Remember that the lesson plans are found on the grade 1 page.

Lesson 1

Introduction

Today's lesson was a simple one.  We answered two questions to get our brains thinking about our new unit:  "How do you know if something is alive?"  "What do living things need?"  Being that we have not been taught anything, we were simply told to write as much as we could, but not to worry if we got stumped.  Once we were done we started a title page for the unit.

Worksheet

Lesson 2

A Walk in the Park

For our lesson today we went for a walk around the school grounds.  Before doing so we reviewed our safety rules, and discussed the purpose for our walk, which was to observe living and non-living things.  Our walk in search of these things took us around the school park and near the creek.  On our walk we stopped to discuss the fact that some things are not meant to be in the environment, and normally it is the fault of humans that it is there (broken glass on the playground).  At the end of our walk we stopped under an oak tree to find some whistles.  Whistles you ask?  Yep, we turned an acorn cap into a whistle!  You will have to ask how.

Lesson 3

Living and Non-Living

We started today by reviewing what we did last class (our walk).  We then took two large pieces of paper and placed them on opposite sides of the room.  On one we wrote "Living" in blue marker, and on the other we wrote "Non-Living" in red marker.  We then got in a line.  The first person in the line then stated something they saw on the walk.  After stating their object they selected one of the two markers to indicate if it was living or non-living (Mr. C. held on tightly if they choose the wrong one).  They then took the marker and wrote the object on the proper paper.  We repeated this many times, until we all had several turns and the paper was filled with objects.  We then split up and went to review the papers, checking for errors or duplicates.

Lesson 4

Introduction

Today we started by posting our lists from last class.  We then looked at individual objects and asked our selves why we put it on the paper we did.  We came up with some ideas, like living things move and breath, but non-living things do not breath.  After thinking about a few of the objects we were read a paragraph that told us that there are seven things that all living things do:

1. Grow
2. Move
3. Take in Energy (Food)
4. Make Waste
5. Reproduce
6. Breathe
7. React to Things

If something does not do all of these, than it is not living.  We thought about a few things (an elephant, a tree, and a lamp) and asked ourselves the seven questions.  The animal was easy to answer, but the plant was a little more difficult.  It grows, the flowers open and close (moves), it takes sun energy, it disposes of oxygen, it has seeds that grow new plants, it takes in carbon dioxide, and it reacts to the seasons - It is alive!!  We then received a worksheet to practise some more.

Worksheet               Cut-Outs               Answers

Lesson 5

Why is it non-living?

We needed some finish-up time for out last bit of work, so after a review of the traits of living things, that took the first half of today's lesson.  After taking up our worksheet we discussed the fact that a car shows many traits of a living thing.  We know, however, that it is not living because it does not show all 7 traits.  We used the rest of today's class to search the classroom to find other non-living objects that showed at least one trait of a living thing, and then explained why they are non-living.

Lesson 6

Physical Characteristics

At the start of class we reviewed that a characteristic is something that helps to explain what an object (living or non) is.  We then discussed that a "physical characteristic" is a something we can describe about an object by using our senses, as opposed to a characteristic that describes what something does or how it behaves (for example, he is tall vs. he is nice).  We then looked at a picture of a duck.  We were asked "What is this?" and "How do you know?"  We then looked at other things we knew about the duck.  In the end we were able to sort our thoughts into physical characteristics and other information.  We then divided into 4 groups, and each group was given a picture and a recording sheet.  We looked at our picture and recorded physical characteristics and other information about the object.  We then rotated the pictures and repeated the process until we were done.  Our last task was to choose our own living thing and repeat.

Pictures               Recording Sheet

Lesson 7

Purpose of Characteristics

We started class today by reviewing the concept of a physical characteristic - something about an object we can explain with our senses.  We then talked about why it is important to be able to describe things by using physical characteristics (to tell the difference between things).  We then turned our discussion towards the purpose of certain characteristics, for example, why are duck and eagle feet different (swimming vs grasping).  We then divided ourselves into five groups.  Four of the groups got one of the pictures from our last lesson and discussed the purpose for some of the physical characteristics of the living things in the pictures.  The fifth group sat with a series of new pictures.  That group was to explain the difference between two living things, based on physical characteristics.

Difference Pictures

Lesson 8

Human Body Parts

The material from last class was reviewed at the start of our lesson and then we started talking specifically about humans - what physical characteristics can describe a human?  We drew an outline of a human on a piece of chart paper (gingerbread man like).  We were then asked to name body parts.  If we named one, we were given a marker to draw it on our person.  While we were drawing, in the proper location of course, we also discussed the purpose for each part.  Once our person was complete we were given a worksheet that had us do a similar task on our own, labelling location of parts and indicating their purpose.

Worksheet               Cut-Outs               Answers

Lesson 9

Missing Body Parts!

Help, there is an emergency!!!  The body parts are missing!!!  Today, we took our knowledge of human body parts and showed it in an unusual way, we made missing posters for them (or wanted posters).  We were to pretend that a body part had gone missing, and we needed to find them.  To help us find them we made posters that we could put up (like one would for a lost pet).  We talked about what type of thing should go on the poster, and then looked at an example.  We then used the rest of the period to work on our own poster.

Example Poster

Lesson 10

Poster Work

We used today's period to finish up our posters.  If we finished we made sure all of our other work was done, or we added colour and detailing to our posters.

