Here's a list of lesson plans I collected from various sources. The lessons are all centered on science topics and ideas, and include great experiments to conduct in the classroom. A summary of the lesson is listed below each title.
This lesson plan, entitled “Seasons
and Precipitation,” is a great interactive way to teach children about the
relationship between the different seasons and the amounts of precipitation
that occurs during each. The lesson plan is directed toward a second grade
level, but could easily be used in younger grade levels. After reading a book
on seasons, students are to make collages of pictures of each of the four
seasons. Students must separate out the pictures themselves and put them in the
correct sections for the seasons, allowing the teacher to check for
understanding. The students then share their collages and are to describe the
state of water and how they look in each of the seasons.
This
lesson plan is entitled, “Camouflage- Do Animals Play Hide and Seek?” and is
geared toward grades K-2nd. After reading the book, “Where Did Bunny
Go?,” a book about a bunny playing hide and seek with his friends, the teacher
is to show pictures of animals that use camouflage to the students. Students
will practice together deciding if animals will be able to hide easily in
nature or not. They will then receive their own stacks of pictures of animals
and be asked to sort them into two piles; one of animals that can hide easily
in nature, and ones that can’t. The class then goes over which animals they
sorted in which categories.
3. “Sorting Seeds” from A Head Start on Science; 89
Activities for children ages 3-7 by William
C. Ritz (page 261).
This
lesson plan focuses on teaching children to observe, compare, contrast, and
classify items, using seeds as the basis for these concepts. Children receive
their own bags of seeds which vary in size, shape, color, and texture. They are
encouraged to observe the seeds closely with a hand lens and to notice the
differences and similarities between different seeds. They then sort the seeds
however they want to, and share their method of sorting with the class. The
teacher then has children brainstorm different characteristics to sort the
seeds by, and has them work with a partner to sort the seeds by a different
characteristic than they used the first time. The lesson includes follow-up
activities and enrichment ideas for different levels.
This
is a great lesson on the different types of rocks. The teacher builds the first
examples of the three types of rocks, and leads a discussion on which model
represents which type of rock and why. Students then work together to build the
different types of rocks using edible materials including graham crackers, cake
icing. Chocolate chips, and starbursts. There is also a recording sheet
included for students to draw and describe the different rocks they created. At
the conclusion of the lesson, students may sample a taste of their own “rocks.”
This
is an extremely engaging and exciting lesson on the steps in the water cycle.
Students get to create their very own “weather in a cup” that shows the steps
of the water cycle. Students fill two cups with water, leaving a little room at
the top. They place shaving cream on top of the water in one of the cups, to
represent clouds, as the first step; condensation. They then add food coloring
into the shaving cream until it starts to fall down into the water, which
represents the stage of precipitation. In the second cup, students place a
small amount of blue food coloring and set it in a sunny spot. They check back
on the state of this cup a couple of times throughout the day, and it
represents the final stage; evaporation. The lesson plan includes labels,
worksheets to describe the different processes occurring, and pictures of what
the cups may look like. This lesson is geared toward 2nd-5th
grade.
This
lesson includes a hands-on activity on erosion. Students build landforms using
different types of soil (dirt, fine sand, gravel, moss, etc) in large
disposable aluminum lasagna pans. They then follow the scientific method by
making hypotheses on what effect running water will have on their different
landforms. They then test their hypotheses using a watering can to create
running water, and propping one end of the pan up on books to create a slope. They
record their observations on a recording sheet and are then allowed to add
rocks and other obstacles in their landforms, and run the experiment again. In
the conclusion, students rate whether or not their hypotheses were correct. The
lesson is geared toward 2nd-5th grade.
This
lesson was created for a fourth grade classroom, and focuses on Earth’s layers.
The teacher will show children different fruits cut in half in order to
introduce them to the fact that the Earth, like these fruits, has different
letters. Students will be able to explore different foods, such as an apple and
hard-boiled egg (without the shell). They will then fill out an information
sheet describing the different layers of each and comparing them to the Earth’s
different layers. There is a picture of Earth, showing and describing its
different layers, included with the lesson.
This
lesson was created for use in grades K-1st and is focused on the
exploration of touch and sound with different objects found in the classroom
and/or daily life. For the sound aspect of the lesson, different items will be
placed into separate plastic containers, and they will work with partners to
try to guess what object is in the container by the sound it makes when they
shake the container. For the sight aspect, students work together to guess what
an object is by feeling it while it is still in the container. There is also a
key with pictures and words that students may use to help them figure out which
object they are hearing or feeling.
This
lesson includes an engaging activity for students to build their own model of a
snow-covered road to test their methods of friction. The students will create
their snowy slope on a baking sheet, using either InstaSnow or the inside of a
baby’s diaper. Students create their “snow” by mixing water with the polymer,
then spread it over the baking sheet, putting one end of it up on a stack of
blocks to create a slope. They will then experiment with sand, gravel, salt,
and other materials to create friction, and will test how effective their
friction is by using toy cars on the slope and timing their descent. A
reflection sheet is included in the lesson for students to come to conclusions
about their experiments and effectiveness of their friction materials.
10. “Absorbing Water” from A Head Start on Science; 89
Activities for children ages 3-7 by William
C. Ritz (page 219).
This
lesson plan focuses on teaching children the skills of observing, comparing,
classifying, and communication, using a water experiment to do so. In this
lesson, children use eyedroppers to drop water onto an assortment of objects.
They are to observe what happens to the water and to the objects as the water
is dropped onto them. The teacher guides the students into deciding which
objects are absorbing the water, and which aren’t, along with characteristics
of each category. The lesson includes possible center connections along with
literature connections for teachers’ use.
No comments:
Post a Comment