Organisms
Lesson 1
Sharing What We Know about Organisms
Students explore what they know about organisms by thinking, talking and drawing about the questions "What are some living things?", "How are organisms alike and different?", and "What do living things need to live and be healthy?"
3. Lesson set up and Management
INQA Scientific investigations involve asking and trying to answer a question about the natural world by making and recording observations.
INQC Scientists develop explanations, using recorded observations (evidence).
INQD Scientists report on their investigations to other scientists, using drawings and words.
INQF All scientific observations must be reported honestly and accurately
Students express current knowledge and understandings they have about living things, their characteristics and needs. No new concepts about soil are introduced.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
- This lesson is the time, if not earlier, to order the living materials needed for Lessons 4 and 5, 7 and 8, and 9 and 10. Be aware that teachers need to allow 20 business days for the date of order until the organisms arrive.
- Students are asked to draw a living thing and add to the drawing what they think the living thing needs to live and be healthy. They also should label various elements of the drawing. This is an activity easily done on white drawing paper.
- The lesson calls for three charts to be used throughout the unit: "Our List of Living Things", "Ways We Think Plants and Animals are Alike", "Ways We Think Plants and Animals are Different." The last two can be organized on a box & T-chart to scaffold for later writing.
Student drawing of an organism and
what it needsHow plants and animals are the
same/different box & T-chart
Student Management:
- Since this lesson serves as an assessment of prior knowledge of the students do not give students too much information about what a living thing or organism is or isn't.
- Ask students to draw a living thing on their paper and then add to the picture whatever they think the living thing needs to live and be healthy.
- Encourage students to label the parts of the drawing and write a sentence about their drawing.
Students should label their drawings.
- If necessary stop the lesson after students have completed their drawings. The discussion about how plants and animals are the same and different and characteristics of plants and animals and filling out the class charts can occur as a second lesson if needed.
- Have students think and write individually about what they know about plants and animals and how they are the same and different before discussing it as a class. Then have them share ideas with a partner and finally proceed to the whole class discussion. This "Think-Pair-Share" format will give the quiet children an opportunity to think and express their ideas even if they might not volunteer in front of the class.
- A vivid way to illustrate what students knew before and after the unit can be to save their living thing picture from Lesson 1 and mount it on the top half of a piece of construction paper. Then at the end of the unit have them draw label and write about a new picture of what they know about living things and mount it on the bottom half of construction paper.
- Be sure to document comments and observations that students make. Use the Clipboard Cruise sheet as an ongoing embedded anecdotal assessment tool. This way the teacher will have notes about "ah-has" and misconceptions throughout the lesson.
Writing Support:
- Use a box & T-chart organizer throughout the discussion comparing plants and animals. This makes a good writing organizer.
- Have students think and write in their science notebooks individually about what they know about plants and animals and how they are the same and different. Then have them share ideas with a partner and finally proceed to the whole class discussion. This "Think-Pair-Share" format will give the quiet children an opportunity to think and express their ideas even if they might not volunteer in front of the class.
Reading Support:
- Jack's Garden by Henry Cole is a particularly good book as a read aloud to students. It shows both animals and plants in juxtaposition to elicit a good discussion about what makes them living things.
Cole, Henry. Jack's Garden. Trumpet Special Edition. 1995
ISBN 0-590-05210-1 - Two books that might make good student reading books depending on the student’s reading level are Walkabout: MiniBeasts and Walkabout: Under the Ground both by Henry Pluckrose. Both books discuss various organisms and broaden student understanding of organisms and their habitats. They would provide reading practice opportunities while integrating reading with science.
Pluckrose, Henry. Walkabout: Minibeasts. Children’s Press. 1994
ISBN 0-516-08119-5
Pluckrose, Henry. Walkabout: Under the Ground. Children’s Press. 1994
ISBN 0-516-08122-5