Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title:
2nd Garde:
Animals and Their Environments: How do animals fit in their environment?
Objectives:
Student will be able to:
Observe why certain animals are best for their environments.
Make conclusions why animals survive in those environments.
Make observation to determine how animals adapt to changes in environments.
State Standards:
2.L.5B. Conceptual Understanding: Animals (including humans) require air, water, food, and
shelter to survive in environments where these needs can be met. There are distinct environments
in the world that support different types of animals. Environments can change slowly or quickly.
Animals respond to these changes in different ways.
2.L.5B.2 Develop and use models to exemplify characteristics of animals that help them survive
in distinct environments (such as salt and freshwater, deserts, forests, wetlands, or polar lands).
Context: In our classes previous lessons the student learned what different types of animals there
were and how to classify them (such as mammals, birds, amphibians etc.). The student also
learned about how animals have different features (such as hearing, seeing, grasping, etc.) and
how those features help them survive. The student will grow on this previous knowledge by
using the what they know and new information to learn about how the environment may affect
animal’s features and how animals use those features to help them in their environment. In the
future the class will be able to grow on this knowledge by observing characteristic of an
environment to determine if it is beneficial or harmful for certain animals.
Data: In the classes previous lesson on animals and environments the students took a quiz and
use an exit ticket. The students will be grouped based on their results on the quiz. The groups
will be from 3-4 students and the groups will have a mixture of students with High scores,
average scores and low scores in order for the children to help each other out. After this lesson is
over, we will use the Socrative app to take another quiz in order to group the children for their
future lesson.
Materials: List all materials used (i.e. websites, apps, pencils, iPads, computers, worksheets,
diagrams, textbooks, etc.)
Part of Lesson: Materials Needed:
 Introduction • Tape
• Printer & paper (to print out picture of animals)
• Whiteboard & dry erase marker
Teacher Directed • Smartboard projector connected to computer
• Video clip: https://www.pbs.org/video/animal-
adaptation-how-to-survive-obdg8i/
Independent Digital • Smart whiteboard with PowerPoint (to show the
questions on)
• Classroom tablets
• Pencil and paper (to write answers to questions)
• Website: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/
Collaborative • Classroom tablets
• Prezi website: https://prezi.com/login/
• Email (to send over presentation)
• Smartboard projector connected to computer (to
present).
Closure • Printer & paper (to print out quiz & exit ticket)
• Pencils
Procedures:
Introduction (5 minutes):
Before class starts, I will tape pictures of 5 different animals that belong to different habitats to
the white board. A black bear for the forest, an artic fox for the polar regions, a desert tortoise for
the desert, a sand tiger shark for the ocean and a river otter for fish water. The white board will
also have the vocabulary word adaptation on it. I will start the lesson by splitting the class into
their groups, there should be 5 groups. After the class in groups, I will have each group go up to
the board and pick their animal (groups will get to pick their animals in the order of the sticks
they picked out of a cup). After the children pick their animals and return to their groups, I will
explain that we will be learning about how animals are basically made to live in their
environments. I will then ask the groups to all write down everything they know about the
animal they chose along with observations they can see in the pictures.
Teacher Directed (10 minutes):
I will start by recapping our previous science lesson on how there are different type of animals
such as mammal, amphibians, birds etc. I will also remind them of the definitions of these
groupings. I will also remind children of the different environment there are and how they
look/feel such as artic, forest, etc. I will ask the groups to raise their hands their hands, say their
animals, and say what kind of animal they have (ex. The Black bear is a mammal) if the students
do not know we can work together to find out. I will then play this video to explain to the
children how animals looks and behaviors reflect where they live. Video link:
https://www.pbs.org/video/animal-adaptation-how-to-survive-obdg8i/ . This video will introduce
and explain to children how adaptation can help animals survive. After the video is over, I will
ask the class an animal they saw in the video, what adaptation they had and why.
