Unit+of+Instruction

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Life Cycles Primary Subject: Elementary Introduction: Life Cycles are an important part of every life. Every life, be it animal, plant, or human goes through four stages: birth, growth, reproduction and death.

Students will learn about the life cycle of the butterfly, frog, plant, chicken and human.

What is this unit about / what is the purpose of teaching it / what will students learn in general as a result of participating in this unit? Unit Objectives:
 * Student will understand the a life cycle is a circular process, with no beginning and no end.
 * Student will learn the characteristics of a life cycle: birth, growth, reproduction, death
 * Students will be able to define metamorphosis
 * Students will be able to compare and contrast the stages of a life cycle

Time Required: 2 Weeks (10 days)  Lesson 1

Title of lesson: Theme Introduction

Description of lesson: Students will be introduced to the theme of life cycles. The class will look at the shape of a circle and discuss where the circle begins and ends, and realize a circle begins and ends in the same place, it ends where it started. In this lesson, students will learn that every living thing goes through a series of changes during its life time, called a life cycle. The life cycle is described as circular becuase, even though living things do eventually die, there is no beginning and no end to a life cycle. A living thing goes through its life cycle, producing a new birth, which will go through the same life cycle.

Assignment: In class, students will be asked to create an art design, using circle shapes. Collecting a variety of circular shapes, students will trace, stamp or rubb circular shapes onto their paper in a variety of colors to make a design. This project will help reinforce the concept of the circular process of a life cycle. Resources/materials needed: Paper, crayons, paint and ink pads.

Lesson 2

Title of lesson: Life Cycle of a Plant

Description of lesson: The students will learn about the life cycle of a plant. A seed will grow into a plant (seedling), the plant will grow and flower, the flower will bear fruit, and the fruit will produce seeds. In class, we will cut open an apple and look at the seeds. We will discuss that fruit grows from the seeds, and the life cycle begins again.

Assignment: media type="file" key="Life Cycle of a Plant Podcast.mp3" Listen to the podcast about the life cycle of a plant. Then, draw and label the following parts of a plant: leaves, roots , flower , fruit , seeds , stem.

Resources/materials needed: computer with internet access, paper, crayons or markers

Lesson 3

Title of lesson: Planting a Seed

Description of lesson: After reviewing the life cycle of a plant, in class, we will generate a discussion of what a seed needs to grow: soil, water, sunlight. We will talk about the importance of each in growing our plants. We will watch a video about the growth of an apple seed.

media type="custom" key="3785085" Watch this video, from Brain Pop Jr., about the life cycle of an apple tree.

Assignment: In class, students will each plant a seed in a clear, plastic cup. Over the weeks, the students will observe and record information on the growth of their plant in their science journal.

Resources/materials needed: bean seeds, soil, plastic cups

Lesson 4

Title of lesson: Life Cycle of an Insect Description of lesson: Students will learn each stage of an insect: egg, larva, pupa, adult. They will learn that each stage has distinct differences, and that the changes that occur in the stages are called a metamorphosis.

Assignment: Students will look at pictures of an insect in each of the first three stages. They will investigate each picture to determine that, although the pictures look different, they are all from the same type of insect. As a class, we will begin a butterfly garden. We will place our caterpillar eggs in the garden and watch the metamorphis into butterflies.

Resources/materials needed: pictures of each stage of an insect life cycle, Butterfly Garden

media type="custom" key="3673139" Play the game to match each vocabulary word with its correct life cycle term.

Lesson 5 Title of lesson: Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Description of lesson: Students will review the stages of an insect: egg, larva, pupa, adult. The students will compare these stages to each stage of a butterfly. They will learn that a butterfly larva is called the caterpillar, that a butterfly rests in a cocoon or chrysalis in the pupa stage, and the butterfly is the adult stage.

Assignment: Students will create a butterfly diarama. Each student will divide a paper plate in fourths. On the top right section, they will draw a green leaf and glue one piece of corn pop cereal on it to represent an egg. Directly below, they will glue five to six corn pops cereal together, to make a caterpillar. They will add details with markers. To the left of this, the will draw a brown stick and glue a piece of corn pops cereal to represent a chrysalis. On the top left sevtion, students will glue a large twisty pretzel and decorate it to represent a butterfly. Students will label each section: egg, larva/caterpillar, pupa/chrysalis, adult

Resources/materials needed: Resources/materials needed: box of Corn Pops cereal, bag of large twisty pretzels, paper plates, crayons, markers, glue

Explore this Google Earth Tour, covering stops the monarch butterfly makes as it migrates North and answer the questions in your science journal.

