Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Fall

Name of Teacher Candidate: Abby Johnson Date: October 3, 2019 Science-Specific Components for EDIS 3415
Grade Level: First Grade

Lesson Title: What’s That, Habitat?

Curriculum Areas Addressed: Life Science

Time Required: 20-30 minutes Instructional Groupings: Whole group, partners

Standards: SEP and CCC

S1L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the basic needs of plants and animals. Science and Engineering Practices:
1. Developing and using models.
a. Develop models to identify the parts of a plant—root, stem, leaf, and flower. 2. Constructing explanations
3. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating
information.
b. Ask questions to compare and contrast the basic needs of plants (air, water, light, and nutrients) and animals (. Crosscutting Concepts:
air, water, food, and shelter). 1. Structure and function
2. Stability and change

c. Design a solution to ensure that a plant or animal has all of its needs met.

As a result of this lesson students will…

Learning Objectives: Students will (1) identify their own basic needs for food, water, shelter, and space in
a suitable arrangement; and (2) generalize that all animals, including humans and wildlife, have similar
basic needs.

Support for Academic Language

Vocabulary: Need, want, food, water, shelter

Assessment
Assessment Strategies:
Pre assessment: Prior to the activity, the teacher will create a short worksheet that asks students to describe what they think a
“need” is, describe what a “want” is, figure out the “need” in a list of “wants”, and figure out the “want” in a group of “needs”. This
will be completed on October 1st, the Tuesday before the lesson is to be taught, individually during small-group reading time at
9:30am.
Formative assessment: After explaining the differences between “wants” and “needs” and doing the activity where students
pull items from a pillowcase, as a class, review the first list made on the board and have students identify any mistakes.
Summative assessment: At the end of the lesson, students will draw an animal or human and identify a “want” and “need”
that the animal has. This will be done in partners.

Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Fall John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College
Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Fall

Steps in the Lesson Identify the inquiry components: (Not all of the Es will
Lesson to be Taught on October 3rd, at 1:30pm be in every lesson, but engage, explore, and explain
form the backbone of the science lesson.)
Attention Getter or Hook: Engage
Explain to students that there are many things in our lives that we rely on to make us happy and healthy. Some things are “wants”,
or things that we do not need to survive, and other things are “needs”, or things that are essential for our survival.
Introduction: Engage, evaluate
1. Before the activity, place the activity items in a pillowcase. Make two signs: one that says “WANTS” and one that says
“NEEDS”. Place two hula hoops on the ground and set one sign in front of each hula hoop.
2. Explain to students that your bag contains many different items. Students will have the chance to pull out an item from
the bag. Once they do, they will determine if the item should be placed in the “needs” hula hoop or the “wants” hula
hoop. When they place the item in a hula hoop, they must explain why they think their item is a “want” or a “need”.
Instructional Strategies: Explain, explore, elaborate
1. Invite students individually to reach in a grab an item out of the bag, taking turns placing their items in the hula hoops
and explaining their reasoning. If a student makes a mistake, do not correct the student; simply allow the item to stay in
the wrong pile.
2. Some items can be considered both a “want” and a “need”. If a student is unsure about placing an item in one circle
verses the other, overlap the hula hoops so that they create a Venn diagram. Allow the students to place items in the
space where the circles overlap, indicating that the items represent both a “want” and a “need”.
3. Continue this process until all items from the bag have been placed in the hula hoops.
4. Once all items have been placed, ask students if they see any items that they think need to be moved from one pile to
the other. When students move and item they must briefly explain why.
5. Work as a group to ensure that items are in their appropriate piles. The “needs” hoop should include: food items, water
bottle, house or shelter representation, and the “space” card. It is okay if students have placed some of these items in the
overlapping part of the Venn diagram, as both “needs” and “wants”. The “wants” piles should contain all other items
from the bag.
6. Discuss why all the “wants” items are truly “wants”. For example, books are important to learn new things, but you can
also learn by talking with others, asking questions of your teachers or parents, and making observations. A pair of
sunglasses might be nice on a sunny day, but you could also shade your eyes with your hand, wear a hat, or sit in the
shade. Neither of these items is necessary for survival, and wildlife certainly survive without them! Revisit the lists on the
board. Should anything be added to or removed from the “wants” and “needs” lists?
7. Now ask students to sit down at their desks. Pass out paper to all students. Have them choose any animal and to think
about that animal’s needs. What does that animal need to survive? Food? Water? Shelter? Space? Something else? What
is a “want” that that animal may have? Have students draw, in , their animal, at least one “need” for the animal, and at
least one “want” for the animal. Have the students label each item.
Closure/Wrap up: Elaborate, explain, evaluate
Ask the children if they could live in a home where the bathroom was 4 miles in one direction, the kitchen was 12 miles in another,
and the bedroom was 9 miles in yet another direction. No! Ask students if they could survive without water? No! (Humans can
survive about three days without water). Ask students if they could survive without space in which to run and live and grow? Not for
long! (Humans can survive in confined conditions for certain periods of time, but without enough space to obtain resources and
maintain a healthy distance from others, humans can become sick and die.) Both humans and other animals must have all these
things to survive.
Instructional Supports

Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Fall John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College
Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Fall

Resources and Materials Used to Engage Students in Learning

1. An empty pillowcase
2. Two hula hoops
3. “WANTS” and “NEEDS” signs
4. Water bottle to represent water
5. Food items
6. Small toy or house to represent shelter
7. Piece of paper with the word “SPACE” written on it to represent space
8. A book
9. Pair of sunglasses
10. Toy phone or cell phone
11. Box of crayons or markers
12. Toy car (to represent transportation)
13. Watch or clock
14. Stuffed animal or other small toy
15. Camera
16. Paper
17. Crayons/markers
Additional Resources and Materials Used to Increase Teacher’s Background Knowledge of the Content:
Project Wild K-12 curriculum and activity guide

Other Relevant Information

Clear Links to Learning Theories, Educational Research, and Principles of Development: This lesson could be
linked to Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. As the students each pull an item out of the pillowcase, determine its categorization, and
explain why they chose that category, the students are learning through the thought processes of their peers. Furthermore, as they
are broken into partners to do the coloring activity, they are learning from each other as they discuss their animal, their animal’s
needs, and their animal’s wants.

Connections to Technology and/or the Arts: Students will use their art skills to draw and describe an animal of their
choice and examples of its wants and needs.

Description of Collaboration with Others: Adaptions could be made to include community nature experts who could
better explore different examples of “needs” that animals may have.

Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Fall John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College