 Independent Digital (45 minutes):
For this part of the lesson, children will become researchers and explorers to find out how the
animals they chose fits into a certain environment. The children will work to answer these
questions about the animals they chose, “What type of animal did they choose,” “What food does
their animal eat,” “Where does their animal live,” and “What adaptations do their animals have
that help them live in their environment”. The children should go on their class tablets and can
use this website to help them answer the questions: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/
. The children may talk and help each other out. As children are doing this part of the
assignment I will walk around the class, answering questions and making sure children are on
track.
Collaborative (90 minutes):
For this part of the assignment, I will have the children work together on their class tablets to
create a presentation on Prezi. The children have used Prezi for a previous lesson so they already
have experience with this tool. Each groups presentation should answer all of the questions in the
previous part of the lesson, the presentation should only have 6 slides (it should not take too long
since the children will be splitting the work). There should be special emphasis on the animal's
environment and how the animal is made to live in that environment. The directions for this part
of the lesson will not only be posted on the board but will be verbally explained to the children.
As the children are working on their presentation, I will be walking around offering help with
technology and answering any questions that are needed. If some groups finish with their
presentation early, they may return back to the National Geographic Kids website to learn about
other animals or play games about animals. After everyone is done with their presentation have
the groups share them with me so I may show them to the whole class. While I am showing the
presentations to the class if the group would like to share, they are supported in doing so.
Closure (20 minutes):
After all of the presentations have been shared, I will ask the students if they have any questions.
When all questions are answered I will hand the children a short quiz on paper to ensure they
gained knowledge. The quiz will have questions like, “What is it called when animals change to
survive in their environment,” “What is NOT a type of adaptation,” “Name one characteristic an
animal had that helps them survive”. And then the children will also have to write an exit ticket
answering the question “what is one thing you learned in today’s lesson”.
Rationale:
Multimedia 1: PBS.org: https://www.pbs.org/video/animal-adaptation-how-to-survive-obdg8i/ - I
chose this piece of multimedia because it does a good job of explaining how animals adapt to
survive in certain environment while suing kid friendly language and speaking in simple terms.
This supports the SC Standard 2.L.5B.2 by describing characteristics that animals have that help
them survive. PBS.org is a well-known and network that offers many forms of learning content
that can be accessed through apps, websites, television etc. I used one of their videos because it
is helpful for student in my class who are auditory and visual learners, but PBS also offers
games, articles and more. Overall, PBS has a high LORI score because it has options for multiple
types of learners, has culturally diverse content, is easy to use, has closed captioning on video
and more but could some things like more assistive technologies.
Multimedia 2: National Geographic Kids: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/ - I chose
this website because it is an easy-to-use source that children may gather their own research while
growing on previous knowledge. This supports multiple SC Standards for 2nd grade science by
providing information about animals, where they live, what they eat, adaptations and more. This
is a high-quality website ran by National Geographic a well-known magazine and website that
provides informative content. National Geographic’s website for children offers video, articles
and games, which may reach different kind of learners. I chose to use their articles on animals
for my children who learn best through reading, visual learners. Although the website scored a
decent score on the LORI scale by being easy to use and by covering intended content goals,
they would have received a higher score by adding ore assistive technology, creating a more
diverse website, providing feedback to children, and by letting children chose difficulty levels.
Multimedia 3: Prezi: https://prezi.com/login/ - I chose Prezi as my media tool for presenting
because it allows children to be more creative when making a presentation, and it is a good tool
to show what they learned about their animals. This supports SC Standard 2.L.5B.2 by having
the children use/create models that show animals characteristics that help them survive in certain
environments. Prezi is high quality and has millions of users, I have not only used Prezi myself
but have seen many other educators using this tool. Many website and online tool rating sites
give Prezi a 4–5-star review. I chose Prezi for this part of the assignment because it may reach
my creative learners by offering the ability to add videos, pictures, text, sound, graphs and more.
Although Prezi is great it received only a medium LORI score because it can be confusing to use,
doesn’t offer different levels for ability, and is only mildly helpful when it comes to assistive
technology. But Prezi is great for its intended use, offers help and integration.