Thursday, December 1, 2016

Lesson 5

LESSON 5

UNIT TOPIC: South America Tropical Rainforest
LESSON TOPIC: South America Rainforest Animals
AGE/GRADE: 10-11 / Fifth Grade
TIME: This lesson will take place over 2 days, each day being 60 minutes long.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: 
What is the South America Tropical Rainforest?
LESSON ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
What are the animals in the South America Rainforest?
RATIONALE AND CONTEXT
This lesson is important for the children to learn.  Since we already learned about specific South America Rainforest plants, now we are focusing in on South America Rainforest animals and the specific ones that live on each level of the rainforest.  Going along with this lesson, it is great to focus in on the specific layers in the rainforest and how each of the animals on the layers interact with each other and effect the different living environments.  
TEACHER CONTENT KNOWLEDGE:
Animals are a huge part of the world and have a great impact on other animals and each of their different life cycles and living environments.  The rainforest is just one example showing the importance of how those animals need to interact with one another to keep this ecosystem and environments alive.  There are different animals on each of the four layers in the rainforest.  All of those animals are on each level for a reason and they each interact with and feed off of each other to help keep the rainforest alive and help the plants strive in each environment as well. 
DESIRED RESULTS: 
Common Core/Vermont Standard GE(s)/National Arts Standards:
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.
Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Learning Objective(s): 
  • I would like my students to learn how to work in groups and collaborate with their peers over certain topics being discussed.  
  • I would like my students to listen and respond respectfully to others who are talking and sharing ideas or thoughts.
  • I would like my students to participate and cooperate in each activity.
Focusing Question(s):
  • What animals are in the South America Rainforest and what levels do they live on?
  • How do the animals impact each other’s lives in the process of living and feeding off of each other?
Language Objectives:
  • The Amazon animals
    • eagles, monkeys, bats, butterflies
    • snakes, toucans, tree frogs
    • insects, jaguars, leopards
    • giant anteaters, leaf-cutting ants, Anacondas, Caymans, Capybaras, Tapirs
ASSESSMENT:                 
Strategies: 
In order to assess my students’ learning and work, I will have the students create drawings after hearing short stories and continue to create a shoebox of their favorite rainforest layer.  The drawings will be made while I read a short story about each layer and the students will imagine what they look like in their minds then put it onto paper.  This will improve their imagination and creativity.  The shoe box project will do the same while they will put their rainforest layer into artwork and bring it to life while also creating a written analysis about this layer.  
Process:
I will evaluate the students’ learning by using checklists and rubrics.  I will use the checklists for the drawings and shoebox project.  This checklist will help me ensure that each student has most of the main animals involved in the chosen level.  I will use the rubric for the written aspect of the shoebox project to ensure that the students are using appropriate writing skills while also retaining information about the rainforest.  
Criteria:
  • Did the students listen?
  • Were the students cooperating and collaborating nicely with their peers?
  • Were the students respecting each others’ thoughts, opinions, and answers?
  • Did the students participate?
  • Did the students correctly portray the layer and animals found there?
Reflection to Students:
To provide specific feedback to the students, I will use a rubric to assess their writing portion of the shoebox project.  Then I will use a checklist to assess their actual shoebox project and specific layer drawings during the lesson.  I can meet with each student individually to go over the assessments and what they need to work on and improve for their learning. 
LEARNING PLAN: 
Hook:
Who likes animals?  Has anyone ever wondered what different types of animals live in the rainforest?  The South America Rainforest is full of amazing and interesting animals and each of the four levels contain different types. 
Connect: 
This lesson will connect with the previous lesson because the previous lesson also goes into specifics about the rainforest layers.  Lesson four talks about the specific plants in the rainforests while this lesson talks about the specific animals in the rainforest.  Together, these two lessons complete the general overview of what lives in the South America Rainforest and how each living thing interacts with each other in order to survive.  I will introduce this lesson with two books that talk about the animals and environments on each layer.  These will review the plants on each level that they learned about in the previous lesson while also teaching them about the animals now involved.  
Instruction:       
DAY 1 
  1. Lesson Overview (1 min)
  2. Morning Greeting (2 min)
The students will go around the room saying good morning and their favorite animal. 
  1. How Iwariwa the Cayman Learned to Share  (10 min)
As a class, we will read How Iwariwa the Cayman Learned to Share which talks about a scary Cayman who does not like to share his space in the rainforest.  This causes a problem with the other animals in the rainforest, since they all live there and need to  share their space and environment they live in.  Throughout the book, the other animals teach the Cayman how to share and the importance of why all the animals need to share their living spaces.   
  1. School Animal Tour (10 min)
As a class, we will take a short tour around the schoolyard looking at the animals located in the area we live in.  We will walk around and examine the different mammals, insects, birds, etc located around us and just notice the difference between them and the ones we will soon learn about in South America. 
  1. Forest Floor Layer Animals (10 min)
I will read a short story that focuses on the environment and animals in this specific layer. While I am reading, the students will be drawing what they hear.  This will be a visual/listening arts activity where the students will have to imagine what I am saying and put it into a drawing.  Then we will compare drawings and I will show the students what the animals I was describing actually look like. 
  1. Understory Layer Animals (10 min)
I will read a short story that focuses on the environment and animals in this specific layer. While I am reading, the students will be drawing what they hear.  This will be a visual/listening arts activity where the students will have to imagine what I am saying and put it into a drawing.  Then we will compare drawings and I will show the students what the animals I was describing actually look like.
  1. Reenacting the Rainforest (10 min)
The students will get into small groups and each reenact the rainforest environment. Each student will be something different, whether it be an animal a plant.  They will demonstrate how everything reacts  from predators and prey to plants and rain sounds.   Each group will be a different layer of the rainforest and present their skit to the class.
  1. Pair Discussion & Class Overview (7 min)
The students will split into pairs and shortly discuss their favorite of the two layers focused on today and why they think that.  Then as a class, we will gather and shortly review some of the main animals or favorite animals talked about. 
DAY 2 
  1. Lesson Overview (1 min)
  2. Morning Greeting (2 min) 
The students will go around the room saying good morning and their favorite animal from the layers we learned about the day before. 
  1. Nature’s Green Umbrella (10 min)
As a class, we will read the book called Nature’s Green Umbrella.  This is a great book to end the unit with because it talks about both the animals and the plants all around the rainforest.  Therefore, it sums up all of the lessons we have learned so far while also  focusing on the specific animals for the lesson we are learning at the moment. 
  1. Canopy Layer Animals (10 min)
I will read a short story that focuses on the environment and animals in this specific layer.  While I am reading, the students will be drawing what they hear.  This will be a visual/listening arts activity where the students will have to imagine what I am saying and put it into a drawing.  Then we will compare drawings and I will show the students what the animals I was describing actually look like.
  1. Emergent Layer Animals (10 min)
I will read a short story that focuses on the environment and animals in this specific layer. While I am reading, the students will be drawing what they hear.  This will be a visual/listening arts activity where the students will have to imagine what I am saying and put it into a drawing.  Then we will compare drawings and I will show the students what the animals I was describing actually look like.
  1. Shoe Box Project Continued (30 min)
The students will finish this lesson by continuing to work on their shoebox project.  They will focus on adding in the specific animals that live in the layer that they chose to create.  

