LESSON PLAN
SUBJECT AREA: Science
GRADE LEVEL: Second Grade

DURATION OF THE LESSON: 45 minutes

LESSON PLAN TITLE AND SUMMARY: Kinds of Habitats. Students have been taught about how animals live in different habitats around the world and what those can be.  During this activity the students will be in pairs and they will need to identify where each of the animals on the picture cards are from and what characteristics there are in those habitats.

BIG IDEA:
Students will be able to identify and describe the habitats where animals live.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S):
What kinds of animals live in these habitats?
How can you describe these habitats?

LINKS TO MA CURRICULUM FRAMEWORKS or NATIONAL CORE STANDARDS:  

SCIT 2.1  - Recognize that animals (including humans) and plants are living things that grow, reproduce, and need food, air and water.
SCIT 2.3  - Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life cycles vary for different living things
SCIT 2.5  - Recognize that fossils provide us with information about living things that inhabited the earth years ago
SCIT 2.8 - Identify the ways in which an organism's habitat provide for its basic needs ( plants require air, water, nutrients, and light; animals require food, water, air, and shelter)



SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE (S) of the LESSON:

 Given an animal card, students will be able to identify, match and describe the habitats of the animal with no help from the instructor or their partner, in a reasonable about of time.

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY NEEDED:  

Animal cards, Habitat cards, a piece of paper to match the animal and their habitat.

VOCABULARY:

Habitat, wet lands, dry lands, water, shelter, food

CONNECTIONS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM:
This will connect to the curriculum because the students will have already been talking about habitats and where animals live. The students will also know how an animal benefits and survives with this habitat, such as what the habitat provides for the animals.

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE:  

Introduction of the topic/focusing activity with Connections to Prior Knowledge:
Students will be placed in pairs  and told the instructions of the activity.

Development:
The students in pairs will be handed the animal and habitat cards
Students will each go one at a time and match the animal to the habitat
Once the animal is matched with the habitat, the student will explain to their partner the characteristic of that habitat.
The pairs will switch to the next student and each student in the pair will have a turn to match an animal to the habitat and describe that habitat.

Closure:
When all the pairs have completed match the animals to their habitats the classroom will come together and the instructor will ask the students to talk about why they placed that animal with that habitat. The students will talk about the properties of the habitats. This will make sure that the activity benefited them and the students learned and were able to show off their knowledge about animals and habitats.

ASSESSMENT:  Students will be assessed during the activity with how well they know animals and their habitats. It will also be clear which students have retained this knowledge and which students may need a little more help on the subject matter.

PLANNING FOR LEARNER VARIABILITY:

The picture cards allow the ELL students to understand the expectations better since they are still learning English and may not know the words for the animals or the habitats.  For students with a learning disability I have give them the accommodation of having very simple directions. Giving them long list of directions would cause them to panic and get frustrated therefore they would not be focusing on anything. Repetition and use of visuals can allow the students with a learning disability to better understand the material and allow them to be able to focus and not get frustrated. The simpler the activities and directions, the better for that student.  Also the students will be in pairs of a higher level learner and a lower level learned.  This will benefit the student because the student with higher level learning will learn patience and how to help others and the lower level will be able to learn from the high level student, a friend and classmate. These accommodations can assist all the children.

SOURCES UTILIZED IN THE DESIGN PROCESS:

Second Grade Teacher - Mrs. Avery Banfield - Rivera
Mass Standards App - on iPhone