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The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

Is It Living? Animal Secrets

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Is it Living? Animal Secrets

A Kindergarten STEM lesson

Callee Escobar

January 31

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Notes for teachers

Kindergarten students develop an understanding that the world is comprised of living and non-living things. They investigate the relationship between structure and function in living things; plants and animals use specialized parts to help them meet their needs and survive.

Young children think that many non-living things are alive and that many living things are not. These lessons require kids to define life through criteria and use that criteria to identify things as living or nonliving.

List of Materials

Day 1:

2 types of sorts :sort #1 for each table and sort cards for the front white board

Formative Assessment Probe: p. 3 in Uncovering Student Ideas in Primary Science, 25 New Formative Assessment Probes: “Is It Living?’

Day 2:

binoculars PDF

Draw an Animal Eating Its Food EXIT Ticket

Day 3:

Draw an Animal In It’s Home EXIT Ticket

exit ticket for lesson 3

Day 4: Performance Task: Why do different animals live in different places?; each student needs a animal homes printout

Day 5:

animal homes printout

Exit Ticket

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Standards

K.L1U1.6 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate [information] about how organisms use different body parts for survival.

K.L1U1.7 Observe, ask questions, and explain [how] specialized structures found on a variety of plants and animals (including humans) help them sense and respond to their environment. Mystery Science Lesson #3

K.L2U1.8 Observe, ask questions and explain the difference between the characteristics of living and non-living things.

Standards

K-LS1-1 Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

1-LS1-1 Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.

K-ESS2-2. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.

*There is not a strong or partial correlation for K.L2U1.8 to an NGSS standard in this grade band.

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Objectives:

Specific Learning Outcomes (Key Concepts):

I am learning to identify whether objects are alive or not by developing a set of criteria that defines what is alive.
Animals rely upon the place in which they live to meet their needs.
Animals get food from other things that also live where they do.
Many animals change their environment to have a special place in order to do things such as hide or sleep.

Performance Expectation(s):

classify/sort pictures of living and nonliving items on a t-chart
describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive
use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.
construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.

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Agenda

Day 1: Anchor Phenomenon: Animal Secrets

Formative Assessment Probe

Living/Non-living Picture Sort

Cookie Monster Living vs Nonliving video

Day 2: Animals Needs: Food

Eat Like an Animal

Day 3: Animal Needs: Shelter

Where Do Animals Live?

Day 4: Animal Needs: Safety

How can you find animals in the woods?

Day 5: Why do different animals live in different places?

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Intro/Driving Question/Opening

Phenomena:

The anchor phenomenon for this unit is ‘Animal Secrets’, where students learn about a small collection of animals that live in very different places and do very different things. Yet they all have in common that they rely upon the place in which they live to meet their needs.

Essential Question(s):

1. How are living and nonliving things similar and different?

2. What are the characteristics of living/non living things?

3. How do plants and animals respond to and survive in their habitats?

4. How do plants and animals use their body parts to aid in survival?

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Day 1 Activity

Groups are 4-6 students per table
All ONLINE resources are in the notes

Formative Assessment Probe: p. 3 in Uncovering Student Ideas in Primary Science, 25 New Formative Assessment Probes: ‘Is It Living?’ The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about living and nonliving things. The probe is designed to find out what characteristics children use to decide if something is living.

Administering the probe: Review the things on the list (see p. 4)
Answer: There are 5 living things: cat, frog, seed, grass, tree

ENGAGE:

Living/Non-living Picture Sort: Use sort cards and magnets at the white board to model how to sort photos of objects: living or nonliving. Prepare: sorts sort #1 for each table and sort cards

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Day 1 continued

EXPLAIN:

Living things grow, change, eat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giWqEPNLtBo living and non living with Cookie Monster
Ask students to share ideas on what they think qualifies something to be considered living. List criteria on chart paper, record everything they say without influencing them. They should decide what makes something alive and what doesn't. Later we will look at pictures of living things and discuss what makes them alive. We will revisit the list later and make additions and deletions if necessary.

EXPLORE:

‘Animal Secrets’, Begin with ‘Animal Secrets’ anchor phenomenon:
Create a class See-Think-Wonder chart.
Begin the Anchor Phenomenon lesson: ‘Animal Secrets’, The lesson includes visuals and text describing the group of animals that students will learn about during subsequent lessons as they attempt to answer: Why do different animals live where they do?

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Day 2 Activity

Lesson 1: Eat Like an Animal (Animal Needs: Food)

Use Mystery Science lesson 1 ‘Why do woodpeckers peck the wood?’
In this lesson, students observe animal behaviors and work to discover a pattern: all animals seek food in order to survive.

ENGAGE:

Do bats really drink blood? In this mini-lesson, students discover the different kinds of food that bats eat! [4:16]

EXPLORE

Mystery Science lesson 1 ‘Why do woodpeckers peck the wood?’ virtual walk through the woods
First animal that is spotted is the bird: a quail

Ask: What do you see this bird doing? Why do you think it’s doing that?

Act out different animal behaviors (quail, raccoon, woodpecker) act out animal behaviors, pretending to be quail scratching in the dirt, raccoons wading in the water, and woodpeckers pecking a log.
Students gather observations of animals that are attempting to find food. Quail live on the ground, so they have to find food on the ground.
Vocabulary Slide Show

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Day 2 Continued

EXPLAIN:

Real scientists study things over long periods of time to learn about them and this lesson is like that. Each time we get together to learn about living and nonliving things, we are going to learn a little bit more until we understand it well.

