5/23/2013

Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Template

Name: Karlie Severance Lesson Title: Life cycles of Different Families

Date: Grade Level: Pre-Kindergarten Circle one: ECE PKSN
Standard(s)/Guideline(s):
Domain: Social and Emotional Development, Strand: Relationships, Topic: Empathy, Standard Statement: Show regard for the feelings of other living things
Domain: Cognitive and General Knowledge, Sub domain: Science, Strand: life science, Topic: Explorations of Living Things, Standard Statement: With modeling
and support, identify and explore the relationship between the living things and their environments (e.g., habitats, food, eating habits, etc.). *Connecting
environments to life cycle and reproduction style.

Pre-assessment of current knowledge:

Through previous interactions and observations with the students, I know that they have explored bird nests and other animals. They also do a lot of dramatic
play with the babies and the doll house, mimicking family roles.

Instructional Objectives (2-3) Assessment of Student Learning Learning Experience

Two- Three Assessed
Instructional Objective(s): The
student will be able to...
The students will be able to
express awareness that other
living things while different from
themselves, have feelings to
acknowledge.
The students will be able to
connect animals discussed in a
nonfiction book to elements of
their life cycle.
One Assessed Developmental
Skill:
Students will demonstrate the
ability to identify key pieces of
relationships between animals and
their reproduction style.
Identify Evidence: (What will you collect or record as data
to demonstrate students have met your objective(s) and
skill?)
I will observe the students comments and facial
expressions when discussing the animals in the book. I will
also record if students are able to, with support, match an
animal to their reproduction type accurately on at least 1
out of 2 animals.
Program Monitoring: (How will you aggregate or compile
your evidence into a class or group view?)
I will compile my evidence into a group view by marking on
how many animals the students need support to match the
animals with their correct category or if they can do so on
their own. I can then put into a graph who need support on
how many animals (1 or 2) and who could do it on their
own into a graph(bar graph with names).
Academic Language:
- Sort
- Match
- Living things
- Feelings
- Animals (mammals)
- Humans and babies
- Habitats
Procedural steps:
- First, students will gather to the carpet for story time.
They will be asked to think about the life cycles of
animals that they are familiar with.
- Second, after the story, the students will be asked to
turn their attention to the white board and explain
what the arrows in a circle mean- life cycle symbol
- Thirdly students will fill in the arrows with what
background knowledge they can tell you about
human life cycle (looking for belly-baby- growing up)
- I will then print out images of the different animals
(as babies and mature adults). I will then have
groups of student’s sort if the animals are living or
eggs and then as an extension sort if they are
babies or mature adults.
- This will connect to how animals’ growing is similar
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Early Childhood Education
Learning Experience Template

or different than humans.

Safety Considerations:
I will want to consider cutting the
paper out smoothly to prevent any
paper cuts. I will also ensure
positive language and support for
the students so that they know it is
ok if maybe they need more
support than other students who
are able to match animals to
habitats independently.
- I will then have out the animals figurines and the
Differentiation: images accessible to explore at table time with the
Printing out large images to support any students who book.
might have visual difficulties. I will use verbal cues if the
students are not able to read the labels on the charts with
the animals and their life cycle type. I will also vary the Authentic Materials: (Describe authentic real life, hands-on
amount of support I give to the students depending on the materials.)
level they are at. - Large white paper
- Printed out images of animals and their matching
habitats
- Tape
- “Animal Life Cycles” book by Sally Morgan
- Markers
- Rug

Adult Roles:

I will facilitate read aloud and scaffold students as they

match images of animals and their attributes during small
group work.

Resources & References:

https://flyers.udayton.edu/search?/Xlife+cycles&SORT=D/Xlife+cycles&SORT=D&SUBKEY=life+cycles/1%2C564%2C564%2CB/
frameset&FF=Xlife+cycles&SORT=D&3%2C3%2C

Reflection: (What have you learned about your students? How will this inform future instruction?)

For this lesson I focused on working with smaller groups of 2 or 3 at a time. I worked with student A and L and read them the
Animal Life Cycle chapter from the read aloud. Doing so, I asked them to think of an animal that has a live birth and they said Lion,
which is the animal that was on the page we were reading. Then I asked them if they knew of an animal that gave birth to eggs and
they said Penguins, which were on the cover of the book and dinosaurs which are a big interest of many of the students, especially the
male students in the classroom. These questions acted as a pre-assessment, taking note that students did know of animals in their
schemas that distinguished two ways animals gave birth. After we read these pages, I had the students fill in the life cycle of a human
life cycle with various images. I supported them through this, giving guiding questions but also letting them work together. At one point
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Early Childhood Education
Learning Experience Template

they worked together and switched a card and put it into the correct spot of a life cycle starting in a “mother’’” belly. The students then
started to lose some interest in the activity at this point and I asked them to hang on to try one more activity. Looking back, I think that
an adjustment would be to have waited to see if the students would come to the station on the carpet rather then ask them to come with
me while they were still at a station. Or I could ask them to come to the station with me when they were in transition from one station to
another, that way they are not thinking about the previous stations work. The final piece of the activity that student A and L completed
was as sort of animal pairings of female adult and their young pictures of various animals. I intended for there to be two phases of the
word sort and do adult and baby and then do live birth and laying eggs. Due to the attention span of the students, I adapted and only
had them sort the animals by their means of reproductive birth. The students used to prompt and support from me as student A got
confused on where the “eggs” were in the images and which animals such as larger mammals were live births. Student L was able to
teach and guide student A into clarification on certain animals, like that fish lay eggs. This was great to see the students collaborate
with their peers and learn from one another. Once, this section was done the students wanted to move on to another station. One thing
I would change for next time, is I would use the animal figurines instead of pictures for the whole time. I had forgotten to bring out the
animals until a new group came over and wanted to play with the pictures. I think having the students sort the figurines would have kept
their interest longer. However, seeing where the students were interested in, I adapted and used the opportunity of the three new
students playing with the animals to ask them questions such as which animal was the mama, and which was the baby. While this was
not as detailed as the image sort comparing live birth animals to animals that lay eggs, I adapted to meet the students where they were
at and focused on comparing the two stages of life. This also allowed more opportunity to see collaboration with peers appropriately,
use their imaginations and demonstrate feelings with of other living things.
Having the animals out also enticed more students to come to the carpet station. Here I asked two students P and L2 some
questions about the mama vs baby animals. Then when two more students came, I had them listen to the story and create the life cycle
image of the human life cycle with support. Overall, this activity will inform further instruction because I will make sure to have
something more open and tactile to entice the students and play off their interests such as the figurines from the beginning. I will also
be sure to continue to scaffold and bring new animals in that the students are not familiar with to challenge their learning about what
animal families have live births and which lay eggs. I can also connect this to the various mother and spawn relationships (how animals
differ with raising their young). Students could also be asked what their favorite animal family is and draw it and orally explain why as a
literacy and social emotional extension.