© 2012 Alston Publishing House Pte Ltd Science SMART Teacher’s Guide Grade 1 Chapter 4 Lesson Plans
Lesson Plans
Chapter 4: Animals
Total number of periods: 17 periods
Overview of Lesson Plans
What Are the Parts of an Animal? (2 periods)
Lesson / Specific Instructional Objectives / Cambridge Primary Scientific Enquiry Skills / Process Skills / 21st Century Skills / Number of Periods4.1 / Pupils should:
- be able to locate and name the main external parts of an animal’s body
- be able to recognise how humans and other animals are similar and different / Explore and observe in order to collect evidence to answer questions. (1Eo1) / Observing
Comparing
Analysing
Contrasting
Inferring
Communicating / Communicate clearly
Reason effectively
Collaborate with others / 2
How Do Animals’ Senses Compare with Ours? (2 periods)
Lesson / Specific Instructional Objectives / Cambridge Primary Scientific Enquiry Skills / Process Skills / 21st Century Skills / Number of Periods4.2 / Pupils should:
- - explore how senses enable animals to be aware of their surroundings / Try to answer questions by collecting evidence through observation. (1Ep1)
Explore and observe in order to collect evidence (measurements and observations) to answer questions. (1Eo1)
Make comparisons. (1Eo4) / Observing
Comparing
Communicating / Manage projects
Collaborate with others
Apply technology effectively
Be self-directed learners / 2
What Are Some Characteristics of Animals? (6 periods)
Lesson / Specific Instructional Objectives / Cambridge Primary Scientific Enquiry Skills / Process Skills / 21st Century Skills / Number of Periods4.3 / Pupils should:
- be able to recognise the characteristics of animals / Explore and observe in order to collect evidence (measurements and observations) to answer questions. (1Eo1)
Make comparisons. (1Eo4) / Observing
Comparing
Analysing / Global awareness
Critical thinking
Environmental literacy / 6
How Are Animals Different from One Another? (7 periods)
Lesson / Specific Instructional Objectives / Cambridge Primary Scientific Enquiry Skills / Process Skills / 21st Century Skills / Number of Periods4.4 / Pupils should:
- be able to list ways in which animals differ / Try to answer questions by collecting evidence through observation. (1Ep1)
Explore and observe in order to collect evidence to answer questions. (1Eo1)
Make comparisons. (1Eo4) / Analysing
Classifying
Observing
Communicating / Make judgements and decisions
Communicate clearly
Apply technology effectively
Be self-directed learners / 7
Main Lesson Plans
Lesson 4.1
BSCS 5E / Lesson Notes / Resources /Background: Living things are organised into four main groups: animals, plants, fungi and bacteria. Pupils will learn in detail about these four groups in Grade 3 Chapter 2: Sorting Living Things. Humans belong to the animals group. Hence, we share many similarities with animals.
Engage:
Pupils act out a story as introduction to the chapter / Chapter opener
Teaching Tip: Get pupils to read or act out the comic strip in the chapter opener.
Explain that the wolf is an animal. Ask pupils to give examples of animals that they know of. / Textbook page 41
What Will I Learn?
Emphasise to pupils what their learning journey will be like for this chapter.
· Animals have similarities.
· Animals also have differences. / Textbook page 42
Explore:
Pupils learn by observing and communicating / What Are the Parts of An Animal?
Teaching Tip: Prepare enlarged pictures of the wolf and Rita’s grandmother. Get pupils to observe and compare the body parts of the wolf and Rita’s grandmother.
Teaching Strategy: Using visual aids
Process Skills: Observing, Comparing
21st Century Skill: Communicate clearly
Ask pupils:
· What similarities are there between the wolf and Rita’s grandmother? (Answer: Both have a nose, ears, eyes, mouth and teeth.)
· What differences did Rita notice about the wolf that helped her conclude that it was not her grandmother on the bed? (Answer: The strange nose, pointy ears, big eyes and sharp teeth of the wolf.)
