Developmental Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Nicole Hart Date: 11/5/21

Group Size: 19 Allotted Time 25 minutes Grade Level 4th

Subject or Topic: Science

Common Core/PA Standard(s): 3.1.4.A1; 3.1.4.A2; 3.1.4.A5; 3.1.4.A9; 7.1.4.A; 7.1.4.B;

7.2.4.A

Learning Targets/Objectives:
• Students will learn instincts, or behaviors, that animals have that help them meet their
needs such as migration.

Assessment Approaches: Evidence:

1. Anecdotal notes 1. Checklist
2. Migration worksheet (outline of North
America)
3. Exit Ticket- What instinct do monarch
butterflies have?
Assessment Scale: (+) for the students who labeled the map correctly. (-) for the students who
didn’t label the map correctly.
(+) for students who answered the Exit Ticket correctly. (-) for students who didn’t answer it
correctly.

Subject Matter/Content:
• Students will learn behavioral instincts such as migration.

Prerequisites:
• Knowledge of the cardinal directions.
• Knowledge of the basic needs of animals.
• Knowledge of animal adaptations.

Key Vocabulary:
• Instinct- a behavior that an animal begins life with.
• Migration- the movement of a group of one type of animal from one region to another
and back again.
 • Hibernation- a period when an animal goes into a long, deep, sleep.

Content/Facts:
• Some animals migrate during certain times of the year and for certain reasons.

Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies:
• Do we see butterflies in the summer? How about the winter? Butterflies migrate to
warmer climates in the winter. Today we’re going to look at the migration patterns of
Monarch Butterflies.

Development/Teaching Approaches
To start the lesson, I will show the students a video of butterfly migration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3njFNmc-W2k

• Students will each get an outline map of North America worksheet

• I will ask them to take out two different colored crayons or colored pencils.
• I will have students label the directions north, south, east, and west.
• I will tell students that during the summer many monarch butterflies live in two areas.
Some live in the northeastern US and some live along the southwestern coast of
Canada and in the states of Washington and Oregon.
• Locate the northeastern United States and the Great Lakes on your map.
• Locate the southwestern coast of Canada and the states of Washington and Oregon.
• Shade each of these areas a different color.
• I will tell the students that when summer ends, large groups of monarchs gather and
travel south for the winter. Most of those that are east of the Rocky Mountains fly to
the mountains of central Mexico. But some of the butterflies make their way to Florida.
Butterflies that are west of the Rocky Mountains fly to sites along the California coast.
All of these areas have trees where the butterflies can rest, temperatures that are cool
yet above freezing, and water to drink.
• Find these areas on your map.
• Shade each winter area the same as the summer area.
• Then use the right color to draw the most direct route from north to south over land.
• I’ll ask students to compare the climate where the monarch butterflies spend the
summer with the climate where they spend the winter.
• What can you infer about how the behavior of the butterflies helps them meet their
needs?
• Scientists use maps and graphs to communicate data and ideas visually. How does
making a map of butterfly movements help you understand where monarchs travel?

Text Set
• When Butterflies Cross the Sky by Sharon Katz Cooper
• Monarch Butterfly Migration by Grace Hansen
 • Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus
• Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys by Mike Unwin
• The Peregrine’s Journey by Madeleine Dunphy

Closure/Summarizing Strategies:
• Great job investigating how and why monarch butterflies migrate!

Accommodations/Differentiation:
• The worksheet will be magnified for those students who have a vision impairment.
• I will wear a FM system to amplify my voice for those students who have a hearing
impairment.
• For those students who finish early, they can work in a small groups and research the
migration patterns of other animals. For example, sea turtles, whales, salmon, geese,
and reindeer.
• For those students who are struggling to finish the assignment or are having trouble
with the concept, I will work with them individually or in small groups during WIN.

Materials/Resources:

1. The Jungle Diaries. (2018, January 27). The Great Butterfly Migration.[Video].
Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3njFNmc-W2k
2. Frank, M. S., Jones, R. M., Krockover, G. H., Lang, M. P., McLeod, J. C., Valenta, C.
J., & Van Deman, B. A. (2000). Harcourt Science. Harcourt School Publishers.
3. Cooper, K.S. (2016). When Butterflies Cross the Sky: The Monarch Butterfly
Migration. Raintree.
4. Hansen, G. (2017). Monarch Butterfly Migration. Abdo Kids Jumbo.
5. Pincus, M., & Imamura, Y. (2020). Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration
Mystery. Sleeping Bear Press.
6. Unwin, M., & Desmond, J. (2020). Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys.
Bloomsbury Children’s Books.
7. Dunphy, M., & Kest, K. (2008). The Peregrine’s Journey: A Story of Migration. Web
of Life Children’s Books.

Reflective Response:
1. Was the instructional objective met? How do I know students learned what was intended?
Using my anecdotal notes and the exit ticket assessments, the instructional objective was
met. The worksheet gave them a visual of how animals migrate and the class discussion
gave further information about why animals migrate.
2. Were the students productively engaged? The students were very engaged. They really
loved the video and the worksheet was interactive enough to keep them fully engaged.

How do I know?
They were fully participating and most were answering my questions.

3. Did I alter my instructional plan as I taught the lesson?

I did alter my instructional plan. My class had a hard time identifying the cardinal
directions, which I didn’t expect. I had to do a quick review of the cardinal directions so
that we could accurately label the migration patterns of the monarch butterfly.

4. If I had the opportunity to teach the lesson again to the same group of students, would I
do anything differently? What? Why?

I would allot enough time to go over cardinal directions. Most of my students could not
remember where north, south, east, or west was located. This was a crucial piece to the
lesson and took extra time.