We Explore Living Things

Lesson Plan Overview:

Activity 1: Exploring Outdoors

Children think and talk about what a scientist is and are introduced to We Explore Living Things. They make predictions about the living and nonliving things they think they will find in an outdoor area. During outdoor time, they explore and observe a designated area using their senses of sight, hearing, smell, and touch. They describe and draw some of the living and nonliving things they find. Back inside, children share and describe what they found, revisit their predictions, and share their ideas about the characteristics of living things. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity encourages children to have conversations with family members about their outdoor explorations and the living and nonliving things they observed in the school setting. Family members are invited to explore at home with their children and talk together about some of the living and nonliving things they find. 

Activity 2: Planting Bean Seeds

Children share their beginning ideas about seeds and plants and what seeds need in order to sprout and grow. They dissect a lima bean seed and then plant lima or pea bean seeds in soil in preparation for observing their germination and growth over time. They draw their predictions of what they think their plants will look like.

Home Connection: Children take some seeds home to plant with their families. They talk about what the seeds need in order to grow. They plant the seeds and make plans to take care of them and observe their growth. On the Home Activity Page, children draw a picture of themselves planting the seed with their family member(s).

Activity 3: Observing Indoor and Outdoor Plants

Children investigate a variety of indoor and outdoor plants and their parts. They observe and collect data on their plants in small groups and then compare plants, looking for parts they have in common and how those parts are similar and different. Each child draws one plant and, labels the parts they identify, with support, including stems, leaves, roots, flowers, and seeds. They are introduced to the idea that each part helps the plant, and in the whole group, they share their ideas about how. 

Home Connection: Children extend their thinking about the parts of plants to thinking about their own body parts. On the Home Activity Page, they draw a picture of themselves and talk with family members about how their arms, legs, and other body parts help them do the things they do every day. 

Activity 4: Investigating Trees

Children begin a tree investigation that will continue through the end of the unit. They participate in an interactive reading of My Pet Tree, Albert by Stephen Krensky. Then they go outdoors in small groups to collect and record data about four trees near the school. They display their tree photos, representations, natural artifacts, and books about trees in a “tree museum” they create in the classroom. Over time, children visit the outdoor trees and the tree museum, browse books about trees, and think about how trees are similar to and different from other plants and living things.

Home Connection: The Home Activity encourages children to investigate a tree near their home. They talk with family members about the tree, its parts, and some of the things they find in, on, or around the tree. 

Activity 5: Observing Growing Bean Plants

Children closely observe and collect data about their bean seedlings and how they are growing and changing. They generate ideas about what the plants will need in order to continue to grow, and with support, they plan an experiment to investigate how their bean plants will grow under different conditions. They talk about other living things that grow and change and what they need.

Home Connection: The Home Activity encourages children to continue to think about how living things grow and change. They think and talk with their families about living things at home that they have observed growing and changing, including themselves. 

Activity 6: Looking for Animals Outdoors

Children talk about the animals they observed during previous outdoor explorations, including animals they found in, on, and around trees. They revisit a designated outdoor area, this time with a specific focus on observing and representing the characteristics and behaviors of squirrels, birds, worms, insects, and other animals they find. They begin to notice that animals use their bodies and specific body parts to do such things as find food, eat, hide, and move from one place to another. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to have a conversation with family members about their own body parts and how people use them during their daily activities. They talk about how body parts such as hands, arms, legs, and feet help them do things such as eat, draw, play, and dance. 

Activity 7: Setting Up and Maintaining a Terrarium 

Children investigate the needs of an outdoor animal and think about what kind of home the animal has and how that home meets its needs. They set up a terrarium as a temporary home for an animal that will recreate its outdoor environment and meet the animal’s needs indoors. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to think and talk with family members about what they need to live and grow and how their needs get met in their homes. They draw a picture of themselves in their homes. 

Activity 8: Focused Animal Investigations

Children closely observe an animal in the classroom terrarium and investigate its physical characteristics and behavior. They describe and represent the animal’s body and body parts and make inferences about how the animal’s body parts and their characteristics help the animal get the things it needs. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to think and talk with their family members about how they use their own bodies to meet their needs at home. They draw a picture of themselves using their bodies to do a daily activity. 

Activity 9: Investigating Animal Senses

Children think and talk about how they have used their senses throughout the exploration to observe living and nonliving things indoors and outdoors. They do a brief sensory exploration and are introduced to the idea that all animals have sensory tools that help them get information from the world around them. They investigate how worms respond to light and to different surface materials and make inferences from their observations about worms’ sensory tools. They do research using a book or video clips to learn more. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to talk with their families about their sense of taste and how they use it to taste the flavors of different foods. They draw a picture of themselves eating their favorite foods at home, and describe how they taste.

Activity 10: Creating a Mural of Living Things (Part 1)

Children reflect on their outdoor experiences and begin to create a mural of the outdoor environment by painting the sky, earth, and a focus tree. In the process, they review images of the outdoor environment using photos, their drawings, and books they have read and browsed during the exploration. They think and talk about the characteristics of the outdoor environment, including the colors of the sky, earth, and the focus tree. 

Activity 10: Creating a Mural of Living Things (Part 2)

Children continue working on the mural of the outdoor environment by adding details to the earth and sky and making and adding drawings and images of the living and nonliving things they have observed. In the process, they review images of plants and animals using photos, their drawings, and books they have read and browsed during the exploration. They think and talk about the characteristics, needs, and habitats of living things. 

Home Connection: The Home Activity invites children to talk with family members about ways that people in families depend on one another; children then draw a picture of their family together.