Topic of Unit

Name of Unit
Year Level: 2 Term: 2 Length of Unit:

Context Students are interested in creating change at their school: many wanted to plant more trees and start a vegetable plot.

 Science understanding  Biological sciences

 Science as a human endeavour  Nature and development of science
Content Strand  Literacy Sub Strand  Creating texts

 Critical and creative thinking  English

 Literacy  Geography
General Cross-Curriculum
 Sustainability  Visual Arts
Capabilities  Writing Priorities
 Personal and social capability

Content  Living things grow, change, and have offspring similar to themselves (ACSSU030):
o Recognising that living things have predictable characteristics at different stages of development.
Descriptors
o Exploring different characteristics (of life stages in animals such as egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly) at different
stages of development (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly)
 Science involves observing, asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE034):
o Describing everyday events and experiences and changes in our environment using knowledge of science
o Observing life cycles
 Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing knowledge of text structures and language
features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to
 the audience and purpose (ACELY1671):
o Learning how to plan spoken and written communications so that listeners and readers might follow the sequence of
ideas or events
o Sequencing content according to text structure
o Using appropriate simple and compound sentence to express and combine ideas
o Using vocabulary, including technical vocabulary, appropriate to text type and purpose
 Use and experiment with different materials, techniques, technologies, and processes to make artworks (ACAVAM107):
o Exploring a range of natural and man-made materials and technologies to visually express their experiences, for
example, paint, pencils, ink, sand, photography and graphically

Achievement Standard
 I can recognise common features of animals
 I explore different habitats in the local environment
 I can recognise that living things live in different places (land and water)
 I can explore and identify when habitats change and some living things can no longer have their needs met.
 I can identify ways that Science knowledge is used in the care of the local environment such as animal habitats and suggest change to
better meet the needs of native animals.

Lesson Outline of 8 lessons of the Unit Plan including activities

 Set up an aquarium tank for some monarch caterpillars that can be observed over their lifecycle.
 Use Dino Cam to support observations
1  Make predictions as a class of why certain caterpillars are smaller, larger etc. and how the caterpillar came to be, and what it will turn
into.
(Week 1)  Have children write in their science books their predictions, using sentence starter ‘I predict…’ and have a go at drawing the life cycle of
a monarch butterfly- to be used as a pre-assessment.
 Show video of monarch butterfly laying eggs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZW9Oave4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PWZW9Oave4Y, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeLzhSaJ7vw.
2  Focus on lifecycle of the monarch butterfly and comparing other insects and lifecycles.
  Show video of butterfly laying an egg.
 Rotations on tables where children look at insects under magnifying glasses (use observation skills to illustrate an insect and label
simple features including legs, body etc), compare other monarch butterfly’s lifecycle with another animal (one- be specific, eg a frog)
animal’s lifecycles to that of a monarch butterfly (using Zara’s resources) using Venn Diagrams (Venn diagrams also drawn up and
(Week 2) printed with headings (draw , observational illustrations of the caterpillars looking either at them via the DinoCam or up close to the
aquarium labelling the different parts of the caterpillar and chrysalis (resource showing different parts), start filling in a report writing
template with the information we already know about monarch caterpillars? Use information books to support research (or have
printed text). Use as reflective tool for future report writing.
 Read ‘The Making of a Monarch’ by Linda Shmith.
 Students show understanding of the lifecycle using learnt knowledge over last three weeks.
 Students illustrate a plan in their science books of the monarch butterfly’s lifecycle (using word wall, and a check list for reference and
3 as a plan for the plasticine lifecycle).
 Students use plasticine to create small models of each main stage of the lifecycle (referring to their plan for reference) and use
(Week 3)
cardboard as the base to stick the models too, adding arrows, labels and a heading. (Used as a summative assessment, as students are
given a checklist to make sure elements are included within the lifecycle, further notes are to be taken to support some students in
more clearly defining the lifecycles are observation of plasticine lifecycle, and observations are compared to preassessment from week
1).
4 Features of Plants:
 In groups, students brainstorm the following questions:
Week 4) o What do plants need to survive- similar to people?
o How do they or their families take care of plants at home?
o How are the plants at school cared for?
o How do they grow?
 Students use observation skills to illustrate a plant or cutting at their desks.
 Students have a go at planting a broad bean seed in a cup with paper towel to observe it in coming weeks- children illustrate the
planted seed (scientific drawing using labelling, observation skills).
 Watch a video showing some unusual plants- students to take notes about things they notice (Venus fly trap,
https://owlcation.com/stem/10-Most-Wacky-Plants-of-the-World)

5  Make illustration of seed this week, using labels, and reflect on the following questions in their science books:
o What is different?
(Week 5) o Has anything changed?
  Discuss as a group
 Learn about different parts of a flower/plant (eg. stem, pollen, etc.)
 Observe different parts of a plant- investigate a lilium- have liliums available for children to use magnifying glasses but use DinoCam to
investigate the lilium as a class and notice the parts of the lilium.
 In groups- rotating on tables could include art experience
 Children to illustrate the lilium- and/or use library books to investigate some other plants (perhaps unusual plants too), that look
different but can still notice the different aspects of the plants. Children illustrate and label another example and draw comparisons
with the lilium
 Observe how wombok cabbage leaves and celery sticks absorb coloured water- clearly defining the part of the plant/stem/leaf that
sucks up the water and how it changes the colour of the vegetable.
 Collect some vegetable tops (carrot tops, onion tops, lettuce tops, beetroot tops) and soak them in water- watching them reshoot.
 Categorising/classifying plants we eat- roots, fruit, stem of plant and comparing to another plant.
 Looking at specific plant lifecycle (as our broad bean seed grows).
6

(Week 6)
  Illustration of what the broad bean seed looks like.
 Dino cam- cut seed in half
 Life cycle of broad bean seed
 Students to practice talking about the plasticine life cycle model and reading their report to a
7
friend.
(Week 7)

8  Research particular plants that native birds need to survive and how to care for those plants- library visits

(Week 8)

7  Venn Diagram to compare specific plants and animals

 Play ‘Zoo’ (Planet?) (plant version)- children give hints of a plant for the class to guess. Or it could also be like celebrity head- where an
animal is chosen and the class has to ask questions to guess the animal (yes/no questions)

Lesson Assessment Methods:

1  Preassessment: drawing of lifecycle/prediction

 Bookwork observations
2  Bookwork observations

3  Summative assessment: Plasticine model

 Bookwork observations
4  Summative assessment: Plasticine model
 Bookwork observations
5  Summative assessment: Plasticine model
 Bookwork observations
6  Summative assessment: Plasticine model
 Bookwork observations
7  Summative assessment: Plasticine model
 Bookwork observations