5-Adaptation of content, 6-Meaningful activities
Building Background: 7-Linked to background, 8-Linked to past learning, 9-Key vocabulary
Comprehensive Input: 10-Appropriate speech, 11-Clear explanation, 12-Variety of techniques
Interaction: 16-Opportunity for interaction, 17-Grouping supports objectives, 18-Wait time, 19Opportunity for L1 students
Practice/Application: 20-Hands-on materials, 21-Activities to apply content/language knowledge, 22-

Language skills: reading, writing, listening, speaking

Lesson Delivery: 23-Content objective supported, 24-Language objective supported, 25-Students
engaged, 26-Pacing
Review/Assessment: 27-Review vocabulary, 28-Review concepts, 29-Feedback, 30-Assessment

TEACHING NOTES
What do I need to remember to do? What materials do I need to have ready? What is the approximate time needed for
this lesson?
news papers
scisssors
note cards
card stock
feathers
oil
water cup
bird seeds
array of tweezers

REFLECTION AFTER LESSON

How can I use the assessment data to reflect on & evaluate the outcomes of teaching and learning? How can I transfer
what I learned from teaching this lesson to future teaching? What was effective and not effective? What goals can I set
to improve my practice and student learning?
The students really enjoyed doing the experiments. I dont feel that the summative assessment I chose was a good way to
measure the students knowledge of the objective because some of the students are still not proficient in their writing
skills. The students that are proficient with writing did a great job on the assessment. I feel that the most effective part of
the lesson was the experiments. The students liked being able to conduct the experiments. The most ineffective part like I
said was the summative assessment. In the future I would like to have an assessment that can more appropriately measure
student learning.