Quiz - We will be having a quiz at the start of lesson 13.  Today a note went home with all of the quiz questions.

Review

Lesson 11

Environment

At the start of class we were asked. "What does 'environment' mean?"  We thought about it for a bit, then we all gave our input.  We came up with Environment is where something or someone lives or exists.  We clarified this by talking about some examples, and then we moved on to the question, "Does the environment affect how well something lives?"  This led us into a conversation about some of the things different people have to live with (poverty, war, pollution, etc).  We decided that a healthy environment is one that is safe, has clear air and water, and provides nutritious food.  Our task today was to break into small groups and use a big piece of paper to draw what a healthy environment would look like.

Lesson 12

Helping the Environment

We started today's lesson by reviewing the material we will be covering on our quiz next class.  As a class we discussed each of the questions and the answers to the questions.  We then talked a little about the environment, with our focus on the importance of caring for the environment and respecting it as well.  We were then divided into groups, and each group was given a small piece of paper.  We used the remainder of the period to plan and present skits based on what was typed on the paper, which was something to do with respecting the environment.

Skit Topics

Lesson 13

Quiz

Today is quiz day.  We did our quiz in the usual way, having the questions read out loud, writing our answers, then going to talk to Mr. C. when we were done.  After we finished and had our quiz approved, we had a word search we could do to fill our time.

Worksheet          Answers

Lesson 14

Connections Amongst Living Things

We started class today by reading a paragraph from our worksheet.  We then talked why we need to show respect to the environment, and how all living things are connected in some way.  We then used the rest of the period to do our work, while Mr. C. finished up talking to us about our quizzes.

Worksheet               Answers

Lesson 15

Showing Respect to the Environment

At the start of class we reviewed some of the ways we show respect to the environment.  We then brainstormed some ideas of how we, as grade 1 students, can be respectful to the environment.  After discussing all of our ideas, we then got to draw a picture of one of the ideas and write about it.  We were asked to go into detail with our writing, explaining what we could do, how we would do it and why we would do it.

Worksheet

Lesson 16

Eco Respect at Our School

We began today by reviewing what environmental respect is all about.  We then discussed the idea that teaching others to be respectful of the environment is also a pretty good idea.  This lead us to think of the things we have been taught at school, and the things the school has done for the environment this year.  When we were done our discussion, we used the back of our worksheet from last class to make a poster, displaying one of the cool environmental things Tuck has done this year.

Lesson 17

Work Period

Well, we have learned so much about the environment, that we have so much to share, so it is taking us a long time to do our poster and our other writing.  Today we got a chance to finish up all of our work.  We did finish with a bit of time, so some of us took turns presenting our posters to the class.

Lesson 18

Altering Resources

The first thing we did today was review the needs of living things, both plants and animals.  We then were asked about which of those things are used up by the living things.  We came up with the idea that food, water and air are used up, but not shelter or space.  We then got to learn about how each of these things is used, and what happens to it.  We learned that energy is taken from food and the rest is returned to soil as "scat" (that is our new, mature, word we learned today).  With water, it is not really used up, but our body changes it.  It moves around our body, carrying things where they need to go, then it is released as sweat or urine.  The next two were a little more confusing, but we figured it out.  We breath in oxygen, but we breath out carbon dioxide.  The cool part is that plants do the opposite.  We figured out that we work together with the plants to trade back and forth.  At the end of class we did a worksheet to help us remember all of this stuff.

Worksheet               Answers

Lesson 19

Comparing Needs

Again we reviewed the needs of plants and animals.  We then had a closer look at that list and noticed that some of the needs are the same.  Next we thought about humans, we know humans are a type of animal, but we wanted to see if we need the same things as other animals.  It turns out we do, but we found out that we get things differently than other animals.  On our worksheet today we were able to show that our needs, although the same, can look very different.

Worksheet               Cut-Outs               Answers

Lesson 20

Adaptations

I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I have not planned what I would do.

I basically was thinking about showing animals with special parts i.e., webbed feet of a duck, long snout of an anteater, etc.  Then discuss why the animal has it, hinting at evolution.  I would then ask them to think of an animal, and why it is the way it is.  Maybe show a video about polar bears or something.

Lesson 21

What would it be like?

We went on a picnic today, well not a real picnic, but we closed our eyes and went on an imaginary one.  After picturing our family picnic we talked about all of the cool things we saw, the grass, the trees, the animals, etc.  We then closed our eyes again to go back to our picnic, but were told that there was no grass.  When we talked about it this time, we found that it was quite different to picnic without grass.  With this idea, removing something from the environment, we did a pretty cool worksheet.  We drew pictures of different environments, and then drew them missing something.  We then compared our pictures, and realized just how important everything is.

Worksheet

Lesson 22

My Perfect Environment

I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I have not planned what I would do.

My thoughts on this one were kind of a culminating activity.  Students would pick a plant or animal (or maybe themself).  They would then draw and list all of the things that would exist in their environment.

I would hand out a test review today.

Lesson 23

My Perfect Environment

I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I have not planned what I would do.

I pictured the last activity being a bit longer, so I allotted two periods when I planned out the lesson.  Maybe this period would be finish up and presenting?

Lesson 24

Review

I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I do not have practise test questions.

Lesson 25

Test

I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I do not have a test prepared.