Science Lesson: Animal Camouflage
Context and Beliefs - The Planning Process
Brainstorming Potential Lesson Ideas:
- Studying pigs or comparing pigs and goats, or reading multiple versions of The Three Little Pigs and talking
about the differences in the pigs – how they look in the various books vs what pigs are actually like
- Measuring, weighing
- Observing and describing
- Sink/float experiment making predictions with classroom objects and pumpkins
- Learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin
- Using 5 senses to explore, observe, and describe various objects
- Maybe I could introduce the students to microscopes to observe/investigate pumpkins in more detail?
Narrowing Down the List
From the last idea, I decided to try to grow Wisconsin Fast Plants with my students, observing and measuring them each week throughout the plants’ life cycle. This would have fit nicely with the work my students were doing on the life cycle of a pumpkin. The science teacher at PAS discouraged me from using Fast Plants, however, since they are part of the elementary science curriculum in a later year. Without the support of the materials in the science room, I couldn’t grow Fast Plants, so I went back to my brainstorming list.
I weeded out several of the ideas right away, since my class had moved on from apples and pumpkins. Then I had a conversation with my Classroom Mentor, and she had already planned a bridge-building activity with The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I decided to do something related to life science, particularly animals, because that is the area my students have the most knowledge about already. Rather than introduce them to something entirely new, I wanted to teach a lesson that would connect to what they already know.
My next favorite idea on the list was the idea of patterns in nature or camouflage. I decided to move forward and plan a lesson based on camouflage. The lesson would focus on students practicing their observation skills and making some inferences about the function of camouflage. I think looking at patterns would be a separate lesson from this, and possibly a more advanced lesson, so I decided to focus just on camouflage.
My main goal for the lesson overall is for my students to practice and improve their observation skills. Observation is a fundamental scientific process, and as such, it is the focus of the science curriculum for kindergarten in general. I want to challenge my students, however, to also begin to make inferences or hypotheses and support their inferences with evidence. In this lesson, that will take the form of students discussing the function of camouflage and why they think camouflage is important.
I wanted to incorporate a literacy component into my lesson, so I decided to use the book Hide and Seek: Nature’s Best Vanishing Acts by Andrea Helman. I also chose to use Discovery Channel’s Animal Camouflage pictures to incorporate more visual aids in the lesson. It makes sense to me to use visuals to teach camouflage, since camouflage is observed using the sense of sight.
- Something related to our current fairy tales unit
- Studying pigs or comparing pigs and goats, or reading multiple versions of The Three Little Pigs and talking
about the differences in the pigs – how they look in the various books vs what pigs are actually like
- Venn diagram comparing/contrasting apples and pumpkins
- What we’ve been doing in math is representing numbers/quantities and counting quantities in efficient ways (grouping), but I don’t know what I would do with that related to science.
- What we’ve been doing in science:
- Measuring, weighing
- Observing and describing
- Sink/float experiment making predictions with classroom objects and pumpkins
- Learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin
- Using 5 senses to explore, observe, and describe various objects
- Maybe I could introduce the students to microscopes to observe/investigate pumpkins in more detail?
- Classification system of some sort
- Observing the class fish?
- Measuring and comparing various objects and then graphing – that seems more like a math lesson to me
- My students are used to making predictions about stories, but not about science.
- Shrink an egg, predict, observe, infer?
- Looking at patterns in nature, camouflage
- Timbre (the science teacher has been teaching about sound this year) – sound bingo?
- Bodies/health
- Weather – specifically winter weather, learning about frost, snow, sleet – my kids got in an argument over whether it was raining or snowing the other day
- Maybe the life cycle of a butterfly using The Very Hungry Caterpillar?
Narrowing Down the List
From the last idea, I decided to try to grow Wisconsin Fast Plants with my students, observing and measuring them each week throughout the plants’ life cycle. This would have fit nicely with the work my students were doing on the life cycle of a pumpkin. The science teacher at PAS discouraged me from using Fast Plants, however, since they are part of the elementary science curriculum in a later year. Without the support of the materials in the science room, I couldn’t grow Fast Plants, so I went back to my brainstorming list.
I weeded out several of the ideas right away, since my class had moved on from apples and pumpkins. Then I had a conversation with my Classroom Mentor, and she had already planned a bridge-building activity with The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I decided to do something related to life science, particularly animals, because that is the area my students have the most knowledge about already. Rather than introduce them to something entirely new, I wanted to teach a lesson that would connect to what they already know.
My next favorite idea on the list was the idea of patterns in nature or camouflage. I decided to move forward and plan a lesson based on camouflage. The lesson would focus on students practicing their observation skills and making some inferences about the function of camouflage. I think looking at patterns would be a separate lesson from this, and possibly a more advanced lesson, so I decided to focus just on camouflage.
My main goal for the lesson overall is for my students to practice and improve their observation skills. Observation is a fundamental scientific process, and as such, it is the focus of the science curriculum for kindergarten in general. I want to challenge my students, however, to also begin to make inferences or hypotheses and support their inferences with evidence. In this lesson, that will take the form of students discussing the function of camouflage and why they think camouflage is important.
I wanted to incorporate a literacy component into my lesson, so I decided to use the book Hide and Seek: Nature’s Best Vanishing Acts by Andrea Helman. I also chose to use Discovery Channel’s Animal Camouflage pictures to incorporate more visual aids in the lesson. It makes sense to me to use visuals to teach camouflage, since camouflage is observed using the sense of sight.