LESSON PLANS

Butterfly Life Cycle Summary

Fossils

Butterfly Life Cycle Summary Lesson

SOL 2.4 "The student will investigate and understand that plants
and animals undergo a series of orderly changes as they mature
and grow." (VDOE)
Objective: Students will make a model representing the stages of
the butterfly lifecycle. The students will compose a paragraph
describing the lifecycle of a butterfly.
Goals: The goal of this lesson is for the students to take the
information and experience they have had over the past three
weeks and synthesize it into a model and writing. As a result of
this lesson I will be able to assess their understanding of the
butterfly life cycle.
Engage: The classroom project center is set up prior to class with
all supplies needed for students to make a model of the lifecycle
of a butterfly. The students get excited when they see a table set
up with supplies and they are eager to find out what they will be
doing.

Explore: Over the past 3 weeks the students have been participating in an
observation of the Painted Lady butterfly. Stuarts Draft Elementary School
ordered a kit from the Carolina Biological Supply Company. The students
have been making observations, drawing diagrams, documenting changes in
size and behavior of caterpillars and the metamorphosis process.
Introduction:
3-5 Minute review with students grouped together where we discuss as a
group the stages of the butterfly life cycle they witnessed.
Explain: Making the model: The students will be able to take what they
have learned about the changes the butterfly goes through and put it into a
physical model. This enables the students to exhibit their comprehension.
The model lesson plan came from Jump Start Your School Garden from
Agriculture in the Classroom. The students make a model with crafting
supplies to demonstrate what they have learned about the butterfly
lifecycle.
Writing: The students will be working on four square writing activity. This
activity enables the student to put the life cycle process in sequence order.
The students that have difficulty with writing are given the page where they
are able to fill in the blanks. The students with better writing abilities were
given the page with the visual prompt. The goal of the exercise is for
students to practice expressing themselves with complete sentences.

Elaborate: Making the model: The students make the connection to what
they have been doing in class because they are making a model that depicts
what they have been studying. The students are able to make connections
to their lives in understanding the caterpillars and butterflies they see in
their daily lives when outside.
Writing the paragraph: The students are using a scaffold four square. My
students that have difficulty writing received the page that had fill in the
blanks and space for additional information. The rest of the class was given
the page that had a picture in each square to help the students with their
sequencing. (www.teacherspayteachers.com)
Evaluate: Both the model and the paragraph were used as an assessment of
learning for the butterfly life cycle unit. Both were graded for content
accuracy and student understanding.
The students were very proud of their work. The models were used to create
a bulletin board while we completed the life cycle unit. (See Picture
attached)

Materials:
Paper Plates White
Markers
Crayons
Pipe Cleaners
Silk leaves
Cotton balls (small and miniature)
Sticks

Glue
Scissors
Four Square (Hasdell-TPT)

References:
Hadsell, J.(2014) Life Cycle of a Butterfly Four Square Writing, TeachersPayTeachers.com.
National Science Resources Center, (1992). The Life Cycle of Butterflies: Teacher's
Guide Burlington, North Carolina: Carolina Biological Supply Company.

Pippin, Black, Maxey, D. (2013). Jump Start Your School Garden from Agriculture in the
Classroom. Richmond, VA: Worth Higgins & Associates.
Virginia Department of Education (2014)
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/2010/curriculum_framewk/sci
ence2.pdf

SOL: 2.5 Students will be able to investigate how "d) fossils provide information about
living systems that were on Earth years ago." (VDOE)
Objective: Students will be able to describe the natural process in which fossils are made.
Students will create a model of a fossil and use their observation skills to describe and
identify the fossil imprint they made.

Goals: The goal of this lesson is for the students to simulate the work of a Paleontologist.
The students will analyze their fossil imprint to see if they can identify the item that made
the imprint. The concept the students will be learning is scientists can learn about the
past from the evidence left behind in the form of fossils.
Materials:
SmartBoard - Prezi presentation
Plaster Compound
Small toy lizards, spiders and bugs
Variety of sea shells
Vaseline
Small paper cups
Markers
Observation sheets - graphic organizer
Paint brushes
Toothpicks
Popsicle sticks

Engage:
Set up dig site in front of classroom. With supplies that include a plaster compound and
variety of items to make a fossil imprint. (See Picture attached) The students were so
excited about the dig site that they were peaking in the window instead of playing
outside.
Introduction:
3-5 minute group discussion "Share what you know about fossils." The students all read
one book about fossils last week in reading groups.
In small groups the students prepared their fossil imprint using the plaster compound
and their choice of toy lizards, insects or select from a variety of sea shells.
At the same time the students at their seats analyzed picture of fossil and described it's
appearance and guessed where it may have come from. We knew from the worksheet
where it was found however what was the habitat the item was in when it was used or
was alive? (www.education.com/worksheets)
Closure for the day - the students discuss the picture of the fossil and compare their
descriptions and hypothesis with the class. Tomorrow we will learn even more about
fossils.

Day 2
Explore:
Prezi presentation: What is a fossil? http://prezi.com/zt3egnxh40r0/fossils/
This presentation contains a 3-4 minute video explaining what a fossil is and how they
are made. It is a cartoon the students were completely engaged in the video. We had a
brief discussion and the students requested to see it again. They wanted to see what
they missed; they re-watched the video to see if it could answer some of their questions
they started to ask during the short discussion.
We continued with the Prezi discussed the role of Paleontologist. The presentation
ended with a fossil song. The students stood up and learned the moves to the
Paleontologist dance, we watched the video that reinforced the basic facts the students
were learning.

Closure for the day: we discussed the videos what the students had learned about how
fossils were made. We discussed the importance of fossils and how we learn from them
about the past. We discussed the scientists that study fossils. Tomorrow, the students
will be the paleontologist and tell us about the fossil they found.

Day 3
The students dug out the item they had set in the plaster compound and analyzed it
using a magnifying glass and an observation sheet.

Experience:
The students were able to observe how the plaster took the shape of the item they
placed in it. The students acted as if they were the paleontologist and documented
their observations. They drew conclusions based on the information they accumulated
through their observations.
Differentiation was accomplished by working one on one while circulating the room. I
used questioning to assist the students. I asked the students questions like: Does your
fossil have a texture? What kind of texture? Is it smooth, rough, bumpy? How would
you describe the texture? What do you think would have made this texture? What
shape is your fossil? What do you think would have left this shape behind?
Elaborate: The activity of making a fossil imprint gave the students the opportunity to
understand how an imprint is made. When the students removed the object they
recreated an experience similar to the Paleontologist that they learned about. They
observed the imprint and used their senses to describe it. The graphic organizer
helped students organize their observations and draw conclusions.

The students drew conclusions about their fossil. What can they observe about the
fossil? What do they think the fossil is based on the evidence of their observation?
Where do they think their fossil would be found? What habitat do they think the
fossil had lived in? The students made the connection between this lesson and the
habitats we were studying.
Evaluate:
I used the fossil observation sheet to access the students understanding of how
paleontologists gain information about the past through the study of fossils.
References:
DIG IT! Worksheets from
www.education.com/worksheets
Prezi Presentation created by Kami Shananha
http://prezi.com/zt3egnxh40r0/fossils/
Virginia Department of Education (2014)
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/2010/curriculum_f
ramewk/science2.pdf

Dig Site created anticipation

for Science class.

Students choice of item to

make fossil imprint.