Life Cycle: Lesson Plans

Life Cycle: Worm Habitat (Nov 30, 2020)

Stage 1: Desired Results

Learning GLO(s): 3.11 Identify requirements for animal care.

Outcome(s)
SLO(s): 3.11.6 Demonstrate awareness that animals require different habitats in order to meet their
basic needs of food, water, shelter and space.

Learning - Describe the habitat for worms

Objectives - Recognize that worms cannot survive without the proper habitat

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Summative NA Formative - Discussion

Assessment Assessment - Observations

Stage 3: Learning Experience

Tech to - Smart Resources to Worms, dirt, sand, worm habitats,

Do board Bring balck paper, leaves, spray bottle,
- Doc cam rular, worksheet

Time Sequence and Description Notes/Reflection

7-15min Read - Yucky Worms by Vivian French This book was pretty long
- Pointing out facts about worms well reading next time I might split it up. I
asked all my worm habitat
questions well reading the
book therefore it did not need
to be a separate part.

5-7min Worm Habitat

- What kind of habitat do you think a worm has?
- What do you think a worm might eat?

25-35min Building and Observations I gave students all two pages.

Worksheet slide 2-3 Next time I would wait to give
- Explain to the class that they will be building and observing a them the second page as some
worm habitat. of them confused the pages up
- First build the habitat with the class. Putting in a layer of dirt, and ended up drawing their
paper, dirt, paper, and leaves. habitat on the wrong page.
- And make sure the soil is moist!
- Have the class draw the habitat and label the layers. The class was really excited to
 - Model this step on the board build the warm habitat. In non
- Then put black paper around the worm habitat covid times I would let groups
- Why I’m I putting black paper around the habitat? make their own habitat.
- Worms live underground where it is dark
- Movement Break! I forgot the movement break
- Label the picture of the worm but the class was very excited
- Measure one of your worms about the worms so it ended
- Use the freeze function on the doc cam to freeze the up being okay.
picture for the students that way they can draw their
observations I didn’t model anything in this
- Model this observation picture lesson. By model I mean I did
- Add worms to habitat & feed not show them what to do. We
- Explain to students that you will look at the worms talked about it. This was okay
tomorrow. because in their rocks unit
- Feed worms some leaves and some orange peel or they had done something
something similar to drawing their
habitat. If they had not done
this I would have had to model
this lesson.

I added talking about how to

act around the habitats. Not
tapping on them and not
touching them. And when we
would feed the worms again.

Animal Life Cycles and Intro to Butterflies (Dec 1, 2020)

Stage 1: Desired Results

Learning
Outcome(s) GLO(s): 3.10 Describe the appearances and life cycles of some common animals, and identify
their adaptations to different environments.
3.11 Identify requirements for animal care.

SLO(s): 3.11.2 Observe and describe the growth and development of at least one living animal, as
the animal develops from early to more advanced stages. The animal(s) should be from one or
more of the following groups: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects. Suggested
examples include: gerbils, guppies, mealworms, tadpoles, worms, butterflies/moths. Additional
examples from other animal groups might also be included: brine shrimp, isopods, spiders.

Learning
Objectives - List prior knowledge of butterflies
- Recall the stages of a butterfly’s life cycle
 Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Summative Formative - Class discussion

Assessment NA Assessment - KWL
- Booklet

Stage 3: Learning Experience

Tech to Projector Resources to https://www.youtube.com/w

Do Bring atch?v=dM71jKNuk-M
slides, booklet

Time Sequence and Description Notes/Reflection

What is a life cycle? Open discussion. Call on students

● Can anybody tell me what they think a life cycle is?
○ Get a few answers
● A life cycle describes the stages an animal goes through
5-7min to become an adult. For example all of you. First you
were a baby, then a toddler, then kids like you are right
now, in a few years you’ll become adults.
that have their hands up.
One student mentioned then you die.
We talked about how that is the life
cycle but you will life a long and
happy life before that part of the life
cycle occurs.

