LESSON PLAN

Day:

Date:

Primary: 5

Pupils: 20 pupils.

School: Sekolah Rendah Cemerlang

Teachers: Nur Ridzwannah Moktar (06B0418)

                Kartika Puasa (06B0421)

                Hamizah Haji Mahali (06B0422)

Time:

Duration: One session (1 hour)

Topic: Cycles.

Sub-topic: Life cycles of a butterfly and frog

Objectives: At the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to:-

·         Investigate the main stages in the life cycle of a butterfly and a frog which include the egg, larva and adult stages.

·         To sequence and label the life stages of the butterfly and frog.

·         Finish each of the four drawings around the line of symmetry. Butterfly Life Cycle Pictures: egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa, and adult.

·         Explore the importance of butterfly and frog in the food chain of the habitat.

Useful ideas for teachers. Some brilliant ideas/suggestions for teaching the topics. Teacher can pick suitable activities mentioned in this lesson plan and apply it in the classroom.

Diane E. Althouse, Notre Dame, Vacaville, CA

                       ANIMAL LIFE CYCLES

Appropriate for grades 3-8.

OVERVIEW:  Almost every elementary school child has had the

opportunity to directly observe the stages in the life of a plant

or an animal.  Since most children have seen a puppy or kitten

turn into the adult dog or cat it was destined to become, this

unit focuses on the diversity in change around us.  To the young

student, these observations are often like pieces of a jigsaw

puzzle, somewhat interesting as individual bits of information,

but difficult to assemble into a coherent picture.  With

instruction, the pieces are brought together.  The study of the

life cycles of different species helps put into perspective many

aspects of human development, a topic that is often the subject of

youthful curiosity.  The connections are made between various real

life experiences and, more often than not, the result is

enthusiastic understanding.

PURPOSE:  This is a unit in the LIFE SCIENCES.  By doing these

activities, students will learn that all living things are born,

grow and change; consume water and food, and die.  This process is

commonly known as the LIFE CYCLE.  Hands-on experiences as well as

creative writing, art-related and cognitive activities are used to

demonstrate the beauty and complexity of the transitions all of

life must go through.

OBJECTIVES:  The students will be able to:

 1.  Compare and contrast the life cycles of different species.

 2.  Recognize a similarity in the basic needs of all living

     organisms and how they effect their own environment.

 3.  Evaluate their relationship with other forms of life and the

     need to preserve them.

ACTIVITIES:  Activities for an animal life cycles unit are diverse

and just about endless.  Be creative and open.  Work in groups and

as individuals.  Study together in the classroom and explore the

great outdoors.  Study books and bring in the experts.  Most

living specimens may be either purchased locally at petshops,

school biological supply companies or captured outdoors.  Journals

or other record keeping devices should be used which include life

cycle charts, descriptions and measurements where appropriate.

Here are a few activities to get you rolling….

THE LIFE CYCLE IN REALITY/HANDS ON EXPERIENCES:

 1.  Set up an aquarium for raising brine shrimp (sea monkeys).

     Brine shrimp are related to crabs and lobsters in a group

     commonly known as crustaceans.

 2.  For each student or study group, place two or three mealworms

     in a capped jar.  Provide the mealworms with bran and a slice

     of raw potato or apple.  The mealworm is the larva stage of a

     beetle.  Before reaching this final step in the

     metamorphosis, the mealworm goes through a pupa stage that

     resembles neither the “worm” or “beetle” developmental

     periods.

 3.  Fertilized frog eggs are usually easy to find or purchase.

     Place them in an aquarium and observe each day.  Tadpoles

     hatch from frog eggs in a week to ten days and the process

     from tadpole to frog is fascinating to observe.

 4.  Incubate fertilized chicken eggs.  The period of incubation

     for chicks is twenty one days.  Hold the eggs to your ears

     periodically.  Days before hatching you will be able to hear

     the chicks peeping inside.  Some teachers will open an egg

     every day or so, to show the developing embryo in various

     stages of growth.  The age of the students and the guidelines

     set by local animal rights organizations must be a

     consideration.  The baby chicks should also be given a proper

     home shortly after birth.

 5.  Keep open the possibility of real-life experiences that may

     occur close to home.  Thanks to the great accessibility of

     video camera equipment, someone might be able to record the

     live birth of an organism such as a kitten, calf or if you

     are really lucky, the birth of a human baby.  Once again,

     make sure the material is appropriate for the age group and

     parental permission is advised.

