Cluster 3: Research to Build and Present KnowledgeArchived

Who lives in the Everglades is lesson 3 of 3. Students will review some of the animals that live in the Everglades presented in lessons 1 and 2 by looking at an interactive presentation. Students will collaborate with a partner to do a sorting activity of animals that live in Florida and that do not live in Florida.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be introduced to the Everglades, learning about this special place for plants and animals that is unlike anywhere else on Earth. They will watch a presentation on some of the animals that live in the Everglades and start working on their Everglades Class Book.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will observe the daytime sky to determine if the moon can be seen during the day. Students will record their daily observations for one week. Students will complete a Venn diagram illustrating objects seen in the daytime sky, nighttime sky, and both.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students learn about one of the jobs a scientist does: keeping a notebook or journal. The students will earn a procedure for completing an accurate Science Notebook entry. The teacher can follow this process throughout the year to develop students who are proficient in Science Notebooking.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows students to explore a variety of musical instruments. This is a hands-on activity allowing students to discover the differences in sounds made by different instruments. Students will also gain practice in recording their observations in their science notebooks.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use the book, On a Farm by Alexa Andrews to practice identifying the topic and details of a text. Through the use of a bubble map and a student response sheet, students will record their learning after exploring the book. Student work will be appreciated at the end of the lesson with a gallery walk.

Type: Lesson Plan

As part of learning about Concepts of Print, students will explore how some books do not have words and you need to "read" the pictures to understand what is happening. The book, Chalk by Bill Thomson will be used to inspire the students to add writing to his book as they dream what they would draw if they knew their chalk drawings would come to life.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will recall information from a read aloud text and discuss what it means to demonstrate good manners. Activities include contributing to a good manners chart, composing a sentence using a sentence frame demonstrating understanding of the conventions of standard English and practicing spelling words in creative ways. At the end of the lesson, students will create a Good Manners page for a class book, sharing a time when they have shown good manners.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will serve as researchers of the beloved author, Kevin Henkes. After reading three of Henkes’s most popular books, students will complete a chart of story elements, record their opinion about each book, and create an opinion writing piece to inform others of their favorite Kevin Henkes book and why they like it best.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will guide students in understanding how models can help us understand real-world objects. Students will learn about fish features, observe real fish, and create a model of a fish.

Type: Lesson Plan

The Fire Wheels MEA provides students with a problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best toy car for a company to sell.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

"Taking Care of Business" is a Kindergarten level lesson plan that allows students to investigate the world of jobs. In this lesson, the students will read Everybody Works by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler. Then, the students will work together in small groups to show what they have learned. Your superstar students will understand more about jobs, job duties, and job settings by the end of this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses When a Storm Comes Up by Allan Fowler and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett to introduce four major weather patterns (rain showers, blizzards, tornadoes and hurricanes). The students will apply what they have learned to identify, describe, and illustrate the weather patterns using white liquid glue and oil pastels. It is recommended that this lesson be broken into two parts, with at least twelve hours in-between each lesson so the white liquid glue has time to dry.

Type: Lesson Plan

What objects can you see in the day sky? What objects can you see in the night sky? Are there objects that can be seen in both the day and night sky? Can the sun be seen during the night, or only during the day? Students will encounter these questions as they explore the similarities and differences between the day and night sky. This lesson will help students identify what objects can be seen in the day and night sky, and objects are exclusively seen in the day sky and the night sky.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about weather by taking walks in various types of conditions: sunny, rainy, windy and snowy.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will go on an exploration of alphabet books to better understand the roles of authors and illustrators as well as print concepts, including uppercase and lowercase letters. After reading the books Alphabet Rescue, Miss Spider's ABC, The Mixed-Up Alphabet, and LMNO Peas, students will contribute to class discussions and create a class alphabet book. After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, students will complete an uppercase and lowercase letter sort art project that will be used as a summative assessment while the teacher individually tests students on their understanding of print concepts and letter recognition.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this teaching idea, kindergarten students studied nature through the creation of "small worlds." A book was created which included letters to the animals they observed, as well as observations, things they wondered, and invitations to the animals to come and visit.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea describes a project for kindergarten students to create a nonfiction book. After studying animal adaptations, students learned about the adaptations of different local animals and created a nonfiction book with illustrations.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea describes a project completed by Kindergarten students after studying living things and the physical characteristics that make them special. Students created fish jigsaw puzzles that included written descriptions. This idea can be adapted to the study of fish in any state.

Type: Teaching Idea