Lesson Plan : Exploring the Seasons
Teacher Name: | Rose Strickland |
Grade: | Kindergarten |
Subject: | Science |
Topic: | Exploring the Seasons |
Content: | The weather changes daily and as the season changes it is more prominent. Students will observe these changes by observing a tree and record information in their journal. They will record personal accommodations they make due to seasonal changes in graphs. |
Goals: | Students will gain understanding and be able to answer questions such as: How does the weather change during the year? How do our lives change with the seasons? How can we tell the seasons are changing? What are the four seasons? |
Objectives: | Math 2.02 Recognize concepts of calendar time using appropriate vocabulary (seasons). TLW Sing/recite the seasons of the year. TLW Repeat the seasons of the year. TLW Recognize the seasons of the year. Science Goal 2: The learner will make observations and build an understanding of weather concepts. TLW Describe weather characteristics of the summer, fall, winter, and spring. TLW Compare weather conditions of the seasons. Observe and determine the effects of weather on human activities. TLW Identify human activities for each season. TLW Describe and classify activities according to the season |
Materials: | Know-Wonder-Learn chart; Song - �Seasons� by Dr. Jean; Pictures; a tree in the school yard; camera; journals; pencils; crayons; supplies for class book; Seasonal Clothes tally graph one for each season; Weather Graph one for each season; books about the seasons |
Introduction: | Explain to the class that we will be focusing on the question, �How does the weather change during the year?� One of the ways we will see this is by watching and observing daily weather changes. Prior knowledge will be assessed by questioning, �What are the four seasons?� |
Development: | Pose the question, How do our lives change with the seasons? Complete a Know-Wonder-Learn chart activity. Play and sing the Season song by Dr. Jean. Show pictures of different seasons. Talk about the season we are in � Summer. Take a walk around the school and choose a deciduous tree to be the class tree. Explain that throughout the rest of the school year, the class will be watching the tree change with each new season. Take a photograph of the students with the tree for later use in the seasonal tree book. Explain to the students what it means to be a botanist (someone who studies plants) and a climatologist (someone who studies weather). Tell the students that they will become both botanists and climatologists this year. Have students make an observational drawing of the tree. Guide students in making careful observations of the tree and the area around it, noting leaves and leaf color, and seasonal signs, such as sunny skies and flowers in bloom. |
Practice: | After returning to class, discuss trees in summer, and write vocabulary elicited by the discussion. Keep this vocabulary chart up for students to refer to throughout the unit. Start student journals, and have students copy season vocabulary. The journals will be used throughout the season�s study. Start a Seasonal Clothes tally graph by having students tally the number of children who wore short sleeve shirts, jackets, hats, mittens, and so forth to school that day. Make a class weather graph. (Keep the Seasonal Clothes graph and the weather graph for comparison with each season change and at the end of the year.) |
Accommodations: | Resource Student Provide additional adult support, extra time to finish, help with writing or copying and task modifications. Allows students to work in pairs. Adapt or shorten assignments, or allow more time as necessary Gifted Student Have students serve as experts and help others as needed |
Checking For Understanding: | I will observe the students responses verbally and while writing in their journal entries and the class book. We will discuss things we saw and did during summer. |
Closure: | The weather is generally not the same every day. As the seasons approaches the changes will start to be more evident. We will continue to talk each day about seasonal changes and in greater detail when the seasons change. |
Evaluation: | : I will be looking for understanding of this concept though observation while the students are working in their journals and answers given daily by the students as we discuss the weather. Final assessment will be done on the KG Math Assessment � reciting the seasons, answering questions about which season is before and after and by picking out pictures for each season. |
Teacher Reflections: | Optional Activities: Check out a weather web site at www.weather.com discussing the seasonal changes students are experiencing. Walk around the school and observe changes in the neighborhood, particularly noting the changes in plant life and weather. Take a picture of the class tree, and have students make observational drawings, noting the changes from the previous season. Back inside the classroom, discuss the tree in this season, and record vocabulary for students to copy into their seasons journals. Discuss with the students why they think the tree is changing. Explain why trees go through a yearly cycle of change. Use the journals to compare fall descriptors to those of summer. Start a new Seasonal Clothes tally graph and a new weather graph. Assemble a class book for the season �In the _____� class book using their pages Play a seasons game Give each child or let them select a season (Some may need to have a picture card to help them remember their season) Tell the children they are to form a circle and when you call their season they are to change places with someone who has the same season but if you call Season Change everyone gets to change places and find a new spot in the circle. For example when Spring is called all the children who chose Spring change places with each other, when Fall is called all the children who chose F switch places, when you say Season Change everyone changes places. Continue calling seasons until everyone has got to move several times. Four Seasons Class Book Review the activities and student projects from the year, and discuss how seasonal changes affect us personally. Ask students to choose which season is their favorite and tell why. Children draw pictures and write or dictate phrases about their favorite season. Collect and make into an Our Favorite Seasons book. Class Graph Make a class graph of favorite seasons. Each child writes his or her name on a piece of colored paper representing the season of choice (green for summer, blue for winter, and so forth.), and places it over the appropriate season heading on the graph. Compare most, least, how many more, how many less, and so on. Graph Comparison Compare the seasonal clothing and weather graphs for the year. Discuss what people were wearing in each season and how/why it's different from the next/previous season. On the last day of school Remind the students that this year they focused on the question, How does the weather change during the year? Explore ways that they saw the weather and seasons change this year. Discuss how the weather will change next year. What changes do they expect will be the same, and what changes do they think will be different? |
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