Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Unit Resource Portfolio: Scientific Investigation in First Grade


This Unit portfolio will cover 10 days of lesson plans for SOL 1.1 A-J. The portfolio will include the 10 days of instructional lessons as well as "Foldable" resources for your class, a list of web and literature connections for content exploration and finally resources to perform assessments for content understanding. 


SOL 1.1 states:
The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific reasoning, logic, and the nature of science by planning and conducting investigations in which
a) The senses are used to observe differences in physical properties;
b) Observations are made from multiple positions to achieve a variety of perspectives and are repeated to ensure accuracy;
c) Objects or events are classified and arranged according to characteristics or properties;
d) simple tools are used to enhance observations;
e) Length, mass, volume, and temperature are measured using nonstandard units;
f) Inferences are made and conclusions are drawn about familiar objects and events;
g) A question is developed from one or more observations;
h) Predictions are made based on patterns of observations;
i) Observations and data are recorded, analyzed, and communicated orally and with simple graphs, pictures, written statements, and numbers; and
j) Simple investigations and experiments are conducted to answer questions.

DAY 1: SOL 1.1 A/B 30 min

Objectives:
Engage the student by getting them to use their 5 senses to make observations around the classroom.
Students will utilize all 5 senses and record what they observe on the worksheet.
Narrative: The Teacher will introduce the students to the 5 senses. The teacher will ensure that the students are confident in their knowledge of how things Taste, Touch, Feel, Hear and Look. The teacher will put up 10 boxes up at the front of the room and label them in numerical order. Each kid will come up in pairs to start going through the different boxes and recording on their sheet what they found using their five senses. The sheet will include The box number then a bullet list of the 5 senses below where the kids can record their findings. Then once the children have finished their observations, take time to discuss as a class and share responses.

Day 2 SOL 1.1 C/D 30 min
Objectives:
The students will learn about how to classify objects and events by characteristics or properties.
The students will organize groups of objects based on characteristics and properties.
Narrative: The teacher will create a fake swamp with mud and water and then ask the students to put plastic animal figures all around the swamp and also put fishing nets around the fake model swamp. The children will also have buckets on the side for sorting. The students will be asked to come up and start collecting fish and alligators with their nets in the swamp and after they are caught to place the alligators into the two containers by size. This will help the students learn to organize objects based on characteristics and properties. Then while the students are doing the activity ask them questions to help develop understanding of classification and sorting, for example it might be good to ask, Can you sort the animals into big and small?

DAY 3 SOL 1.1 D 30 min
Objective:
The student will use simple tools to make observations.
The students will record what they see though a magnifying glass at different distances.
The student will use a simple machine (magnifying glass) to make their observations.
Narrative:
The teacher will pass out different objects to each of the students in the class. No students will have the same object. The students will be asked to use this simple machine(magnifying glass) to make observations and record that they see from 3 different distances using the magnifying glass. First the student will be asked to draw what they see just using their eyes from near, middle and far away. Then the teacher will introduce a simple machines such as a magnifying glass to make observations of the same objects. The student will record what the object or objects looked like from near, middle and far away this time using the magnifying glass. The students will then participate in a discussion with the teacher over these questions from the lesson plan website link.
Continue the discussion by asking the following questions:
  • How small would the object you observed have to be before you couldn't see it any more? How far away?
  • What are some things you have trouble seeing?
  • What can you do if an object is too small or too far away for you to see?
  • Do you know of any tool that might help you see objects more easily?
Then the teacher will wrap up the discussion and collect the observation sheets.

Day 4 SOL 1.1 E 30 min
Objectives:
The students will learn how to measure using non-standard units.
Narrative:
Each student will get a bag of gummy worms. The students will be asked to estimate the length of objects and things in the classroom in terms of how many gummy worms long is that object. Then the students will measure their objects or things using the length of the gummy worms and record what they found on their worksheets. This is a great activity for young children. Even get the kids to measure the length of their arms and just about anything in the classroom. Then once 20 minutes of measuring things goes by then wrap up for a discussion to talk about what you as a class found out.

