What do you see?

Science Lesson plan

Jamie-Lee Berends
What do you see?
Grade level: Primary (for both English and French immersion)
Unit: Sight
Estimated Time: 1 hour (60 minutes)
Introduction: Approximately 10 minutes
Outdoor Activity: Approximately 20 minutes
Indoor activity: Approximately 20 minutes
Closure: Approximately 10 minutes
Outcomes: Observe, explore and communicate what the students see around them.
(100-1, 100-2, 201-4, 202-1, 202-2)
Objectives:
Students will be able to work and communicate with classmates on what they
observed as well as follow the rules of being outside.
Students will be able to describe/show what they have seen by providing an artbased project.
Students will be able to repeat some French vocabulary words out loud and use
those words to describe their art project.
Materials:
Outdoor Materials:
Outdoor shoes and clothes
Camera (teacher) for use in later lessons
Baggies to hold objects
Indoor Materials:
Paper
Color pencils / crayons
Cotton balls
Glue
Procedure:
a) Science Literacy focus: This part of the unit is an inquiry-based lesson using
investigation, observations and prediction.

b) Introduction: To introduce this lesson a quick game of I spy could be played as

a whole group. For about 5 minutes let the students describe things around the
classroom that they see and let the other students guess what it is. Once the
children have guessed we can discuss as a class how the students described things
and talk about how details make observation so much more important.
c) Activity:

Provide brief overview of the activity. Rules of being outdoors: remind

students that they have to stay together; they are not to play on the
equipment and remind them of the hands off rule.
Get children ready to go outdoors (weather depending)
Give all children a baggie to place the objects they find outdoors
When outside, instruct children to all look up (regarder en haut). Tell
them to think about all the things they see like the shapes of the clouds or
the color of the sky, maybe they see a bird fly by.
Then instruct the children to look down (regarder vers tes pieds). What
do they see in the ground (they can sit down if they want). Do they see
grass, dirt, rocks, bugs etc.?
Then allow the students to wander around for approx. 5 minutes to
observe and collect 2 or 3 objects they find on the school grounds.
Indoor activity:
Once everyone is situated back indoors the students can then begin their art
representation of what they observed outdoors.
Give the students paper, colours, and art supplies to create pictures of what they
have seen outdoors. Encourage them to be as accurate as they can. Examples of
drawings will probably be: the clouds, the playground, the grass or bugs etc.
d) Productive Questions:
What do you see when you look around you?
What kinds of things do you usually see when you are looking around
your house, school, yard, car etc.?
How does your body move when you are looking at things around you?
When you looked at the ground or in the sky, what colors did you see?
e) Closure:
When the students have completed or are nearly finished their art activity,
we would gather at the meeting corner for the closure discussion.
First ask some of the productive questions to the class such as: what did
you see? What did you feel when you saw what you saw? Did you like
anything more then something else? Talk about the different types of
things they have seen when they looked up in the sky or down at the
ground. (This provides the chance to give the students new French words

such as: les nuages (clouds), la couleur bleu (the colour blue), la gazon
(grass), les roches (rocks) etc.)

After about 5 minutes of discussion let the children present what they put
into their bags. Allow each student to tell you what he or she found and
kept. (Good way to go over French words for each object found which can
be used in another lesson on nature in the future)

Assessment Strategies:

Circulate around the classroom and observe, as students are engaging in the
activity. Look for art style, correct use of colors, preciseness of drawing etc.
Listen to and record how students are describing what they have seen.
Collect student art and see what they have created and if they were able to
understand what they seen.

STSE Real World Connections:

Most students have the ability to see. So this allows them the ability to understand how to
observe something in more detail. This can be used in situations such as: paying more
attention to a sport, being able to see details in a coloring picture or photograph or just the
general ability to observe the world around them.
Observing their parents while they cook at home
Being able to notice colors in their surroundings.
Being able to draw pictures of their family members, pets or surrounding with
more details.
Noticing when the seasons change and the leaves on the trees change
Modifications:
-For the children who are more prone to running off it may be a good idea to plan
accordingly and have an EPA assist the class by joining us outside to make sure there is
enough adult supervision.
-For children who are unable to see they could feel what is around them or hear what is
around them. They could then describe with words (if they are able to) what they hear
when they are outside compared to inside etc.
For some who have a short focus, you may wish to decrease the number of objects
expected to be collected and subsequently used in their artwork.