LESSON PLAN
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

LESSON ORGANISATION
Year Level: Year 4 Time: 1:45-2:45 Date: 21st October 19’ Students’ Prior Knowledge:

Learning Area:  What an ecosystem is and its importance in

sustaining life on Earth.
Science (Biological sciences & Earth and Space sciences)
 The different types of ecosystems, such as
Technologies (Design and Technologies) deserts and tropical forests.

Strand/Topic from the Australian Curriculum  Human’s can have a harmful impact on such
Living things depend on each other and the environment to ecosystems and place flora and fauna in
survive (ACSSU073) danger.

Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural  How to plan for a project and incorporating
processes and human activity (ACSSU075) elements such as; materials, safety and
sustainability.
Develop and communicate design ideas and decisions
using annotated drawings and appropriate technical terms  How to film using a stop-motion technique on
(WATPPS23) the classroom iPads.

 How to edit a film using movie maker on the

iPads.

General Capabilities (that may potentially be covered in the lesson)

Literacy Numeracy ICT Critical and Ethical Personal and Intercultural
competence creative thinking behaviour Social understanding
competence
Cross-curriculum priorities (may be addressed in the lesson)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia Sustainability
histories and cultures
Sustainability will be addressed in the
lesson by…

 Creating awareness of how

humans impact our
ecosystems and what we can
do to mitigate it for future
generations.
 Being careful about the
materials we use and limiting
the rubbish we produce.
 Using recycled materials and
limiting the purchases of new
materials.
 Using ICT to limit paper use.

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Lesson Objectives (i.e. anticipated outcomes of this lesson, in point form beginning with an action verb)

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:

 Demonstrate sound planning skills by designing a diorama of an ecosystem individually using the planning
guide.
 Explain verbally to a group member how their chosen ecosystem can be harmed by human impact.

Teacher’s Prior Preparation/Organisation: Provision for students at educational risk:

 Create planning document and design brief for
students to refer to.
 Create PowerPoint slide for the introduction of the
project.
 Make a diorama prior to the lesson to show
students so they have a clear understanding of
what is expected of them.
 Special needs Education Assistant to be
helping student with autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) for the entirety of the lesson.
 Students who are easily distracted are to be
watched carefully during the planning and
designing time. Behaviours management may
have to be reinforced if students are distracting
those willing to learn.

 Write the learning intention and Success Criteria on  Students who are having trouble in
the board for students to refer to. understanding the project can be taken into a
small group with the teacher for a better
 Make clue boxes for motivational activity explanation.

 Make exit slips

LESSON EVALUATION (to be completed AFTER the lesson)

Assessment of Lesson Objective and Suggestions for Improvement:

 Was the planning document too easy for the students to complete?

 If not, was the document too difficult for the students?

 Were the students able to comprehend the project?

 How did the students go in researching using the iPads?

 Should the students have had more time to recall the content of ecosystems?

Teacher self-reflection and self-evaluation:

 Was the project engaging enough?

 Should I have touched on the design brief more?

 Was my explanations clear to the students?

 Did I plan the lesson too long/too short?

 Was the lesson engaging enough?

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LESSON DELIVERY (attach worksheets, examples, marking key, etc, as relevant)

Time Motivation and Introduction:

1:45 PM - Teacher will use an attention grabber to engage the students and
gain their focus to the front of the class.
- Once all students are focused on the teacher and chatter has
stopped, the teacher will now introduce the lesson.
Year 4’s, for the Remainder of the afternoon, we will be starting our Clue boxes
Science and Technologies project. Before I give out any more
information, we are going to play a game that will hint at what the
project is about! Every table is going to be getting a clue box. In this
clue box is a set of items that will help you solve the project’s theme. I
will give you and your group 3 minutes to come up with your thoughts
on what it could be. Let’s have all the number 3’s from each table
come and collect a box.
- Students who have been assigned the number three from the start
of the year will make their way up to the teacher and collect one of
the six clue boxes and quietly make their way back to their groups.
- Students will have an assortment of items in their clue boxes to
help them learn the projects theme.
The six boxes will contain:
 Box one (presenting and planning clue): includes a
microphone and planning document.