ART/ART-RELATED ACTIVITIES:  All children are different and have

varied talents.  A unit should include as many aspects of

creativity and learning as possible.  These projects would focus

on the child expressing himself/herself in an artistic manner.

Some suggestions are making a set of animal identification cards,

designing a life cycles mural, creating posters, making slides and

overhead transparencies and creating a “new” organism.

LANGUAGE ARTS:  The “word” can be a creative way to express the

facts observed, researched and learned.  Try some of these

activities…

 1.  Pretend you are one of the creatures observed or researched.

     Write your life story, making certain you mention your life

     cycle somewhere in your tale.

 2.  If you had to be an organism that was studied, which one

     would you choose to be?  Support your choice with scientific

     facts you learned, combined with personal reasons.

 3.  Write a letter to an organization devoted to the care of

     animals or the preservation of animals in danger of

     extinction.  Ask for information about the animal, its life

     cycle or suggestions on how you can help.  Some possible

     places to start include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

     World Wildlife Fund, and National Audubon Society.

 4.  In your opinion, what is the most successful organism in

     terms of the life cycle it goes through?  Summarize your

     choice in a good paragraph.

 5.  Write poems, create a play, or organize a debate.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED:  No special resources needed.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:  The diversity of available resources makes

the study of LIFE CYCLES one of the best opportunities for

exciting and creative instruction.  From videos and field trips to

expert lecturers and art projects, the material is there to

challenge the best of students.  Indeed, even instructors with

many years experience learn new “fun facts” almost every year.

The enthusiasm generated when the light bulbs of understanding

click-on can have a long-lasting impact throughout the spectrum

of an individual’s scholastic endeavors.

This subject area lays one of the corner stones for future study

of the complexities of the LIFE SCIENCES.  As our society grows

more dependent on high technology, the decision-makers, the voting

public and the leaders of tomorrow can ill afford limited exposure

to, and comprehension of, the biological threads that make up the

web of life on planet Earth.

taken from : http://www.col-ed.org/cur/sci/sci15.txt

For revision purposes pupils can have a look & try this websites

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/Science/

Interactive games for science. It covers science topics that can help pupils to enhance their knowledge while playing it.

http://www.primaryinteractive.co.uk/science.htm

For teachers:

After going through this, it is somewhat useful to vary the lesson plan by applying some of the ideas. Teacher needs to modify where appropriate to suit their teaching needs.  Investigative science resources are available here of which it is a good practice for the pupils.

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/science/contents.htm

·         Get to know what your pupils feel about learning science by printing out the worksheets available in the website.

·         Lots of useful worksheets are available e.g. ‘My experiment’

o   Allows pupils to predict, investigate or  find out about what they do in an experiment.

Powerpoint presentation for the life cycle of butterfly as mentioned in the LP

life-stages-of-a-butterfly

link to activities mentioned in the LP

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/sequencingpl/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/amphibians/sequencingfrog/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/amphibians/Frogquiz.shtml

Final draft of the lesson plan on the topic of Life Cycle i.e. frog & butterfly
Done by :Nur Ridzwannah, Kartika & Hamizah

The LP contains some online resources e.g. video, games & activities.

LESSON PLAN

Day:
Date:
Primary: 5
Pupils: 20 pupils.
School: Sekolah Rendah Cemerlang
Teachers: Nur Ridzwannah Moktar (06B0418)
Kartika Puasa (06B0421)
Hamizah Haji Mahali (06B0422)
Time:
Duration: One session (1 hour)
Topic: Cycles.
Sub-topic: Life cycles of a butterfly

Objectives: At the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to:-
• Investigate the main stages in the life cycle of a butterfly and a frog which include the egg, larva and adult stages.
• To sequence and label the life stages of the butterfly and frog.
• Finish each of the four drawings around the line of symmetry. Butterfly Life Cycle Pictures: egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa, and adult.

Title: Life cycles of a butterfly and frog
Set induction:
1. Teacher asks the pupils if they have seen butterflies and frog.
2. Ask them to describe how the butterflies look like and where do they found the butterflies.
3. Then invite the pupils into a story telling session by using a Big Book about butterfly and frog. Through telling story, pupils may able to see the pictures of the life stages of a butterfly and frog.

