UNLV/Department of Teaching & Learning Elementary Lesson

Plan Template

UNLV
Angela Hicks PSMT Name: Sande McNeil
Student:
Lesson Plan The Great Pumpkin Lesson Plan
Science
Title: Investigation Topic:
Estimated
Date: 10/30/2018 90 minutes
Time:
Thiriot
Grade Level: 5th Grade School Site:
Elementary

1. State Standard(s): SL.5.1 Engage effectively in a range of

collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with
diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas
and expressing their own clearly
2. Teaching Model(s): Direct Instruction, cooperative learning, whole-
group instruction
3. Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, students will be able to engage
in collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and
texts
4. Materials and Technology Resources: Pumpkins, pumpkin
investigation booklet, Mystery Science Pumpkin Video, containers
5. Instructional Procedures:

a. Motivation/Engagement: (20-30 minutes)
• The teacher will tell the class that they are going to do a lesson on
pumpkins

• The teacher will explain to the class that pumpkins are not only
popular for Halloween, but pumpkins are popular during the entire
fall season
 • The teacher will explain to the class that the first thing they are
going to do is watch a video to learn more about why pumpkins are
so popular during the fall

• The teacher will pause the video and ask the class: What other
varieties of pumpkins have you seen?

• The teacher will stop the video and explain to the class that they
are going to learn more about pumpkins by doing a science
investigation

• The teacher will explain to the class that they are going to be
scientists and will investigate and collect research on their
pumpkins

b . Developmental Activities or Learning Experiences: (40 minutes)

• The teacher will tell students to put on their scientist thinking caps
to get ready for the investigation

• The teacher will explain to the class that every group has a
pumpkin to share

• The teacher will instruct students to turn to the first page of their
pumpkin investigation booklets

• The teacher will tell the class to observe their pumpkins by giving
everyone a chance to hold them

• The teacher will explain to the class that after they are done
looking at their pumpkins, they are going to draw what the outside
of their pumpkins look like

• The teacher will explain to the class that they are now going to
measure their pumpkins
• The teacher will demonstrate how to use the measuring tape to
measure around the pumpkin and the height of the pumpkins

• Students will measure their pumpkins and write their

measurements down in inches

• The teacher will explain to the class that they are now going to
conduct an experiment using their pumpkins

• The teacher will tell the class that they are going to test their
pumpkins to see if they can float in water

• The teacher will tell the class that first they are going to write a
hypothesis: A hypothesis is an educated guess that can be tested

• Once students write down a hypothesis, students will test to see if

they are right or wrong. Students will document results in their
investigation booklets.

• The teacher will explain to the class that they are now going to see
what the inside of their pumpkins look like. Have students predict
how many seeds there are in their pumpkins.

• The teacher will cut open each pumpkin in half for every group.

• Have students pass around the halves of the pumpkins.

• Explain to the class that they are now going to see if their
hypothesis was right by counting how many seeds there are in each
pumpkin.

• Have the groups work together to count how many seeds there are
in their pumpkins and document their results.
c. Closure: (10-20 minutes)

• The teacher will call on each group to come up and present their
estimate to the class before counting their total number of seeds

• The teacher will ask the class Was your hypothesis right or wrong?

• The teacher will ask students to define what a hypothesis is

• The teacher will ask students to share what they learned from
today’s investigation

d. Extension:

If time remains in the lesson, students will create their own group
posters to share information about their group’s investigation. Every
poster must include the measurements of the pumpkin as well as the
amount of seeds found in the pumpkin. Students will also write their
predictions on the poster and must explain whether or not their
predictions were accurate. If the prediction of a group is not right,
students will write on their posters what they think they could have done
better to get an accurate result. Each group will come up and present
their posters to the class.



If time is cut short from the lesson, students will be asked to take
home a pumpkin investigation writing prompt. Students must write a
one-page paper explaining what the outside of there pumpkins look like
as well as what the inside of their pumpkins look like. Students will also
predict how tall their pumpkin is in cubes. The next day, students will
find out how tall their pumpkins are using unifix cubes.