 Box two (diorama clue): will be a shoebox that has the

letters D, O, R, M & A cut out on paper. There will also be
‘Futurama’ DVD disc in the box.
 Box three (ecosystem): Map of ecosystems of the world
(not labelled with ecosystems)
 Box four (human impact): Statistics of human impact on
the environment and news headlines.
 Box five (stop motion): Coraline DVD, plastic figurine, flip
book

 Box six (iPad): apple and fingerprint picture.

- Students will be warned when there is 1-minute left. The teacher

will make their way around the class whilst the activity is going to
see what ideas students are coming up with.
- Teacher will call time and students will be asked to sit quietly.
- The teacher will now tell the students that all number fours will
present what was in their box and what their contents mean or
reflect.

- All number fours will get the chance to present their group to the

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class. There will be a 20 second discussion between groups after

someone from one group has spoken.
- Once all groups have gone, the teacher will now give the students
2 minutes in their own groups to guess what the project is on. All
number two’s will be asked to bring their clue box back to the
teacher during this time.
- When the 2 minutes is up, the teacher will use an attention grabber
to gain the attention of all students.
- When students are quiet and listening, the teacher will now tell the
students it is time to move on with the lesson and they will find out
if their guesses were correct very soon.

1:55 PM Lesson Steps (Lesson content, structure, strategies & Key Questions):

- The teacher will now introduce the main part of the lesson whilst
standing up at the front of the classroom.

I know that many of you have some great guesses as to what this project is on. Classroom TV
In a moment, I will introduce out project and topic on the classroom TV. Please
remain seated at your desks and give me your full attention. Let’s focus our Apple TV
attention to the TV and watch the presentation.
Laptop
- The teacher will use her laptop to project the presentation to the
TV. At this stage, all students will be facing the front of the PowerPoint
classroom to watch the presentation. The first few slides will presentation
introduce the topic. The teacher will discuss each slide to the
students.

 Slide 1,2 and 3.

So, year 4’s, our project will be on making a diorama based on an ecosystem
of your choice! Who knows what a diorama is?

- Students can discuss in their groups what they think a diorama is.

A diorama is a model that represents either a scene or landscape. In this

project, we will be using shoeboxes to build our dioramas. Now, hands up if
you can remember what an ecosystem is? An ecosystem is a community of
living things, such as the desert or a rainforest. Your mission is to create an
ecosystem out of different materials, but there’s a twist. Hands up if you
remember us talking about how humans can impact and harm our
environment? Good! They absolutely can. So, your job is to re-search how
your chosen ecosystem is being harmed by humans and design your diorama
to showcase the human impact.

For example, you might like to create a diorama based on a polar desert
ecosystem and use blue cellophane to layer over you painted water to show
that sea levels are rising due to climate change.

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Your next step is to use stop-motion to film your human impact on your
ecosystem, and yes I said that correctly! I know how much you guys loved
using your iPads to make stop-motion films last semester, so I thought we’d do
it again. You will be making the film using your stop-motion technique and then
present your diorama and film to your group. The last step you will need to do
is come up with ways we can mitigate the harm on your ecosystem. For
example, could we stop burning lots of fossil fuels or start walking to school
instead of driving to reduce the amount of harmful gases in our air.
Who’s got any questions?

- The teacher can answer two or three questions before moving

onto the last section of the PowerPoint.

 Slides 4 & 5

So, what are we doing today then? We are going to do some researching and
planning for our project. After we look at our success criteria and learning
intention, we will move onto staring the project. But for the next two minutes I
will be explaining the last two slides.

This project will be assessed, meaning I will be giving you a mark on your final
project and your progress throughout the term. You are to all individually
produce your own diorama, but you can help each other with ideas and filming.
Let’s take a look at some examples I found of students who have done their
own dioramas.

- The teacher will show students some examples of dioramas. The

teacher will then bring out the diorama they had made to give the Design Briefs
students a better understanding of how to execute the project.

- Once the students have seen the examples, the teacher will ask
the students if they have any further questions.

- Students will be asked to remain seated. All number ones will be

asked to come forward and collect a design brief for each of their
group members.