Lesson 6

Title of lesson: Life Cycle of a Frog

Description of lesson: Students will learn about the life cycle of a frog. They will learn that a frog belongs to the animal group called an amphibian, and that amphibian means "two lives". A frog has two life stages, one in water and one on land. A frog's life cycle has three stages: an egg in water, a tadpole in water and an adult frog on land and in water. Assignment: Complete the scavenger hunt. and the webquest Resources/materials needed: Computers with World Wide Web access, crayons, markers

Lesson 7

Title of lesson: Life Cycle of Birds

Description of lesson: Students will learn that an adult female bird lays an egg. Eggs contain everything needed to form a new animal. They will learn that when the animal has grown enough, it will break free from the egg, called hatching. The life cycle of a bird contains three cycled: egg, chick and adult.

Assignment:View the power point presentation and then complete the acticity below. In class, students will look a hard-boiled chicken egg and one uncooked egg. In the hard-boiled egg, they will see the air space at the end of the egg. Observing the uncooked egg, they will learn to identify the egg cell, and about the yolk (which provides food for the chick), the chalazee (wich hold the yolk in place) and the albumen (wich holds the water for the unborn chick) //thanks to enchanted learning.com // Resources/materials needed: two chicken eggs, one hard-boiled, the other uncooked

Lesson 8

Title of lesson: Life Cycles of Mammals

Description of lesson: Students will learn that a mammal has fur or hair, that female mammals give birth to a live baby (not an egg) and produce milk to feed their babies. Students will learn that human beings are considered mammals.

Assignment: View the video below of some of the many mammals on this earth. Students will make a chart of animals, and classify whether they are a mammal or "not a mammal". Make an animation of your own with other mammals. media type="custom" key="3673341" Animoto is a creative way to show what you have learned,

Resources/materials needed: compute with internet access, chart paper, markers or crayons

Lesson 9

Title of lesson: Life Cycle of a Human Being

Description of lesson: Students will learn that a human goes through a life cycle as well. The three stages of a life cycle are : baby, child, teenager, adult. Students will compare and contract things that they could not do when they were a baby, things that they can do now.

Assignment: Students should bring in a baby picture of themselves. Talk to your mom and dad about when you were a baby. Write down 1-2 interesting facts. Using blabberize, create a short video, using one of the interesting facts you learned. media type="custom" key="3672967" The benefits of using blabberize, verses just writing the facts on a piece of paper? Students will be able to create a short, fun video, expressing their thoughts creatively. Sure to generate alot of laughs, each student will enjoy learning something new about their classmates.

Resources/materials needed: Pictures of each student brought from home, computer with internet access.

media type="custom" key="3708997" Above you will find some great videos to summarize what we have learned about life cycles. This first video is about the life cycle of a butterfly. Second video is the life cycle of a human. Third is the life cycle of a plant. Fourth is a video about the life cycle of a chicken. Fifth is the life cycle of an insect (mealworm). Sixth is a video from Bill Nye the Science Guy, reminding us everything has a life cycle. Our seventh and last video reminds us how to determine is an animal is a mammal. I hope you find these videos to be informative. Enjoy!

Lesson 10

Title of lesson: Life Cycle of a Human Being

Description of lesson Students will finish discussing the life cycle of a human being. They will discuss the stages a human goes through and how they change as they grow older. They will compare and contract this with the stages of an insect, butterfly and frog, who go through a very different metamorposis.

Assignment: Students will be asked to create a life cycle of themselves, on posterboard in a circular pattern. Using their baby picture, and current picture for the first two stages, they will draw a picture of what they think they will look like as a teenager and an adult.

Using vocaroo, each student will create a podcast, listing something they could not do when they were a baby and something they predict they will be able to do when they are an adult. media type="custom" key="3785319" [|Record your voice at vocaroo.com!]

Resources/materials needed: Pictures of each student from home, posterboard, markers, crayons, glue, computer with internet access, and a microphone.