· Which other differences are there besides those that Rita noticed? (Answer: The wolf has paws with sharp claws, a tail and long hair on its body.)
Explain:
Pupils learn the common body parts of animals, which also include humans / Outline briefly the external body parts of a wolf: head with ears, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, and tail. Compare with the body parts of a human.
Tell pupils that animals are very similar to humans as humans belong to the group of living things called animals too.
Activity: Carry out the activity in Build Your Skills! Point out to pupils that different animals have different numbers of legs.
Process Skill: Observing
Background: While most animals move around to look for food, water and shelter, some animals, such as corals and sea anemones, attach themselves to rocks and then remain there. Animals that do not have body parts such as legs, fins or wings to help them move may wriggle their bodies or glide to move around instead.
Ask pupils:
· Why do animals need to move around? (Answer: To find food, water and shelter, and to escape from danger.)
· Does an earthworm move in the same way as a dragonfly or a horse? (Answer: An earthworm moves with its body, while a dragonfly flies with its wings and a horse runs with its legs.)
Explain that:
· Different animals may use different parts of their bodies to help them move.
You may use the examples shown in the Textbook.
Ask pupils to identify the body parts that help a wolf move.
Teaching Tip: Ask pupils to think of situations where they need to move. Then, get them to compare these situations with the reasons why animals need to move.
Process Skills: Analysing, Contrasting, Inferring
21st Century Skill: Reason effectively
Common Misconception: Pupils might think that humans and insects such as ants and mosquitoes are not animals and that they belong to a separate group. In fact, in Science, humans and insects both belong to the same group, known as animals. / Textbook page 43
Elaborate:
Pupils relate what they have learnt to new concept / Ask pupils to identify the body parts of a wolf that help it obtain information from its surroundings.
Point out that animals have sense organs just like we do. Get pupils to recall the senses linked with each sense organ and what they have learnt about our senses in Chapter 2: All About Senses!
Teaching Tip: Share with pupils why moving and collecting information are important to the survival of animals. Point out that senses are very important to animals for survival reasons, i.e. to find food and water, or to detect danger so that they can act to protect themselves. / Textbook page 44
Evaluate:
Pupils sum up what they have learnt in a project / Project Idea: In groups, get pupils to do a collage of pictures of animals. The pictures may be obtained from magazines or the Internet, or pictures that they take themselves. Pupils can then present their collage, describing the body parts of the animals and the similarities and differences between the body parts of the animals and humans. The collages can also be displayed in the classroom.
Process Skills: Observing, Analysing, Communicating, Contrasting
21st Century Skills: Communicate clearly; Collaborate with others / Workbook page 29
Activity 1: What’s Wrong?
Workbook page 30
Activity 2: Match My Legs!
Consolidation Worksheet 1
Lesson 4.2
BSCS 5E / Lesson Notes / Resources /Engage:
Questions are posed to arouse interest / How Do Animals’ Senses Compare with Ours?
Ask these questions to raise pupils’ curiosity:
· Can you imagine:
- Tasting a meal with your feet by walking on it? (A butterfly does just that!)
- Smelling with your tongue? (A snake does that!)
You can get more examples from this website. / Textbook page 44
URL 4.1
Explore:
Pupils learn the uses of senses in animals / Sight
Background: Senses help animals locate food, find mates and avoid predators. Eyesight is important for most animals and nearly all animals have eyes and can see.
Get pupils to think about how animals’ senses compare with ours.
Ask pupils:
· Which animals have a keen sense of sight? (Answer: (from the examples in Textbook) The eagle and the owl.)
Teaching Tip: Get pupils to think of instances where they use their senses to collect information. Compare these instances with the reasons animals need their senses to collect information. Lead pupils to conclude that animals usually have certain senses which are sharper than humans’ as their needs are stronger.
Explain:
Pupils learn the need for sharper senses in animals / Explain that:
· Animals need sharper senses than humans to survive in the wild.
· Some animals use the same sense organs as us, i.e. eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue to collect information.