- When all students have their design briefs, they will be asked to sit
quietly and read the design brief with the teacher.

- The teacher will read out the main points in the design brief. These
include…

 The introduction and aim

 Planning and designing
 Presentations
 Lesson guides

- Once the teacher has read the important aspects of the design
brief, all students will be asked to give their attention to the
success criteria and learning intention that is now available to see
on the whiteboard.

- Students will read the SC and LI out with the teacher.

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In a minute, you will be starting to research and plan your diorama. I will be
giving you a planning document to go along with your design brief. The
planning and designing document will be very important to managing this
project. It is also very important to have visit the United Nations sustainable
goals page. We are looking at goals 14 and 15, which are about maintaining
healthy ecosystems that are not subject to human harm.

You must fill out your chosen ecosystem, sustainable materials needed, the
human impact and draw a picture of what your diorama will look like. It is
recommended that you take out your ecosystem’s worksheet from last term.
Once you have been handed a planning document, you are able to grab an
iPad for ideas and start designing and planning away. I will be coming around Planning documents
to check everyones understanding of the project.
Science workbooks

- The teacher will now hand out all the planning documents. iPads
Students will be able to go up group by group to collect an iPad for
research. spare paper

- Students will be given 30 minutes to plan and design their

diorama.

- Students are able to have conversations with their group during

the planning.

- The teacher will walk around and check for understanding. The
teacher can ask questions, including asking the students how they
may incorporate sustainability in their project.

- The teacher can take a group of students who may be struggling

with understanding the task to the spare desk at the back of the
room.

- Students will be given a warning when there is 15 minutes

remaining.

- Students can be reminded that they have another lesson to finish

of the planning and designing.

- Once the 15 minutes is over, students will be asked to glue their

design brief and planning document into their Science workbook.

- Students are to remain seated in their desks and wait for the next
instructions.

Lesson Closure:(Review lesson objectives with students)

2:25 PM

- When students are in their seats and showing their full attention to
the teacher, the lesson is able to move on. The teacher will explain
to the students that they will be playing the Kagan game of ‘hand
up, stand up, pair up!’.

- Students will be reminded that they know how to play the game

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well, so they’re should be lots of energy and enthusiasm.

- Students will start by walking around the classroom with their hand
up until they find someone who is not in their group to high five.

- The questions asked will be:

1. What ecosystem have you chosen for your diorama?

2. What human impact affects your ecosystem?

3. Why did you choose this ecosystem?

4. What is your favourite stop motion film that we looked at last

term?

5. What are your thoughts of presenting in front of your peers?

Are you nervous?

- When all the questions have been answered, all students will be Exit slips
asked to sit back at their desks.

- Students will be given an exit slip that will be filled out. The exit slip
will ask the students to write one part of the project they are
excited about doing.

- Students will be given two minutes to write their thoughts on the

exit slip.

- All number five’s will be asked to collect the exit slips and hand
them to the teacher.

- The teacher will use an attention grabber, so the students are

listening to the next instruction.

Ready to rock year 4’s? I am very happy that you were all so
enthusiastic about that project. I am so excited to see what you
guys create and already there is some brilliant designs and ideas
floating around the room. Next lesson, we will be carrying on with
our designing so don’t stress if you didn’t complete it today. Let’s
quietly stand up group by group and put our science books away
so we can start getting packed up for school. Group one may go…

Transition: (What needs to happen prior to the next lesson?)

- Students will start to pack up for the end of the day. The teacher
2:40 PM will make sure all Science workbooks are packed away safely for
the next lesson.

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Assessment: (Were the lesson objectives met? How will these be judged?)

- During this lesson, the teacher will use anecdotal notes. Since it is
the start of the project lessons, the teacher will not use a
structured assessment. The anecdotal notes will help the teacher
in observing each student in regard to their enthusiasm,
participation and critical and creative thinking. The anecdotal
notes can also help the teacher identify which students may need
assistance with their planning and ideas.

- The teacher will assess the planning document thoroughly at the

end of the project where their final grades are being determined.

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Source 1. Planning document

Source 2. Exit slip

Year 4 exit slip!

Question. What part of the project are

you most excited about?

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