Science
I follow the 5E Instructional Model and Next Generation Science Standards when planning and implementing science units. Lessons begin with engagement: connecting to students’ prior knowledge and piquing curiosity through authentic applications, like creating a model to represent a real-life scenario. The exploration phase allows students to practice the scientific method: I invite them to ask questions and investigate through hands-on, interactive, exploration-based material. After grappling with questions and exploring on their own, students explain their findings and learning in collaboration with me. They extend and deepen their understanding by applying new knowledge to make generalizations and come to conclusions. Finally, I give students agency over demonstrating and reflecting on their own learning by encouraging multiple ways of showing understanding.
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Kindergarten Lesson Plan: Animals Need Water to Survive
This is the fourth of a five-lesson unit about animals’ needs that I created and taught in my kindergarten internship. There were more exciting lessons in this unit (we went on an Animal Shelters Scavenger Hunt and the group performed a play about animals’ needs), but I chose to share this lesson because the implementation was beautiful and effective in its simplicity. The brief direct instruction was developmentally appropriate and the materials were engaging and high-quality. As I read the final pages of The Water Hole, I could tell it had moved my students, and that brought tears to my eyes. |
Experience Science during my kindergarten internship focused on seasons, fall fruits, and a unit I created about animals’ needs. I try to set science learning experiences in nature whenever possible; this unit included an Outdoor Exploration to search for animals’ shelters on the trails behind our school. In my fifth grade internship, we explored the laws of force and motion through interactive learning centers. |