Organisms
Lesson 15
How Are Our Plants and Animals Alike and Different?
Students have compared plants to plants and animals to animals. Now they will continue to APPLY what they have learned to compare and contrast plants and animals. The focus question is in the title of this lesson. Students continue to look at the needs of organisms and to use a graphic organizer to record the similarities and differences.
3. Lesson set up and Management
SYSTEMS GLE 1.1.6 Understand characteristics of living organisms: identify observable characteristics of living organisms and observe and describe characteristics of living organisms.
SYSTEMS GLE 1.3.8 Know that most living things need food, water, and air: observe and record that most living things need food, water, and air and observe and record or demonstrate that plants need light.
INQUIRY GLE 2.1.1 Understand how to ask a question about objects, organisms and events in the environment: Ask questions about objects, organisms, and events based on observations of the natural world.
- Students discuss what they have observed in the freshwater and woodland habitats to understand that plants and animals are organisms that are alike in some ways and different in other ways.
- Students explore the needs of animals through reading about how a zookeeper meets the needs of a crocodile.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
- Be sure to run copies of the reading "A Crocodile Comes to the Zoo" and the "Comparing Plants and Animals" Venn diagram (page 180) or the box & T-chart.
Student Management:
- While students can view the class chart "Comparing Plants and Animals." It is easier for them to have the small copy for their group at hand as well. They can refer to it more easily than to the class chart.
- Teachers might prefer to do the story "A Crocodile Comes to the Zoo" as a learning center. If that is the case, run enough copies of the story for students to read together or individually at their center.
- The Venn diagram or box & T-chart provides evidence of learning for the teacher to evaluate when thinking about skills concepts students have acquired.
- Consider the following questions when assessing student learning as you observe students during this lesson:
- Are the students progressing in their ability to us compare/contrast graphic organizers?
- Can the student identify some of the likenesses between groups of organisms such as basic needs, growth, change and death?
- Can students identify some differences between groups of organisms such as appearance, structure, special needs and where they live?
- Do students’ comments reflect their experiences in this unit?
- Are students able to list some basic needs common to plants and animals?
- Can students draw comparisons between the needs of the crocodile and those of the animals they have been studying?
Writing Support:
- Students could use the box & T-chart as a graphic organizer and then use a compare and contrast writing frame to organize their box & T-chart information into a scaffolded paragraph. When using the box & T-chart in the "differences" section for each statement about plants they should make an opposing statement about animals such as "the plants don’t move on their own, but the animals do move on their own." This gives them an easy compare/contrast sentence structure.
- Be sure not to over use this compare/contrast writing strategy. There are several places in the unit that it could be used, pick one.
Reading Support:
- Read together the reading selection from the Organisms Teacher’s Guide "A Crocodile Comes to the Zoo". Some students will be able to read this independently but some will not. This is a good practice in reading and following directions.
- Teachers might prefer to do the story "A Crocodile Comes to the Zoo" as a learning center. If that is the case run enough copies of the story for students to read together or individually at their center.
- Read aloud the story Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by Bernard Waber. This is a fictional story of a crocodile that lives with a family on 88th street and gets into difficulties with the neighbors. Lyle walks, talks, and problem solves like a human being. After reading this to the class have them compare this story to the reading selection "A Crocodile Comes to the Zoo" to learn about differences in genre between fiction and non-fiction or fantasy fiction and realistic fiction.