Introduction to Butterflies (Group discussion) Write students ideas down on the

● What do we know about butterflies? board. This can be the start of a
15min ● What group does the butterfly fall into? Is it a mammal, KWL (know, wonder, learn) chart.
bird…(insect) Prompts if you need them:
What does a butterfly look like?
What does a butterfly look like when
it is a baby?
Do you know what butterflies eat?
I forgot to do the KWL chart. We had
a good discussion on what the
student’s knew.

Example of a life cycle: Butterfly Overview Play video for students.

● Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
15min v=dM71jKNuk-M
Review video
● Review video with students
○ What stages are in a butterfly’s life cycle?
● Have students fill out Butterfly life cycle of booklet
○ Students draw the stages of the butterfly’s life
cycle (Formative assessment to see what they
understood from the video)
Call on hands for reviewing the
video. Key points you want them to
review: butterflies start out as an egg
then a caterpillar, which turns into a
pupa then a butterfly. You might
need to remind students of the vocab
the video used (pupa will probably be
a new word for them. If it is get them
to say it with you)
 I had students repeat back pupa to
me. This was a difficult word for
them to remember. Lots of review for
this vocab.

Have students draw out the four

stages of the life cycle (egg,
caterpillar, pupa, butterfly)
I had early finishers colour their life
cycle.

5min What do you wonder? Continuing the KWL chart

● What do you wonder about a butterfly’s life cycle?
● What are some questions you might have about a
butterfly’s life cycle?
Write down some of the students'
wonders and questions about the
butterfly’s life cycle.
Since I forgot to do the K and W part
of this chart I did not do the L part
on paper. However, we did talk as a
class and review what we had just
learnt.

Animal Life cycles: Butterflies Con. (Dec 7)

Science: Stage 1: Desired Results

Learning GLO(s):
Outcome(s) 3.10 Describe the appearances and life cycles of some common animals, and identify their
adaptations to different environments.
3.11 Identify requirements for animal care.
SLO(s):
3.11.2 Observe and describe the growth and development of at least one living animal, as the
animal develops from early to more advanced stages. The animal(s) should be from one or more
of the following groups: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects. Suggested examples
include: gerbils, guppies, mealworms, tadpoles, worms, butterflies/moths. Additional examples
from other animal groups might also be included: brine shrimp, isopods, spiders.

Learning - Discuss the needs and development of a butterfly

Objectives - Identify the needs and habitat of a monarch butterfly

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Summative Formative - Class discussion

Assessment NA Assessment - Booklet
 Stage 3: Learning Experience

Tech Projector Resources slides, booklet

Time Sequence and Description Notes/Reflection

15min Worm Review: Last week we made a worm habitat.

Formative questions: Seeing what they understood from that
lesson: Attention grabbers used:
- What’s a habitat? If you can hear me do this…
- How did we make the worm habitat? If you think you know the answer put
- Why did we add the layers that we did? your figure on your nose.
- Newspaper and oranges are food
- Dirt helps them digest the food + it’s
what they live in.
Second observation:
- Have students pull out their science duotangs and flip to
the second observation page. **I made a typing error
have them fix it. Both pages say “first observation”** Student groups will be their houses.
- Split students into groups to draw their observations.
- While students wait they can pull out a book
and read quietly.

Butterfly review: Butterfly cycle Working on wait time for these

25-35min - What are the four stages of butterflies life cycle? questions. Wait time was better.
- Vocab: egg, caterpillar, pupa, butterfly
These questions are a type of
Slide 1-6 Discussion formative assessment to see how
Slide 1 much I need to explain or reexplain.
- How big do they think butterflies eggs are? As well as checking into students
- Does it look smaller than a grain of rice to you? prior knowledge of the subject.
Slide 2
Shows how small an egg is
Slide 3: Monarch butterflies
Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and monarch butterflies lay
their eggs on milkweed leaves.
- Why do monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed?
Slide 4:
Shows what milkweed looks like
Slide 5:
Discuss where butterflies live.
- Can anybody tell me what migration means?
- Monarch butterflies migrate like birds.
- Near the end of fall they head to Mexico then at
the start of summer they hear north again.
Movement break!

