LESSON PLAN

LESSON PLAN

Name: Miss Clark Date: February 10, 2004

Content Area: Science____________Topic: Ecology/ Ecosystems_

Todays Lesson: Food Chains______Grade Level: _5__

LESSON RATIONALE

New York State Learning Standard & Key Idea:

New York State Standard #4- Science:

Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.

Key Idea 6:

Plants and animals depend on each other and their physical environment.

Instructional Objectives:

1. Given a data chart, the students will be able to develop a strong knowledge base of the reasons for how, why and where food chains form with 80% accuracy.

2. After participating in a word chaining exercise, the students will be able to identify what a consumer, producer, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, predator, and prey are with 80% accuracy.

Modifications/Adaptations:

-Worksheets with enlarged print will be available for those students with visual

impairments.

-An FM sound system will be used for students with hearing impairments, and will be

passed around the classroom when in the circle discussion, as well as during

instructional transitions into different areas of the lesson.

Materials: Worksheets (KWLs) Flashcards Markers/crayons Rubrics for assessment

LESSON OPENING

Okay boys and girls, I have a very important question for you today! Can anyone tell me what a food chain is? Or can anyone give me an example of a food chain? Well, today we are going to talk about food chains and how important they are to our world, and I think you will have a lot of fun learning about how and why they are formed in our environment!

LESSON BODY

Activities:

1. Activating prior knowledge:

-Students will be provided with a worksheet titled Food chains: What do they mean to

you. This worksheet serves as an information inventory for the students.

-The students will be allowed approximately 10 minutes to answer the questions on the

inventory, and then will be gathered into an entire class to help the teacher develop a

class chart displaying what the students of the class KNOW about food chains, and what

they WANT to know about food chains (upon the overhead.)

-After creating a class list, the class and teacher then discuss what important facts about

food chains should be made into a class check list for all of the students to learn, and

then a class check list will be made on the board. The checklist will include the guiding

questions: Why are food chains important to our world?

Where do food chains begin?

How are food chains formed?

2. Creating connections with the key idea of food chains:

-After the class checklist is drawn upon the board in the front of the classroom, the

students are then asked to split up into four vocabulary centers, by counting off by 5s.

-At each center, one of seven words are provided to each group of students and slips of

paper are given to the students for the activity.

The words for each center include: consumer, producer, herbivore,

carnivore, omnivore, predator, and prey.

-As each group of students sits at their respective vocabulary center, the task for the

students is to identify two words that are related to the key word and the teacher will

visit with each group and provide a sample word. For example, for the word producer,

the teacher would come and sit with the group and ask the students to think of a word

that is closely related to the word producer. Some related words the teacher could

suggest would be: plant, green, makes food, etc. After providing each group with

modeled practice, the students are then asked to create 2 words on their own and record

them upon the slips of paper at each center.

-When 5 minutes has gone by, each group of students then switches to the next center,

and this continues until each group has been to each vocabulary center once.

-After all the centers have been visited, the students help collect the slips of paper that are

at each center. Bringing them to the center of the room, the students are then asked to

bring their food chain information worksheets and a pencil to the middle of the room

where the class and teacher will sit together in a large circle to have a discussion about

the words each group related/linked to the key words at each center.

-Some sample prompting questions the teacher could use during this exercise could

include: Why did you choose this word?

Why do you think the words are related?

What about this word reminded you of the key word?

-This activity allows the students to present their reasons for writing the word, and a

chance to defend their reasoning for why they feel each word is connected with each

other. It also serves as an opportunity for the students to write down facts and

information that they learned from the discussion that they may not have had on their

worksheet beforehand.

-As the words are discussed and connected to the key words the teacher and children will

physically bend each slip of paper into rings and then connect the key words and

supporting words together to form a real word chain.

3. Checking for understanding:

-Following the word chaining activity, the students are then asked to return to their seats

and given a flash card upon which they are asked to secretly choose a consumer or

producer and then draw a picture of it on one side of the card. On the opposite side of

the flash card, the student is asked to create some hints for their classmates to guess

what animal it might be. For example, the teacher would model the activity for the

students by choosing a Cheetah. However, the teacher must stress the fact that the

students can use ONLY terms such as consumer, producer, herbivore,

carnivore, and omnivore when writing their clues/hints about their chosen

animal/plant.

-Using the example of the Cheetah, the teacher would then give some hints including

facts similar to: This organism is a carnivore, or This carnivore is known for its

spots, or This predator is also well known for its incredible speed.

-Allowing students 15-20 minutes for this portion of the lesson, have students finish up

on their flash card and clues and have them take turns going around the room presenting

their flash cards to the class. The class will then give the student feedback with their

guesses, as well as if they think the student used the terminology correctly within their

clues.

LESSON CLOSING

Alright boys and girls, you did a terrific job on your flash cards and word chains today! Lets review what we know about food chains. Who can tell me why they feel that food chains are important to not only our world, but to us? Who else can tell me where and how food chains form? I have a good question for you to think about as we wrap up our talk about food chains: are we part of a food chain? Why or why not? One last question, will someone share something that they learned from todays lesson that they did not know before? Okay wonderful!

LESSON FOLLOW-UP

-Ask students to think about creating their own food chains, and ask them what types of

animals/plants they would include in their food chain and why.

-After giving them a moment or two to think about this, ask them to go home and create

their own food chain using pictures from magazines. The requirements for the

assignment include the following: students must create their food chain on a poster that

is big enough for the class to see. The students must make the poster colorful and

interesting, as they will be displayed in the hallway for the school and visitors to see.

The students must also include a written description of what organisms their food chain

includes. This description must include the vocabulary learned and discussed during the

word chaining activity. Finally, the food chain must be labeled with those vocabulary

words, and have a written response answering why they think their food chain is

important.

ASSESSMENT

- A written response for the poster assignment will assess why the students feel their food

chain is important and will in turn, allow the teacher to measure how much the student

applied the information given in class in their response to the question.

-A verbal knowledge inventory will also be taken during the word chaining activity, as

the teacher asks the students to explain why they chose the words they did and what

reminded them that those words were somehow related to the key word.

-The data charts provided to each student will also be collected after the poster

assignment has been turned in, in order to assess if the student was able to create notes

from the discussion held during the word chaining activity. (The What I learned

category will have the objectives included in it.-See hand-out)

RESOURCES

Text: A Handbook of Content Literacy Strategies.

By: Elaine C. Stephens & Jean E. Brown

Fact storming pp. 45

K-W-L pp. 47

Text: Science Stories.

By: Janice Koch

Chapter 8 Sustained Inquiry: Exploration of Living Things pp.165

Text: The Inclusive Classroom.

By: Margo A. Mastropieri & Thomas E. Scruggs

Chapter 3 pp.72-73

Chapter 4 pp.92-94, pp. 95-100

Advice from Michele Boyle, School #50, Grade 5

Curriculum outline from www.mcsba.org