4th Grade Science

September 16-20, 2013

Content Standards:
Essential Standards: 4.L.1 Understand the effects of environmental changes, adaptations and behaviors that enable animals (including humans) to survive in changing habitats.

Materials Needed:
-Smart file on millipedes (uploaded into resources) -Graphic Organizer (provided in Appendix) - Science Journals - Frog habitat materials

Essential Questions:
How do millipedes characteristics and behaviors enable them to survive in their habitat?

Goals/objectives:
Students will collaborate in groups to articulate specific adaptations that enable millipedes to survive in their habitats. Students will work individually in their science journals to thoroughly explain and articulate specific adaptations that enable millipedes to survive in their habitats. Students will successfully create a frog habitat.

Monday:
Before: Begin the lesson by accessing their prior knowledge from last weeks lessons. Ask students to think-pair-share in order to answer the following question: What are the two different types of adaptations that we observed last week? Students should answer behavioral and physical characteristics. Pull up the SMART file with the graphic organizer slide up. Assign the students to copy the organizer into their science journals. Once this is completed, explain the jigsaw method for collecting information. Tell students that they are going to be looking for specific behavioral characteristics in their activity today. Pull up the following slide with the information on the millipedes. During: Have students break into their groups for the specific portion of the organizer. Give them about 5-7 minutes to read the slide and fill out their portion of the graphic organizer together. Once this is finished, have them come back to their original groups and each person will teach the other person about their specific element of the graphic organizer. Once complete, every student should have his or her graphic organizer filled out completely.

Conclude: Call on groups to share what they learned from the activity. Share with students what they will be doing the next day.

Tuesday:
Repeat Mondays activities, except have students fill out new graphic organizer for physical characteristics of the millipede. Conclude lesson by introducing their task for Thursday, which will be to answer their journal prompt question: How do millipedes behavior and characteristics enable them to survive in their environment? Hand our rubric for the assignment and tell students to be thinking of ideas for responding to the question.

Thursday:
Give students time to respond in their journals to the journal prompt.

Friday:
Setting up the frog habitat Procedures: Break students into 3 groups. Each group will be responsible for setting up one habitat. Give specific tasks for students to complete for setting up the habitat. To conclude lesson, have each group name one element of the habitat that they think is important for the survival of the frog before they can leave the classroom.

Differentiation:
Students with special needs: Print out graphic organizers for them Jigsaw type of learning is utilized to ensure that students are able to cover all content. Provide books on millipedes if SMART file is not a medium in which students are able to benefit from Print out instructions for setting up frog habitat

ESL students: Jigsaw method is used to ensure that all students are able to cover all content. Print out graphic organizer for them If books in their language about millipedes are available, allow them to use those for gathering information Print out instructions for setting up frog habitat

AG students:

Jigsaw method allows AG students to teach other students in their group what they learned more in depth if they gather more information that an average learner might gather.

Assessment
(This is from last weeks lessons. We realized the students needed more preparation to respond to the journal prompt.) To assess students understanding, the teacher will collect the science journal and using the rubric below will assess the students. 4= Student exceeds grade level expectations by clearly articulating how millipedes characteristics help them live in their habitat. They use multiple examples and have limited grammatical errors. 3= Student meets grade level expectations. Their response makes sense and is supported with an example. 2= Students response is average. Their response is clear but is not supported with examples. 1= Students response is below average. Response is unclear and/or off topic

Behavior 1. Burrowing (digging into the ground)

How does this behavior enable the animal to survive?

2. Coiling (rolling up into a spiral)

3. Shooting fluid

4. Active at night

Physical Characteristic 1. Hard outer shell (exoskeleton)

How does this enable them to survive?

2. Many legs

3. Antennae

4. Spiracles