This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Make Believe Homes and Habitats: | In this lesson students will demonstrate an understanding of characteristics of real and make-believe animals, they will sort animals according to characteristics, and they will complete a drawing of a make-believe animal home in a real-world habitat. |
| Calling All Authors!: | In this lesson, students are engaged in a science project where the local library is hosting a book writing contest. Students will brainstorm ideas, work in rotating center stations, complete checklists and create a nonfiction book about how plant and animals are alike and different featuring what they learned about plants and animals during the lesson. |
| Generating Grammar Gurus: | In this lesson students will participate in reading the books, A Mink, a Fink, A Skating Rink, To Root, to Toot, to Parachute, and Hairy, Scary, Ordinary and complete a variety of related activities that allow them to learn about and practice their knowledge of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Students will contribute to a class generated grammar chart and complete a grammar sort. Students will also publish their own sentence which will include a noun, verb, and adjective, as well as an illustration to provide detail. |
| Forces: Pushing and Pulling: | This lesson demonstrates how students can use cause and effect to describe how objects move using a push or pull (forces). The students will understand that forces put objects in motion and that a strong force could change the direction and speed of an object. |
| Forces: Gravity: | This lesson demonstrates how students can compare and contrast multiple texts about the same topic to understand how gravity pulls objects to the center of the earth. |
| Could a Wolf Really Blow a Pig’s House Down?: | In this lesson, students will be animal investigators on a mission to learn all about pigs and wolves. With prompting and support from the teacher, students will read an informational text about pigs (Pigs by Robin Nelson) and wolves (Wolves by Michael Dahl). They will use information gathered to contribute to a class discussion about the characteristics of real pigs and wolves. Then, the teacher will read The Three Little Pigs (written by Anne Walters and Daniel Postgate) to the students and help them complete a Venn diagram comparing what they observed in The Three Little Pigs to what they know to be true of real pigs and wolves. In order to determine mastery of the concept, the students will complete a picture sort of Real and Imaginary Pigs and Wolves. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to explain how they make an informed decision about whether an animal is real or imaginary. |
| Sort it Out!: | In this lesson, students will use a graphic organizer to record their observations on sorting matter from the read aloud book Sorting by Lynn Peppas. |
| Purpose and Particulars: Presidents: | In this lesson, students will become informative investigators through whole group and independent activities about presidents and Presidents' Day. Students will identify basic similarities and differences between multiple texts to contribute to a class-generated Venn Diagram as well as an independent Venn Diagram. Students will practice generating ideas and details for a class-created informative writing piece and by creating their own informative writing piece based on what they learned through the lessons' texts. |