Day 5 SOL 1.1 F/G/H 30 min
Objectives:
To learn about eggs and observe and describe changes involving eggs based on observations.
Narrative:
The teacher will Bring in the book "An Egg is Quiet" in order to start the discussion about eggs. Then give the students the Animals and Egg worksheet for the students to fill out. The students will record their own conclusions about which animals may or may lay eggs on the worksheet. These conclusions will be drawn from the observations in class and in the book that was read aloud in class. Then the teacher will bring out all sorts of eggs and have a discussion about the eggs and their characteristics and what kind of animal comes from those eggs based on their observations and prior knowledge. The students will then fill out an egg comparison worksheet and observe the differences in color, shape, size and mass and discuss from there.

Day 6 SOL 1.1 I 30 min
Objective:
The students will make a graph showing the number of animals in a forest to investigate the wildlife in that habbitat.
The students will use this data to figure out witch animals are at the most risk for not being in that area anymore.
Narrative:
The teacher will have a gigantic drawing of a area of land, using thier great art skills the teacher has already draw animals all over the forest. The students will count the number of animals they see in the forest and divide them up by species. Then the teacher will ask the students to take the total number of each animal and write it down. Then the teacher will hand out a worksheet for the kids to make a graph showing the number of animals in the forest. From there the class will discuss what thier charts look like and what animals do they think based on thier data has the highest likley hood of not being in that habbitat anymore based on thier investigation.

Day 7 SOL 1.1 30 min
Objectives: The sense are used to observe differnt properties.
Narrative:The teacher will talk to the students about how you can use your hands, ears and nose to tell whats going on insdie of something. The teacher will instruct the students to look at a collection of small items and then the teacher will put one of the objects in a sock and they have to guess what the object is in the sock using thier five senses. The teacher will instruct the kids to touch and listen to the object in order to get an idea of what it is.

Day 8 SOL 1.1 30 min
Objective: The student will understand how to measure and estimate lengths and understand the differnce between measuring and estimating.
Narrative: The students will go around measuring things and finding things of specific measurement while filling out the measurement worksheet. This is a measurement scavenger hunt and the kids will be put into small groups to find things that fit the measurements and for homework they will be asked to find things with simular measurements around thier house.
Day 9 SOL 1.1 B/F 30 min first day, Then over course of time each day for 5 min write down observations.
Objectives: To get students to draw conclusions from thier observations at differnt points of the day about how a plant grows.
Narrative: The students will plant small plants in cups with soil and from there get the students to observe the plants over the course of time and see what they observe. The first day get them to guess what they think will happen if we do water the plants and if we dont water the plants and organize a way to observe that. Then the kids will write down what the plants look like on the first day after they have them planted and write what they observe using thier five sense in thier notebooks. Each day the kids will look at the plants and observe its growth.

Day 10 SOL 1.1
Objective: To get students thinking about scientific investigation reason and logic
Narrative: The teacher will review the powerpoint on scientific reason and investigation and start discussion as nessary. This ties into SOL 1.1 because it incorportes hypthosisying what is going to happen as well as observation skills utalized by the 5 senes. This is a good wrap of piece for the SOL 1.1 unit because it takes all the information and puts it togethere. The powerpoint even goes over inferring. This is a great piece for teaching the students the basics of how we use scientific investigation to study the world around us and the steps taken to come to those understandings.
Click here for Power Point.( Takes you to google search page, click on first link titles Scientific Investigation and Logic)


Foldable Resources:

Five Senses Lap book (all 5 senses)- A foldable that helps you figure out what sense you use for each item shown on the foldable.
Five Senses Fodable on Taste- A foldable that helps the students organize what things taste like and give them a better understanding of the concept, great for 1st graders.
Five senses Foldable on Sight- A foldable organizer based on helping kids utlize thier sense of sight.

Literature Connections:
What's the Problem? How to start your scientific investigation. By Kylie Burns. 2010. 32 pages. Crabtree Publishing company (97800776751732) Grade 1-3
This book offers a helping hand to students who want to conduct thier own investigations. The book covers making your own hypothesis, collecting and recording your data, and designing your experiment and drawing conclusions. This book breaks down the steps in a process thats easy for kids to understand and even includes some expierment ideas.

The 5 Senses. By Nuria Roca. Illus. By Rosa M. Curto. 2006. 36 pages. Barron's Educational Series (9780764133121) Grade 1-4.
In this book children will discover thier 5 senses while learning to enjoy nature though this book. This is a great book because it challenges kids to engage in activities that invlove thier 5 senes. It also includes teaching guidelines for teachers in the back of the book, not to mention this section may be great for parents to look at as well.

