Fun with Raccoons

Ashlea Wentzel
Pre-K/Life Science Exploration of Living Things

Common Core Standards:

With modeling and support, identify
physical characteristics and simple
behaviors of living things.
With modeling and support, identify
and explore the relationship between
living things and their environments
(e.g., habitats, food, eating habits,
etc.).
With modeling and support, demonstrate
knowledge of body
parts and bodily processes (e.g.,
eating, sleeping, breathing, walking)
in humans and other animals.
With modeling and support, demonstrate
an understanding that
living things change over time (e.g.,life cycle).
With modeling and support, recognize
similarities and differences
between people and other living things.
Lesson Summary:
This lesson will allow children to learn more about raccoons, how they live in our world, what they eat, how
they sleep, their babies, and similarities and differences between raccoons and humans.
Estimated Duration:
This lesson will be broken up into five 25 minute sessions over five days of class.
Commentary: I plan to engage the students by asking them what they know already about raccoons, also I will
include a couple of stories regarding raccoons and facts about raccoons that the kids will find interesting. I will
have students complete some fun crafts and activities to go along with learning all about raccoons.

Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
First 5 minutes: I will read Whats Awake? Raccoons By Patricia Whitehouse
For 10 minutes I will discuss with students new ideas that were learned in the book such as what nocturnal
animals are, what raccoons eat, where they sleep, and what they look like. I will write on the board or large
paper the ideas the kids learned. I will also answer and questions the kids have from the book.
For the last 10 minutes of the lesson we will play a game on the whiteboard that focuses on what raccoons eat.
I will display the game and let the children decide which items in the game the raccoon would eat or what they
would not eat.

Day 2:
First 5 minutes review with the students the new ideas from lesson #1, and answer any questions kids may
have thought of since the first lesson.
For 5 minutes we will read Its a Baby Raccoon by Kelly Doudna
Students will then discuss similarities and differences between raccoon babies and human babies for 10
minutes.
Students will then play along with a game created by me that will displayed on the whiteboard and tell if an
item is for a human baby or a raccoon baby for the last 5 minutes.
Day 3:
For first 5 minutes students and I will review previous 2 lessons, and any questions the students have thought
of since the first lessons. We will review both games that were played in the first 2 lessons as well.
For 10 minutes I will talk about what is in a raccoon habitat. Where raccoons sleep, and like to stay. We will
discuss how raccoons live mostly in heavily wooded areas, like to be near lakes and streams, but can also live
in cities and suburbs.
For 10 minutes students will do a coloring page that shows raccoons in their habitats.
Day 4:
For first 5 minutes students will review what we learned in the previous lessons, including any questions the
students have thought of since previous lessons.
For 10 minutes we will watch the video from youtube nformation about Raccoons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZdUWtNVs0g Students can then ask any questions they have, and we
will discuss new terms or ideas in the video.

For 10 minutes we will play the game from the first day to review what raccoons eat.
Day 5:
For the first 5 minutes I will review with the students the previous lessons
For 5 minutes we will read Little Golden Books Little Raccoons Nighttime Adventure
For 5 minutes we will revisit the board we created the first day of what we know and think to be true about
raccoons and cross of the the things we know are not true and add more if necessary.
For 10 minutes we will do a full class interactive test/review over what was learned using a game I developed
for the class to displayed on the whiteboard. I will read the questions outloud and have the students each
answer a question with help from their other classmates when needed.

Pre-Assessment:
For my pre-assessment I will ask the students what they know about raccoons. We will write down what we
know or think to be true about raccoons and display it in the classroom over the week we are doing our lesson.
Scoring Guidelines:
The pre-assessment will be graded at the end of the weeklong lesson. The students will be able to see
what they knew before the lesson was completed as well as add to their list the new ideas they have
learned.
Students will be assessed daily through our verbal reviews of previous lessons. This will provide me with what
the children are retaining, and what we still need to review and work on throughout our weeklong lesson.
Post-Assessment:
Students will do a group test that is conducted in the form of a game where I will read the questions and the
students will individually be asked a question. If the student is unable to answer, they may ask for help from
their classmates.
Scoring Guidelines:
This will be scored by me as we are doing the review test as a group. There will be no official score,
but the review test will be a good way to gauge what students have retained. It will also allow students
to help one another in recalling what was learned earlier in the lessons.

Differentiated Instructional Support

Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated
students: students who are advanced, and retain better information will be used as models for the other
students. Additional material can be added such as habitat cards, allowing children to play games that I created
on their own, and allowing students to ask their own questions.
Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the
material: for students who struggling with concepts I can send home materials with new words and ideas that
were discussed in the lessons for them to explore further. Also by teaming up with students who have a better
grasp on things the children may learn more through modeling. Including them in discussions and allowing
them to ask questions and taking time to answer them and allowing for extra time for that when necessary.

Extension
Provide a link to a website where students could go to learn more about the standards you are addressing in
your lesson.
Briefly explain what the site is and how students could benefit from using it.

Homework Options and Home Connections

Using social media and take home handoutsI can relay information from the lessons of the day, and provide the
activities the children did for the day, as well as provide links for more information the students can research at
home.

Interdisciplinary Connections
This lesson crosses over into vocabulary by learning new terms and their meanings, as well as letters, such as
r is for raccoon, h is for habitat, etc.
Materials and Resources:

For teachers

Books:
Whats Awake? Raccoon
Its a Baby Raccoon
Little Raccoons Nighttime Adventure
Crayons
Raccoon habitat coloring pages
Computer

White board
Online games created by me
Large paper
Markers

For students

Smartboard

Key Vocabulary
Nocturnal
Habitat
Omnivore
Predator
Nursery

Additional Notes
This lesson is a fun way of using animals that most young children know to learn differences between animals
and humans. Also a way to bring technology into a pre-k classroom where it is very first introduced.