KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Teacher Candidate:

Morgan Murray

Cooperating Teacher:
Group Size:

25

Subject or Topic:

Date: 10/17/15
Coop. Initials

Allotted Time 40 minutes

Grade Level 2nd

Lady bug life cycle

Section

STANDARD:
3.1.3.A3 Illustrate how plants and animals go through predictable life cycles that include
birth, growth, development, reproduction, and death.
I. Performance Objectives (Learning Outcomes):
The 2nd grade students will be able to recite the life cycle of a lady bug by discussing,
viewing, and drawing each stage.
II. Instructional Materials
Handouts (life cycle worksheet)
Pencils
Pictures of ladybug at each stage in the life cycle
III. Subject Matter/Content (prerequisite skills, key vocabulary, big idea, outline of
additional content)
A. Prerequisite skills
1) Fine motor skills
B. Key Vocabulary
1) Life cycle/ stages
a. Egg- first stage in ladybug lifecycle
b. Larva-second stage in ladybug lifecycle
c. Pupa-third stage I ladybug lifecycle
d. Adult-last stage in ladybug lifecycle
e. Life cycle- the series of changes in the life of an organism
C. Big Idea
1) What does the lady bug life cycle look like
D. Additional content
1) Reciting the lady bug life cycle:

a. What are the stages?

b. What is the exact order of the stages?
c. How long does each stage last?
IV. Implementation
A. Introduction
1) To introduce this lesson the teacher will first ask the students if they
remember what they spoke about in the last lesson (which would be
insects).
2) The teacher will then let the students know that today they will be
focusing on one specific insect.
3) Next the teacher will pull up a zoomed in picture of a lady bug so
that students can only see part of the lady bug, and the students will
have to guess what insect it is that they will be talking about.
B. Development
1) The teacher will tell the students that the picture they just viewed
was in fact a ladybug.
2) The teacher will then inform students that they will be focusing
todays lesson on the ladybug life cycle.
3) The teacher will write the definition of a life cycle on the board for
the students.
4) The teacher will then ask the students to think about how they
looked when they were born. Do humans come out looking like an
adult? No when babies are born they are small and still have a lot of
growing to do.
5) The students will say that they dont look the same way they do now
as when they were born because they started out as babies and that is
when the teacher will tell students to think if ladybugs also look
different when they are first born.
6) Students will brainstorm with their tables for five minutes on what
they think a ladybug looks like when they are first born.
7) After five minutes the teacher will call each group up to the board
where they will draw what they think a ladybug looks like when it is
born. The students will then explain their drawing to the class. This
will continue until each group has taken a turn.
8) Once every group has shown their ideas the teacher will tell the
students if any group was close and then the teacher will show a
picture of lady bug eggs on the computer.
9) The teacher will tell the students that this is the first stage of the lady
bug life cycle but that there are all together four stages to the lady
bug life cycle. (Egg stage, larval stage, pupa stage, adult stage)
10) The teacher will then tell the students that they will be going to a
website to look at the lifecycle more closely. The teacher will hand

out a worksheet where students have to fill out the lifecycle as they
view it on the website. (see attached)
11) The teacher will go to www.kidsgrowingstrong.org/ladybugs.
12) While on this website students will fill out their worksheet as the
teacher explains each step of the ladybug lifecycle.
13) Once students have completed the worksheet they will put it away in
their science notebook.
14) The teacher will then inform the students that their inquiry for this
lesson will be to observe a real ladybugs lifecycle.
15) The teacher will have ladybug eggs. She will tell the class that they
will not be able to finish the inquiry today because the life cycle of a
ladybug as they have learned today takes more than a day.
16) The teacher will video document the students observations on the
ladybug lifecycle during this inquiry.
17) Each student will tell the teacher what they believe will happen to
the ladybug by the end of this inquiry. Then they will verbally tell
her their observations about the ladybugs current stage (egg stage).
18) This will go on for a few weeks but the teacher will start it today.
19) The teacher each day will find time to video document the students
observations on the ladybugs (this may not take place during science
time maybe just free time and when they ladybug has made it all the
way to the adult stage the teacher will revisit the lady bug lifecycle
with the students and show the students if their hypothesis was right
or not. The teacher will have made a time laps video which speeds
up the lifecycle of the ladybug so they can see how their ladybug
changed in the matter of minutes. The teacher will then get the
students final observations recorded. Were they right or were they
wrong?)
C. Closure
1) The students will have pictures of each stage of the life cycle at their
table and will have to put them in the right order before the lesson
can be finished for the day.
2) The teacher will mention that they will continue with the life cycle
lesson next class since they need more time with it.
D. Accommodations/Differentiation
1) To accommodate Meredith, a 2nd grade girl ADHD, I will have the
class work in small cooperative learning groups to support issues
such as attention, note taking, and clarification
2) Guided notes and detailed instructions will be provided to all
students (see attached)

E. Assessment/Evaluation Plan
1) Formative
a. The teacher will float during the group discussion and take
notes on what the students are saying. She will put these
observations in the students files. The teacher will also collect
the worksheet at the end of class.

V. Reflective Response
A. Report of Student Performance in Terms of Stated Objectives (Reflection on
student performance written after lesson is taught, includes remediation for
students who fail to meet acceptable level of achievement)
Remediation Plan
B. Personal Reflection (Questions written before lesson is taught. Reflective
answers to question recorded after lesson is taught)
1) Did the class understand the concept of a life cycle?
2) Were the terms used in a ladybug lifecycle to challenging for
students?
VI. Resources (in APA format)
A. www.kidsgrowingstrong.org/ladybugs