About your Fives Senses. By Hill Netteton and Pamela. Illus. by Shipe & Becky. 24 pages. Picture Window Books. (9781404805088) Grade 1-3.
This is a great begining to read book about the 5 sense. This is extremely emergant reader friendly and is a great tool to use when teaching your child about the 5 senses. I would reccomend this book for early readers and kids who are more visually inclined becuase this book has great visuals.

Too Much Noise. by Ann Mcgovern. Illus. by Simms Taback. 1992 48 pages. Sandpiper Publishing. (97803395629857) Grade 1-4.
This is a book about nosie and the differnce between loud and soft nosies. This is a great book when trying to teach kids about the ability to hear and how it ties into your 5 senses. This fictional story goes through a day with the main character and the nosies he encounters.

How Do You Know? A book about the five senses. By Lisa Jayne. 2007. 24 pages. Tate Publishing.
(978-1602473126) Grade 1 to 3.
This book gets kids to explore the things around them using thier 5 senses. Kids will be engaged as the characters in the book examine everyday life around them and figure out how to use thier sense to solve problems and make observations.

The Listening Walk. By Paul Showers. Illus. By Aliki. 1993. 32 pages. Harper Collins.
(978-0064433228) Grade K-2.
The listening walk is a story about a girl who goes on a walk and hears many things. The book features people from all differnt backgrounds as the child tries to walk and hear all the sounds of the world around her. This is a great book for emergant readers.
  • Listen, Buddy. By Helen Lester. Illus. By Lynn Musinger. 1997. 32 pages. Sandpiper. (978-0395854020) Grade 1-2.Buddy the rabbit in the story has family members with differnt great abilities. For instance his dad is a great sniffer. Buddy has big ears to listen with and takes the child reader down a fun and adventuresome tale about his ability to hear and where it takes him. This is a good book for early readers.
My 5 Senses Big Book. By Aliki. 1991. 32 pages. Harper Festival. (978-0440843542) Grade K-2
If you wanted a book to introduce your child to the 5 senses this book is it. Its a pure classic. Wonderfully appealing pictures with straightforward text that is easy to read and understand. This book explores world of a boy using his 5 senes.

My 5 senses. By Margaret Miller.1998. 24 pages. Aladdin Publishing. (978-0689820090) Grade K-2
This book is visually striking and introduces kids to 5 differnt childrent and each of them of differnt backgrounds and how they use thier 5 senses. All photographs are full color and show interacting with people and the topics at hand. This is also a great introductory book for the 5 senses.

The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water, Measure Gravity-Challenge the World Around You! By Tom Robinson. 2001. 144 pages. Adams Media. (978-1580625579) Grade 2-9.

This book is a book of science experiments, and kids use the 5 senses to conduct these experiments as well as learn about the scientific process. This is all under sol 1.1 for science and is a great introductory book for getting kids into science. WHile the book may have experiments that kids need supervision for it should be used as a bonding tool to reinforce what the child learns in school. And for teachers the book could be a good resource book for expierment ideas for class.



Web Resouces:
CRICKWEB- Awesome interactive sorting game for engaging kids to think about how things compare and contrast and how to sort them. Very specific content area and an awesome website. You can sort animals and plants alike. This is a great tool for building observation skills.
Assessment Resources:

TIME TO MOVE- This is an great game for sorting and organizing things based on observations and measurment. This is a great kids sort game with fun beats and cool sound effects. Its also very content specific and will help student conceptualize the differnce between the sizes of things. It is also a great starting point when segwaying from sorting to legth volume and mass.

Childrens University of Manchester The Brain and Senses Game- (smell) This is an interactive game where children learn about how the brain communicates with the body in regards to smell. It breaks down step by step the process your body inciates that enables you to have the power to smell.
Childrens Univesity of Manchester The Brain and Senses Game Hearing- Just like the smell website this too is an interactive game where children learn about the ability to hear and how your ear works with the brain. This website also is content specific and breaks down step by step just how everything works in a kid friednly manner.

Volume Video- This is a youtube video about volume. The video is super kid friendly and easy to understand when trying to look for something to suppliment your volume lesson. Great short video clip about volume! This could be used to get your kids excited about volume by playing it at the beginging of class.

Assessment resources from the world wide web:
Non standard measurment assessment (google search link, click first link for assessment and download)

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