January 27th Intro to Building

Teacher Ana Ferzacca Grade Level 1

Subject Science Unit Building Things

Time 12:10-1:10 Overarching Question What is building?

Why is building important in
our society?

Description and Rationale

This lesson will be the first lesson in the building things unit. Students will be introduced to the term
building and I will have the opportunity to pre-assess what students already know about it. We will talk
about the term architect as well as other jobs that require building. We will discuss what materials you
can use to build and how students might go about building things.

GLOs 1-7 Construct objects and models of objects, using a variety of different materials.

SLOs 1- Select appropriate materials, such as papers, plastics, woods; and design and
build objects, based on the following kinds of construction tasks:
4 - Recognize that products are often developed for specific purposes, and identify
the overall purpose for each model and artifact constructed.

Learning Students will be able to describe how building contributes to our communities
Objectives Students will be able to identify materials that can be used for building

Classroom This lesson will include small group work where I will select random groups.
Management Students will be expected to work cooperatively with their group mates to
Expectations demonstrate prior knowledge of building and to work together to start building
objects. This class is a tough class to get focused, especially on instruction so I will
make sure that all students are demonstrating full body listening to instructions and
working respectfully in their groups. The noise level of this class will be higher, as
group work requires small conversations, however, the noise level should not get
out of hand and any yelling or shouting will not be tolerated.

Differentiation We have one student in the class who requires the assistance of and EA. None of
the activities in this lesson should require any more differentiation than the
assistance of the EA. There are quite a few students in this class who benefit from
small steps in instruction as well as visual reminders.

Material/Equipment/Resources Teacher Tasks

Boxitects by Kim Smith Hang up vertical surfaces

Vertical non-permanent writing surfaces Collect the proper colour markers
Black and blue dry erase markers Gather materials and have them ready at the
A variety of building materials (blocks, start of the class
unicubes, magnetic blocks, building rods,
etc.)
Popsicle stick pull for random groups
Body Time(mins)

Activity 1 Read Boxitects by Kim Smith 10 mins

Boxitects Discuss architects and engineers (12:20)
● What do they do?
● What materials do they use?
● What kinds of things do they build?
● What kinds of things do they have to consider when building?
○ Location
○ Materials
○ Purpose
○ Use

Activity 2 Use popsicle sticks to pull random groups of 3 or 4 15 mins

Pre-Asses Give groups dry erase markers and assign a spot with a non-permanent (12:35)
sment vertical surface
Tell groups that their job is to write/draw everything they know about
building
● What is building?
● What do you build with?
● What jobs require building?
As groups work, circulate and give any feedback in red marker
*do not provide hints to “right answers” or any further instruction on what
to write

Have groups pick their most interesting or most important point that they
wrote down and share with the class
*go over full body listening before sharing so that all students are
attentive when listening to their classmates

Activity 3 Have students go back to their desks and show they are ready for the 20 mins
Building next activity (12:55)
Practice
Tell groups they are going to practice building - they will be given
materials and can build whatever they want to with them
● They must all work together in their groups
● And think about HOW they are building what they are building -
how it’s staying together - what it’s use might be

Select new random groups and have them come to the front SANITIZE
HANDS - and then provide them with the material they will be building
with and a spot to work.

Have students build.

Have students put materials away and gather on the floor.

Closure Discussion: 10 mins

How did you build your things? (1:05)
What did you like about your materials?
What didn’t you like?
Think about: how might you make the tallest tower that you can?
Assessment

Formative: observation and discussions when circulating around groups, closure discussion

Reflection

What Worked

What Didn’t
Work

What I Would
Change