6. Accommodations, Modifications and Differentiations for Diverse
Learners:

I designed this lesson to be very hands-on, so that every student has the
opportunity to make their own connections. For lower-level students and
ELL students, I wrote the vocabulary on the board, so that they can
visually see the words to make connections. I also gave each student a
small handout that contained the vocabulary words we would be going
over during the lesson. During the lesson, students were not only
learning by themselves, but they were learning with their groups. Having
this peer-to-peer interaction really helped all the different types of
students in this P2 class to stay on task.



7. Assessment and Evaluation of Learning:

The teacher will assess student understanding during and after the lesson
through formative and summative assessment. During the lesson, the
teacher will ask students questions in a discussion format. Students were
allowed the opportunity to talk within their groups to ask questions and
make their own connections and then share their answers to the class.
Throughout the lesson, I used key questioning techniques to keep
students on task as well as to make sure that every student knew the
question we were trying to investigate. At the end of the lesson, the
teacher will collect all exit tickets. The data on the poster board will
serve as a summative assessment for student understanding of all groups.

8. Homework Assignment: I have decided to not give students a

homework assignment because I felt that they achieved the target
curricular aim of the lesson. I checked for student understanding during
the lesson through whole-group learning, discussion and after with an
oral review of key vocabulary words. I designed my lesson to give each
student an equal chance to participate in sharing during the whole-group
instruction and activity. Through the use of formative and summative
assessment to check for student understanding, I concluded that the
students were successful in achieving the learning objective of this
lesson.
9. Reflection:

a. Strengths: This lesson had many strengths. The students learned about
concepts that are relevant to their lives, linking previous knowledge to
what they are learning about which makes information easier to retain.
In addition, students participated in whole-group discussion and an
activity that challenged them to investigate a question that requires data
collection and research, making connections to new concepts they
learned about during the lesson. Because this lesson was hands-on,
students were effectively engaged and eager to find out the answers to
their own questions.

b. Concerns: This lesson was challenging because it involved a lot of
classroom cooperation. Students were constantly working within their
groups which concerned me that I would have to redirect them to stay on
task. At times, things got too loud and I would have to use classroom
management techniques to keep them focused on the lesson. In addition,
the lesson was a messy one because students had to reach inside the
pumpkins and separate the pulp from the seeds. As you can imagine, this
part of the lesson caused a lot of excitement from students. In addition,
this lesson took longer than I predicted because students were so eager
to do it that I had to constantly redirect them to stay on task.

c. Insights: After becoming familiar with the students in my P2 class, I
have come to understand their personalities, interests and learning styles.
The majority of the students in this class love to participate and are eager
to share what they know. Knowing this, I designed my lesson to be
hands-on to motivate them about learning new concepts that are also
linked to their personal lives. In addition, the whole-group discussions
allowed students the opportunity to ask questions and make their own
predictions as well as served as a form of formative assessment to check
for student understanding. The investigative experiment that followed
engaged every student the opportunity to be involved in the lesson as
they were eager to find out how many seeds were in each pumpkin. I am
pleased to say that this lesson successfully engaged the students in
learning about topics through whole-group discussions and cooperative
learning.
10. Lemov Strategies: During the lesson, I used three Lemov strategies
to deepen student understanding and learning.The first strategy I used
was No Opt Out. During the lesson, I asked students to repeat the
essential question we are investigating: How many seeds are in a
pumpkin? When one student did not know how to answer, I called on
another student to help him out. When the student responded with the
correct answer, I went back to the first student and repeated the same
question until they gave me the correct answer. The next strategy I used
during my lesson was exit ticket. At the end of the lesson, I asked
students to write about whether their prediction was right or wrong?
Students had to explain their answers using evidence they found during
the investigation. The exit ticket served as an assessment for student
understanding.The last strategy I used during this lesson was precise
praise. Because this lesson was hands-on and centered around working
in small groups,I made sure to circulate the classroom and compliment
those students that are more on the shy side. This school year we
welcomed a few new students that have a hard time participating and
building friendships in class. This strategy really helped to boost
confidence in those students to let them know that participating in class
can be a fun experience as well as allow them to connect to their peers.