No Child Left Behind Lesson Plan

Grade Level: 2nd

Materials:

Flower Seeds
Containers for Flower Seeds (cups?) so students can identify which flowers are theirs
Computer
Projector
Content Standards

Plants and animals have life cycles. Both plants and animals begin life and develop into adults,
reproduce, and eventually die. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms.
o I would also include, in this lesson plan, that plants need certain things to survive, only
because my students will be responsible for controlling these aspects of life for their
plant.
Describe the life cycle of familiar flowering plants including the following stages: seed, plant,
flower, and fruit.
ISTE Standards

Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments: Teachers design, develop, and
evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and
resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes
identified in the Standards.

Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to
promote student learning and creativity
Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their
individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals,
managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
Customize and personalize learning activities to address students diverse learning styles,
working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with
content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching
Safety Plan

In my experience, there is a protocol for emergencies at all elementary schools, even for outdoor
activites such as recess. In this aspect of my lesson plan, I would detail the protocol that elementary
school maintains for outdoor emergences. Typically, I would request some sort of walkie talkie, similar
to the kind that the lunch monitors have, to take with me during the duration of the activity. This would
be so that I could be aware of any emergency messages we were receiving from inside the school. In
case of emergency, my class would proceed to go back into the classroom, and continue with typical
procedure. This walkie talkie would also be necessary for communication regarding lock-down drills, or
lock downs, so that I could be in touch with my administrators, and inform them that my class was

currently outside. The emphasis in this safety plan is consistent communication with administrators
inside the school, so that I can be consistently aware as to what is going on inside the building.
Methodology
1. I would start by giving each of my students two flower seeds that they had to take care of. They
would plant these seeds in cups with dirt, and put their names on each cup. I am having
students do two flowers so that they can compare and contrast the ways that they grew. One of
the flowers would be placed somewhere outside the classroom, and one of them would be on
the windowsill inside. I would begin the assignment by having students create a hypothesis
regarding which plant would grow better, the indoor plant, or the outdoor plant.
2. After the seeds were planted, it would become a daily routine in the classroom to water the
plants, and check on their growth. There would be an area outside where we would keep the
outdoor flowers. At the end of each week, students would write up a basic summary of both of
their plants growth. Each week, I would take pictures of each of my students plants, and post
them to my teacher website so that my students could have access photographs of their plants
growth, if they wanted to use them for the project at the end of the activity.
3. Each week, when we went outside, I would have students observe the habitat that the plants
would be growing in, and we would discuss, as a class, what we observed about the plants role
in the habitat it would reside in. I would copy my students observations onto a class
PowerPoint, that I would post to my student website at the end of the project, so that students
could go back and refer to the role that plants play in an ecosystem, if they needed a reminder.
4. I would use the computer and projector to have content knowledge along with the growth of
the plants. I would begin this lesson by explaining to my students what all living things needed
to survive: food, water, and light. I would continually reinforce to my students that it would be
their job to keep their plants alive, with the correct amount of food, water, and light, each day.
5. In addition, I would be explaining to students the life cycle of plants, using diagrams, videos, and
interactive activities to engage my students, as their own plants were reaching that stage of
development. This way, students would be physically seeing their own plants growing, to
physically connect their content knowledge to aspects outside the classroom.
6. As a final part of this project, I would have my students put together a virtual notebook,
through either Microsoft Word, or PowerPoint (or another form of presentation, such as a blog,
a word document, or a Prezi, if they felt comfortable with this technology) to compile the basic
observations that they have been taking for each week. I would walk my students through how
to use PowerPoint, so that all my students would be able to complete the project. I would also
give my students library time in class, to help guide them through completion of this virtual
notebook. I would ask students to include the pictures of their plants development that I had
posted on the website each week, so that I could physically see how their observations matched
up with the plants growth. I would also walk students through this aspect of the project, and be
available to help students if they were confused about this aspect of the project in class. At the
end of the notebook I would have the students determine if their hypothesis was correct, and a
short paragraph explaining why it was, or was not, correct.