"What Will I Do This Winter?"

Objective:

What the students will be able to do upon completion of the lesson.

Anticipatory Set:

Relate lesson to everyday life or situation students may encounter. The teacher will begin by creating a class discussion about what are some of the things that we do differently when it starts to get cold outside (stay inside more, clothing, different foods that we eat such as hot soup, turn on the heat or wood for fireplace, etc...). Then start asking leading questions about what they think animals do when the winter comes.

Delivering Instruction/Model and Lead

Procedures:

The teacher will:
1. The teacher will discuss and define four different ways that animals survive during the winter time:
  1. Migration - When animals move from one place to another because of temperature or for food.
  2. Hibernation - When animals eat a tremendous amounts of food in the Fall to build up a thick layer of fat to provide energy during the winter. Then, in the winter their body temperature and blood pressure drop and they fall into a deep sleep until the spring.
  3. Dormancy -The animals don't sleep the entire winter but, take extended naps and wake at certain times to eat gathered food or search for food.
  4. Active - The animals stay active during the winter but, may have special adaptations such as thick fur or they may burrow underground, or snuggle together.

Guided Practice/Lead and Test

Checking for understanding (recognition to recall)

4. The teacher will then demonstrate three ways to find out information on how an animal lives during the winter.
  1. on the Internet using www.encarta.com and www.discovery.com.
  2. In an encyclopedia
  3. In a book about the animal.

Independent Practice

5. Each student will be assigned an animal and will have available internet, class and library resources to find out the following information:
  1. Does the animal migrate, hibernate, enter into dormancy or remain active?
  2. What are the animal's winter sources of food?
  3. What special adaptations are there for the winter?

The teacher will provide a teacher made sheet that contains the questions with space for the student to provide the answer. Once all students have gathered the information, the teacher will use an LCD projector to create a chart listing the results. The teacher will use the data sheet to total the number of animals in each group and then create a bar graph to represents the numbers in each group. Note: This activity can be modified to a higher level by creating a pie chart and including a discussion on percents. The teacher will explain the parts of the graph pointing out the legend and how the symbols are used to help read the chart. Then the teacher will ask questions using the chart to provide the answers. Ie... What do most of the animals do in the winter? How many animals remain active? How many more animal hibernate than migrate? Be sure to point out that this chart pertains only to the animals that we chose to report on-it does not represent all animals. Once this has been completed, provide the students with a teacher-made worksheet containing a similar graph and let them answer questions pertaining to the graph.

Extension activity:

The students will use magazines, pictures, crayons, markers, etc... to make a poster on poster or tag board about one of the groups (hibernation, migration, dormancy, active). Display the poster in the classroom.

Formative Evaluation

Evaluation:

The teacher will check correct and incorrect oral responses in the group activity. The teacher will check for the number of correct answers of the 10 questions on the teacher-made bar graph worksheet.

Criteria:

80% Mastery. The student will have 8 of the 10 items on the teacher-made worksheet correct.

See Sample Spreadsheet

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