Review slides 1-5 (Formative check in) Formative check in of the whole
 - How big are butterflies eggs? class before I do an individual
- What do monarch caterpillar eat? formative check in.
- Where to monarch butterflies live?

Booklet & formative check in to see what they understood

Have students fill out pg.5 of the booklet. This activity went well.
- Read to them the page
- Have them complete it on their own
- Show the page to me before they move into free time.
If they are done early they can do catch up or read!

This will probably take us to recess and the second part of this
lesson can be once they come in.

Slide 7-9: Walk through the caterpillar stage and the pupa stage.
- These are visual aids from what they have already
5-7min learned about the butterflies life cycle.
These a pretty basic questions. I
Review the lesson could have asked some more
- Where does the monarch butterfly lay their eggs? complex questions. For example
- How big are the monarch's eggs? what do you think the life cycle of
- What does the monarch caterpillar eat? our worms would look like? Or how
- What does the monarch butterfly eat? is the life cycle of our worms the
- Where do monarch butterflies live? same or different to that of a
butterfly?

Life Cycle: Wrapping Up Butterflies and Worms (Dec 8)

Learning outcome(s)
 GLO(s):
 3.10 Describe the appearances and life cycles of some common animals and identify their
adaptations to different environments. 
SLO(s):
3.11.3 Predict the next stages in the growth and development of at least one animal from each of
the following groups: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects; and identify
similarities and differences in their developmental sequences. 

Learning objectives 
 Describe and identify the body parts of a butterfly 
 Complete the animal life cycles in order 

Formative assessment 
  Group discussion 
 Observation 
Resources 
 Student’s butterfly booklet, sorting animal life cycle cards, smart board, 

Time Sequence  Notes/Reflection

5- Review: Concepts about insects  I got them to put their hands on the head
7min A couple of weeks ago we talked when they thought they remembered the
about how insects have 3 body parts. answer. 
Can anyone remember what those All insects have these three body parts. Do
body parts were called? (Head, thorax, birds have these body parts? Do humans?
and abdomen) Do dragonflies? Do butterflies? 
Formative assessment to see what
they remember. 

15min Model: labelling a butterfly  This activity went really well. 

Model to your students how they
should label the butterfly. Use
“proboscis” as your example as this
will be the body part the students will
most likely not know.   

Let the students work in partners to

complete the labelling. Check with a
teacher before you move on. If they
finish early they may colour the
butterfly or read. Formative check-in -
understanding of animal body parts.  
 What can you do if you finish Worms are hard to take out! This took me
early?  way longer than I thought. 

While they are working on their

labelling. Take out a worm for
measuring.  

15min Measuring a worm Observation of the worm. Is this going to be

Use the doc camera to freeze an image the same worm we measured last time? No.
where the students can see how long So will the worms be the same size? No.
the worm is.  Students observed that the worm was moving
more than the last one. I explained that the
Have students flip to the page where worms were in the fridge last time so they
their second observation of their worm were cold and less likely to move whereas
should be drawn.  now they have been in our class in our nice
 They need to draw the worm habitats with food so they would be more
 and the ruler.  likely to move around.   
 Is the worm bigger or smaller I also let the students touch the worm once
than the last time we measured they were done with their page. (gently of
one?  course) 
o Why do you think this
might be. 
Formative assessment to see if they
understand why habitats and animals
might change over time. 

5min Movement break 

10- Sorting animal life cycles I model this activity first on the board with a
15min Explain the animal life cycle sorting life cycle they knew well (butterfly). I made a
game to them.  mistake intentionally and the students had to
Students need to put the life cycle in find it and tell me the correct order. We went
order and match the photos to the over how it was important to read the
words. Once complete they need to sentences. Overall this activity went really
show a teacher before putting the deck well!  
back together and going back to their
desk for silent reading. 
Formative assessment to see if
students can determine the life cycle
order of multiple types of animals.