EVALUATE: Use the binocular sketch to draw a picture of something that is living in the first lens of the binoculars and something that is non-living in the second lens of the binoculars

EXTEND:

Ask your students what each animal eats and then watch the videos to discover the answers.

ELABORATE:

Epic offers books online for teachers to use for free. Just click “Get Started” to register.

Backyard Wildlife: Woodpeckers

Backyard Wildlife: Raccoons

Activity: A simple bird feeder can give students a chance to observe birds up close.

EVALUATE:

Draw an Animal Eating Its Food EXIT Ticket

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Day 3 Activity

Lesson 2: Where do animals live? (Animal Needs: Shelter)

You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Nature Nuggets, where students explore other animal homes.Students gather observations of the different ways in which animals find or make places to hide. Squirrels make nests up in trees, while quail hide in plants that grow low to the ground.

Engage:

View Nature Nuggets [1 min.]
Begin the Read-Along lesson, Sofia wonders where animals live and goes for a walk in the woods to find out. The lesson includes a short exercise where students pretend to be squirrels and learn about their habitats.

Explore:

Students gather observations of the different ways in which animals find or make places to hide. Squirrels make nests up in trees, while quail hide in plants that grow low to the ground.

Ask students:

What animals did you see in the video?
Where do the animals live? How do you know?
If the animals could talk, what would you ask them?
Vocabulary Slide Show (nest, shelter, needs)

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Day 3 continued

Explain:

Animal Homes Stories

My Very First Book of Animal Homes by Eric Carle
Who Lives Here? by Nicola Davies
Do Turtles Sleep in Treetops? by Laura Purdie Salas

Draw an Animal In Its Home EXIT Ticket

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Day 4 Activity

Lesson 3: How can you find animals in the woods? Animal Needs: Safety

Gopher in a Hole

Students students gather observations of the behaviors that animals exhibit that keep them safe. Many animals hide as a means to stay safe. Quail hide on the ground, squirrels hide in trees, and gophers hide underground

Engage:

Ask: What are our five senses? Do you think other animals have

senses like we do? What kinds of animals do you think have senses like we do? How do you know animals have senses? Do you think insects have senses? What are some insects you know about?

Essential Question: Do ants have senses? Show students the Investigative Phenomenon: Ant Wrangling Video (http://bit.ly/AntWranglingVideo) also Ant Wrangling - An Animal Behavior Phenomenon - #SciencingAndEngineering with The STEMAZing Project

Explain: Watch the Ant Wrangling video and let scientists notice using their

sense of sight. Record what they notice after each round of the ant wrangling

video.

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Day 4 Continued

Explore: Let scientists wonder. Record their responses to the question “What do you wonder?” You can help them by giving them sentence starters like:

Explain: Refer back to the essential question, “Do ants have senses?” Ask scientists to make a claim and use a piece of evidence from what they noticed to support their claim. Their claim can be either, “Yes, ants have senses because…” or “No, ants do not have senses because…” and then it needs to be backed up with something they observed. “Yes, ants have senses because they turn around when they get to the line.” or “No, ants do not have senses because they…”

See if they can use more than one piece of evidence (observation) to support their claim.

For the EXPLORE: a. I wonder why…?

b. I wonder if…?

c. I wonder what…?

d. I wonder how…?

e. I wonder what would happen if…?

Go through the list of questions and identify some questions that are

testable with the scientists. These are questions you could design an experiment to test – gather evidence which would either support a claim or refute a claim made about the question. Discuss what an experiment might look like to gather evidence for that question.

ALSO…(NOTE: Ants do have senses!) Ants have all five senses, just like we do, but they all work a bit different. Ants see with compound eyes, which is basically like having a bunch of little eyes all working together to help the ant make sense of the world. Ants’ eyesight is fairly poor so they don’t rely heavily on this sense. Ants hear by detecting vibrations through their antennae, legs, and bodies. They can send out vibrations they make to other ants to communicate about food and to send out an alarm message to others when in danger. Ants use their antennae for their senses of smell, taste, and touch. The most sensitive of these is their sense of smell. Ants can detect many more smells than most insects and communicate in a variety of ways with each other using chemicals called pheromones.

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Day 4 Continued

Ask students which sense they think the ants are using. It could be either sight (seeing the line) or smell (smelling the ink) or feel (feeling the wetness of the line) or taste (they can taste the line). Additionally you could talk about how you could try to design an experiment to determine which sense the ants are using. In the end, the fact that the ants react to a line that is drawn by turning around and going in another direction is evidence to support the claim that ants have senses.
For more about ants and their senses, see some of these articles and videos: SciShow Kids video: How Do Ants Find Food? LIVEscience article: Ants: From the Cool to the Creepy
Related Books offered through Epic
Where is Baby Bear? : A story about hide and seek helps students think about where animals live.
Raccoon Cubs : A nonfiction book about raccoons.

Use the Exit Ticket: Draw an animal staying safe.

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Assessment

Performance Task: Why do different animals live in different places?

Prepare: each student will need an animal homes printout

Students use a simple model to identify the relationships between the needs of animals and the places in which they live.

After a review of the animals they observed throughout the unit, students use observations of three new places to determine which of those places best meet the needs of each animal.

Explore: Watch these videos to discover some animals that make their homes in a hole in an old tree. After each video, discuss, "Why do you think these animals live in the hole in the tree?"

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Differentiation

Students can always illustrate or dictate their answers.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Encourage higher students to write as many of the words on their paper as possible.