· Other animals may use different body parts for their senses.
Teaching Tip: Show pupils the video about special senses of animals. / URL 4.2
Share some amazing facts about the sense of sight in animals:
• A hawk can see a mouse from more than one kilometre away.
• An owl can see very well with very little light.
• The eyes of the chameleon can move independently. Therefore, it can see in two different directions at the same time.
• A housefly can detect even the slightest movement all around it.
Hearing
Background: Many animals can hear sounds that we cannot. Some sounds are too soft, while some sounds are too high-pitched or too low-pitched for us to hear. Elephants can hear very low sounds whereas whales, especially the Beluga whale, can hear very high-pitched sounds.
Get pupils to think about how animals’ senses compare with ours. / Textbook page 45
Explain:
Examples are explained to pupils / Teaching Tip: Share with pupils that not all animals have ears that are visible. Frogs do not have external ears. Instead, they have eardrums which vibrate when sound waves reach them. A grasshopper has its hearing organ, which is a large membrane called a tympanum, located on its body. A cricket has its hearing organs on its legs.
Share some amazing facts about the sense of hearing in animals:
• A rabbit can turn its ears towards the direction where a sound is coming from without moving its head.
• Dolphins can hear much higher-pitched sounds than humans or dogs.
• Bats send off high sounds that bounce off things. By listening to the sounds that return (i.e. the echoes), they are able to tell the size and hardness of things such as insects nearby, and the distance between them.
• Besides the ears, the trunk and feet of the elephant are sensitive to vibrations as well.
Explore:
Concepts learnt are related to real-life examples / Smell
Background: Our sense of smell is weak compared to that of many other animals. A keen sense of smell allows animals to find food and mates, as well as to stay out of danger.
Get pupils to think about how animals’ senses compare with ours.
Ask pupils:
· Which animals have a keen sense of smell? (Answer: (from the examples in Textbook) The dog and the shark.)
Get responses from pupils to find out how much pupils know about animal senses.
Teaching Tip: Share some real-life examples of dogs using their keen sense of smell to locate drugs, people trapped in rubble, etc.
Share some amazing facts about the sense of smell in animals:
• Dogs can smell 10,000 times better than a human!
• A shark can smell blood with its snares from a long distance away. / Textbook page 46
Taste
Teaching Tip: Point out to pupils that we taste with our tongue. Animals can also use their tongues for other purposes.
Use the examples in the Textbook. / Textbook page 46
Touch
Background: Different animals may use different parts of their body for the sense of touch.
Ask pupils:
• Which body parts of animals can be used for their sense of touch? (Answer: Some examples:
- A star-nosed mole has a unique nose with fleshy tentacles that sweep back and forth to help it feel its way around or to find food.
- A sea cow or manatee has hair on its entire body that enables it to detect a change in water current, water temperature and even tidal forces.
- A seal can use its whiskers to track fish swimming 100 metres away in even the murkiest of water.
- A fish has many touch receptors all over its body surface that can sense pain and temperature. The lateral line on the body of a fish allows it to sense changes in water current and pressure.) / Textbook page 47
Elaborate:
Pupils learn more about animal senses / Special ways of sensing things
Give some examples of how some animals sense in different ways from us humans.
Smell
• A snake can pick up scents with its tongue.
Taste
• An earthworm has tastebuds all over its body.
• A butterfly tastes with its feet.
Touch
· Besides using their paws, cats can feel what is around them using their whiskers.
· Catfishes and moles can feel with their whiskers as well.
Evaluate:
Pupils apply what they have learnt in a project / Project Idea: Get pupils to compare humans’ senses with those of animals, and the special ways some animals sense things. This project can be done in groups. An example is shown in the website.
Process Skills: Observing, Comparing, Communicating
21st Century Skills: Manage projects; Collaborate with others; Apply technology effectively; Be self-directed learners / URL 4.3
Workbook page 31
Activity 3: My Most Important Sense!
Consolidation Worksheet 2
Internet links for Lesson 4.2