Final Unit Plan

Caitlin Johnson

Table of Contents Content Standards. 3

Unit Rationale .4 Unit Goals and Description.. ..6 Lesson: Digging for Dinos ..8 Lesson: Dinosaur Teeth. .. 12 Lesson: Air, Water, and Land Mural.. 17 Lesson: Dino Skits 22 Lesson: Keeping Our Eggs Safe.. 26 Bulletin Board ..29 Explanation of Bulletin Board ..30 End of Unit Summative Assessment 31 References 33

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Content Standards o Understand and apply knowledge of the basic needs of plants and animals and how they interact with each other and their physical environment. Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. Organisms interact with each other and their physical environment. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.

Unit Rationale I wanted to choose a topic that could encompass all different subject areas while fitting standards in the Iowa Core Curriculum. We also took into consideration themes and areas of studies that are often times included in a Kindergarten classroom. The unit theme is dinosaurs which I felt would be interesting and engaging to students of this age while allowing for ample learning opportunities for different types of learners.

Our theme meets the Iowa Core Curriculum standard of understanding and applying knowledge of the basic needs of plants and animals and how they interact with each other and their physical environment from the Science section of the Iowa Core. Our lessons focus on things such as what dinosaurs eat, where dinosaurs live, what fossils are and what paleontologists do, learn about dinosaurs in groups and learn how dinosaurs use their environment. Each lesson provides a unique learning experience for the students allowing them to explore the concepts in meaningful ways. There are many different ways that students are able to interact with the material and the information given to them. Differentiated experiences for both students of high ability and students who need extra help, time or attention allow each student to actively participate in ways that will be most beneficial to them.

Each lesson utilized a different means of instruction, these included direct instructionin which I explicitly taught the information, presentation with advanced organizer-in which I make a connection to something familiar, concept attainment-in which I used words to define the concept of a dinosaur, cooperative learning-in which students worked in teams to discover dinosaurs and finally, the problem based inquiry lesson which allows for students to use their investigation skills.

Unit Goals and Description of Unit The goals of each of my lessons provide unique individual learning experiences while allowing for an overall big picture understanding of our theme. These goals/objectives are: 1. Kindergarten students will be able to model the teeth of each category of dinosaur (carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore). Dinosaurs teeth provide a lot of information about things like where the dinosaur lived, what it ate, etc. The

students use different color/shapes of paper/pattern block to represent the teeth of different dinosaurs (carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore). 2. Kindergarten students will be able to classify whether dinosaurs spend most of their time in the air, water, or on land. Since dinosaurs are an abstract idea because students have never seen one, it is important to point out how they can be related to other animals that the students might be more familiar with such as fish and birds. Students will place a picture of each dinosaur on the appropriate habitat of the class created mural after examining the dinosaurs characteristics. 3. Students will be able to identify dinosaurs by their fossils. Students will explore what a dinosaur is and how paleontologists study them. They will role play as a paleontologist at the sand table and dig up dinosaur fossils. 4. The kindergarten students will perform a skit in groups of 4, making sure they talk about 4 out of 5 of the following things: what their dinosaur looked like, what they ate, where they lived, any interesting facts about them, and if they were here in our Kindergarten class, what might they say to us? This lesson is important because students will get the chance to explore dinosaurs will working on their social skills. Students will complete this lesson using information they have learned in class read-alouds. 5. Students will come up with a way to safely hide their eggs from the eggeating predators. This will assist independent and group investigation of a problem that dinosaurs would have dealt with. They have to create a safe place to protect their eggs using various materials.