Closure and Connections:
A culminating experience that will help the students demonstrate their knowledge and skill is the shoebox project.  This project will give the students the opportunity to create their favorite layer of the rainforest and put it into visual arts.  It is a great way for the students to create and demonstrate all that they have learned.  This art aspect helps them summarize what they have learned through the last five lessons.  There will also be a writing aspect that will help summarize their learning.  They will write about why they chose this layer, what it entails, and some extra facts about it, such as why is it important or how does it interact with another layer?  This relates to the essential question because it is completely focused on what the South America Rainforest is and this is also what all of the other lessons have been building up to. 
Extensions: 
This lesson about specific animals in the four layers of the South America Rainforest connects to all of the other lessons learned so far.  This lesson is narrowed in on the specific land type in South America and focuses on all layers that the students are learning about.  In the end of this lesson, the students will finish creating their chosen shoebox rainforest layer.  They can extend their learning by finding out more about the layer they chose which will help them add more creative aspects to their project. 
ACCOMMODATIONS:  
One way I can differentiate instruction is by having students explain the activity or instructions after I do myself.  Sometimes by having a student or a peer read something and explain it in a different way can help other students better understand what is going on and what needs to be done. I will help the ELL population with learning this lesson by creating a Word Wall.  The word wall will be split into four sections, one for each level of the rainforest.  Each section will contain the main words learned in this lesson about each level.  The students who are having trouble remembering can use that word wall as a reference as often as they need. 
RESOURCES/MATERIALS
  • How Iwariwa the Cayman Learned to Share book
  • Nature’s Green Umbrella book
  • blank computer paper 
  • pencils
  • shoebox projects
  • a lot of art materials 
    • colored paper, color pencils, markers, glue, cotton balls, toilet paper rolls, magazines

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