Stage 1
• When the story telling session is done, teacher should explain to the pupils each stage of grow of a butterfly and frog. With the aids of pictures. Some pupils may need some concrete materials so that they can relate their existing knowledge. Teacher will able to find out how to relate when the pupils are able to answer correctly the worksheet given.
• Butterflies have four main stages in their life cycles, and they are in the following order:
1. Egg stage – First an adult butterfly lays oval eggs on specific kinds of leaves.
2. Caterpillar stage – After the butterfly lays eggs, little caterpillars emerge from them. They eat a lot and grow big on the host plant.
3.Chrysalis (Cocoon) Stage – The caterpillars shed their skins (this process is called molting) a few times, and finally grow a hard covering and lie inactive. This is the cocoon or chrysalis stage.
4. Adult Stage – Finally from the cocoon, emerges a fully grown butterfly, that resembles its parents.

• Teacher shows a video of the life cycle of a butterfly
Life cycle of a butterfly
Video 1
Video 2

Stage 2
• The life stages of a frog
1. Egg stage: Female frogs lay a large number of eggs which look like a mass of jelly.
2. Tadpole Stage: The eggs hatch and out of them come little frogs or little toads that look like fishes. They are called tadpoles (or pollywogs). They have tails and they swim and breath like a fish in water using their gills.
3. Adult Stage: Gradually the tadpole loses its tail and forms front and hind legs. It no longer can breathe in water and becomes an adult frog or an adult toad.
• Teacher shows a video of a life cycle of a frog

The Life and Times of Froggy J. Wiggle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymGNNSZXiiQ
CB Frog Life Cycle Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GGuEr-MQf4

Stage 3
• Teacher divide the pupils into 4 groups that is 5 person in a group
• Each of the group will be named: Butterfly 1, Butterfly 2, Frog 1 and Frog 2.
• For the butterfly groups, they will be doing a small research on a life cycle of a butterfly
• Whereas, the frog groups will be doing a small research on the life cycle of a frog
• Each group will be ask to find pictures of each stage of the life cycles and explore the sites to get the information of each stages.
• Then each group will be presenting what they have found.

Stage 4
• For this stage, it is where the pupils will do the online activities.
• Here is the link:
http://www.primarygames.com/science/butterflies/games.htm

Stage 5
• Here are for the hand written worksheet.
• The pupils will label the stages, correctly sequence the life stages of butterfly and frog and draw the symmetrical of the butterfly.
• Refer to appendices for the worksheet.

Closure
• Teacher show again the PowerPoint presentation of the butterfly and frog life stages.
• Verbally ask the pupils some questions about butterfly and frog.
• How many stages are there in the life cycle of butterfly and frog?
• What is another name for chrysalis?
• How do tadpole breath?
Teacher concludes the lesson by showing a story about a frog through a video.

Evaluation:

Found this just to add on teaching resources especially on teaching the topic on life cycle.

Life Cycle of Frog

Video : Life Cycle of Butterfly

ICT enhance teaching and learning?

In my opinion, yes it does enhance teaching & learning when use appropriately in the science classroom. Internet and websites provide teachers with lots of teaching resources or ideas to be practice in the classroom. Teachers can always alter or modify what they  found from the internet to suit their teaching needs in the classroom. Hence it actually requires teacher’s creativity to modify to make it effective. When a teacher is enthusiastic about their teaching, then learning can be fun for the pupils as teacher’s attitude towards teaching can be reflected through their ways of their teaching in the classroom. Thats why it is always emphasize that in teaching science there must be a balance of activities which involve hands on, minds on, visual experiment, inquiry and etc  Thus teacher with knowledge of using ICT for sure can provide all this when he or she knows how to integrate the old style of teaching with the innovative ways of teaching. Divert the chalk and talk to a fun. innovative, interactive yet effective ways of teaching. There are so many ways of using ICT to attract pupil’s attention in the science classroom and make them involve in any activities or practicals.

Useful link to browse through about ICT & Science

http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ScienceP/scict/

The content of this blog will primarily focuses on the use or integration of ICT in teaching science particularly in the primary schools.

For a start, it is undeniable that nowadays there is a great emphasis on using ICT at schools. This aims to vary teacher’s teaching approaches of which it can helps to make learning more conducive as well as to switch the thoughts of the learners from passive to a more active mind. ICT does not always implies to the use of computers. It actually has a broad meaning of which it implies to the use of technology. Hence the use of such technology provide teachers a varieties of approaches to prepare their teaching plans.

The blog’s purpose is to actually share thoughts and ideas of teaching science with the use of ICT. Different resources or webistes links will be put in here so that teachers as well as other people can have a look and browse through the links that i think are useful for teaching in the science classroom.