Jillian Griffith

Science Unit Plan

Grade: Fifth Grade
Unit Theme: Organization and Development of Living Organisms

Week 1 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Lesson Title, Brief Title: Title: Title: Title: Title:

Summary, and What are organs How do organs Plants and animals What is evolution? How do plants and
Rationale and what do they work together? are alike in some animals adapt?
(fill in during do? ways and different
Topic 1) in others.
It is important for It is important for
It is important for students to know students to know
students to know how organs and Students need to how capable our It is important to
how their body systems work see the similarities bodies and plants know how animals
functions. together. in all living things. are at surviving. and plants survive.

State-Specific SC.5.L.14.1 HE.5.C.1.6. SC.5.L.14.2 SC.5.L.15.1 SC.5.L.17.1

Standards Identify the organs Explain how human Compare and Describe how, Compare and
(fill in during in the human body body parts and contrast the when the contrast adaptations

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Topic 1) and describe their organs work function of organs environment displayed by
functions, including together in healthy and other physical changes, animals and plants
the skin, brain, body systems, structures of plants differences between that enable them to
heart, lungs, including the and animals, individuals allow survive in different
stomach, liver, endocrine and including humans, some plants and environments such
intestines, pancreas, reproductive for example: some animals to survive as life cycles
muscles and systems. animals have and reproduce variations, animal
skeleton, skeletons for while others die or behaviors and
reproductive support -- some move to new physical
organs, kidneys, with internal locations. characteristics.
bladder, and skeletons others
sensory organs. with exoskeletons
-- while some
plants have stems
for support
Learning Students will Students will Students will Students will learn Students will
Objectives identify organs in explain how the explain how the that animals and compare plant and
(fill in during the human body body systems work body systems work plants have to adapt animal life cycles
Topic 1) and describe their together. For together. For to survive. as well as behaviors
functions. example, how does example, how does and characteristics.
the respiratory the respiratory
system provide system provide
oxygen to the oxygen to the
circulatory system. circulatory system.
Vocabulary -Skin -Endocrine system -skeleton -ecosystem -life cycle
(fill in during -brain -Reproductive -exoskeleton -habitat -heredity
Topic 1) -heart system -stem -trait
-lungs -offspring
-stomach -genes
-liver -mutation
-intestines -adaptation
-pancreas
-kidneys

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 -bladder
Instructional To cover all of the Students will reach For this assignment I will share a lesson Students will rotate
Strategy material needed and into a bag and draw students will study from PBS on through different
(fill in during to make the first out a body system. plant and animal adaptations. stations to identify
Topic 2) day of the unit fun, They will pair up structures. They Students will watch various adaptations.
students will break with their like will classify a video, compare
up into groups and partners and internal and climates and share
study a particular explain the system external parts and with classmates
organ. and how the organs describe the how the animals
work together. function. Where and plants adapted
After they have applicable students to their
learned all they can will make a environment.
about that organ, connection if the
they will write a animal and plant
persuasive have a similar
argument as to why structure.
their organ is so
important in the
human body.
Summary of The students wrote Students drew Students had to Students had to There were 13
Instruction and a persuasive letter different systems match up similar identify behaviors stations for students
Activities for the to explain how out of a bag. They parts for animals and physical to rotate through.
Lesson important their could have drawn and plants. For characteristics that Each station had a
(fill in during organ is. They had digestive, example, they had allow organisms to card that
Topic 2) to include its circulatory, to discern that our successfully live in corresponded to the
function and what reproductive, or skeleton was their habitat. They investigation. After
would happen to respiratory system. similar to a plants then must compare all of the students
the body if it was The group had to stem as it provides two different rotated through and
removed. They outline which its structure. biomes and explore answered we
shared their letters system they had, Students also had to different ways they reviewed the
with the class so all which organs it divide animals up could camouflage answers whole
students could hear included, and how into vertebrates and their assigned group.
about the functions they worked invertebrates and organism to live in

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 of each organ. together; for classify plants as a different climate.
Students took notes example, the flowering or non-
in their science respiratory system flowering. They
journals to get provides oxygen for also compared how
information for all the circulatory humans and plants
of the organs system which reproduce.
presented. distributes nutrients
for energy
production.
Differentiation
and
Accommodations
(fill in during
Topic 3)
Materials,
Resources, and
Technology
(fill in during
Topic 4)
Formative
Assessment
(fill in during
Topic 5)
Summative
Assessment
(fill in during
Topic 5)

Reflection Topic 1:
This unit on organization and development of living organisms is going to cover a vast amount of information in a short time. Each
day it will be critical to cover key vocabulary as well as identify the “big idea” of each day. By front loading the first week with
multiple standards, it will allow many different learning opportunities throughout the unit. I will introduce a topic each day by

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posing a question. This will give the class an opportunity for discussion and a chance for me to see what they already know. The
first day we will focus on organs and their functions. Fifth-grade students should have some prior knowledge on body functions, but
this will be their first time focusing on the organs. The next day, students can identify how organs work together. This progression
of standards gives students the opportunity to see how organs work in isolation and then together to perform different functions. On
Wednesday, we will explore plants and their cells. It is interesting to think that while plants and people are very different—we are
both living things. This day, the students will create a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast animals and plants. Thursday is a big
day! This is the day we will discuss how plants and animals have evolved or changed over time to survive. We will finish the week
by talking about life cycles. This is always an interesting topic for fifth-grade students. While I plan to touch on human life cycles,
the focus will be on plants. This week in science, will be full of information, however the depth will be shallow. As the weeks
progress, we will be able to dig deeper into each standard to truly learn and interact with the content.

Reflection Topic 2:
I had a lot of fun planning the instructional strategies for these standards. I feel that throughout the week students are given
opportunities to collaborate with classmates, think critically, and apply knowledge towards an adaptation project. To plan for these
lessons, I looked back at the standard to determine how I could incorporate a fun lesson that was aligned to the standard completely.
To do that, I used CPALMS.org as it is our states online tool box. Day 1 allows students to think critically because they are
challenged to not only learn about an organ, but they must defend it. They must know how integral it is to the human body and be
able to articulate that to their classmates. Day 2 is taking it a step further because they are now learning how multiple organs work
together to complete a task. Ultimately, they realize they every organ (aside from the appendix) is important in some way, and all
are necessary for a healthy and functioning body. Day 3 students take a step back from focusing on human bodies and realize we,
and plants, are all living organisms. Students had to identify and classify what makes us unique and how we are also similar. Even
though we are very different from a tree for example, we need sunlight, water, and oxygen to live, we reproduce, and we have
structures that give us shape. Day 4 is a fun virtual activity that allows students to create their own adaptations for animal and plant
survival. They take what they know and what they learned from the video to make their own camouflage! Day 5 wraps up the week
with a fun hands on activity station. Students are able to manipulate and walk around while conversing with their peers about what
adaptation they are mimicking at the center.

PBS Learning Media. (n.d.). Adaptations. Retrieved from

https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.reg.lp_adapt/adaptation/
Sea World. (n.d.). Animal Adaptation Activity. Retrieved from http://da15bdaf715461308003-
0c725c907c2d637068751776aeee5fbf.r7.cf1.rackcdn.com/8194c197b8724cd9ab29ca351c986a03_5-8-animal-adaptations-

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 activity.pdf

Reflection Topic 3:

Reflection Topic 4:

Reflection Topic 5:

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