Unit Topic /Theme: Animals

Grade: 2^nd Grade

Lesson Topic or Theme: Science; Classifying Animals

Lesson Objectives: 

Cognitive- Children in their groups will first look through the pictures of animals on “which animals go here” worksheet and find and place the animals that go into the chart under the category they were assigned. Then later on the BrainPop Jr website, be able take the animal pictures from their chart and match each animal to its correct corresponding folder to demonstrate listening skills and ability to recall information by matching an animal to a folder based off of their worksheets, and previous discussions we had class.  

Physical- When it is each groups turn, each child will be able to come up and manipulate a smart board to complete the activity on the BrainPop Jr website to drag the animal picture cards across the screen to connect the animal cards to to their correct folders to demonstrate hand eye coordination and fine motor skills by using their pointer finger to drag the card across the screen using controlled movements to connect the animal card to a folder.

Instructional Technique: Group work; 4 Total Groups

Instructional Materials: 

Which Animals go where Activity

Guide to Matching Animals worksheet

Animal Picture Cards

https://jr.brainpop.com/games/sortifyanimalsjr/

Theoretical Perspective:  This lesson is to provide children with experience to investigate, describe, and compare the characteristics that differentiate living from non-living things. To then classify living things, they know on the basis of recognizing similarities and differences in features, appearance and behavior among groups of creatures (e.g., fin, fur, feathers, number of legs), as well as the various habitats they may live in.

Procedure:

A. Introductory Activity

- The teacher will begin by introducing the day’s activities by asking children if they can recall some of the things they have been talking about for the past few classes about how we can use a term called “classifying” when we look at animals and how we can look at different attributes to differentiate them from one another. The children’s responses should be such as or about how animals have fur, wings, as well as they live on land and in oceans. The teacher will then explain to the class that today they are going to sort differentiate animals into categories based off of the characteristics they have talked about previously. The teacher will then split the children amongst 4 different groups and explain that each of these 4 groups represents a different characteristic of an animal or a habitat where animals may live. From there, the teacher will instruct the children to look at the “Which Animals go here” and they will notice that there are pictures of various animals on their table. They will then be instructed to sort through those animals and glue down the pictures into the table under their category. After they have done that they must complete “Guide Matching Animals to Folders Activity” and then get checked by the teacher after completing that worksheets. After the teacher has come over the children may wish to free draw using materials from the art area, of the animals in their category until all of the groups have finished.

B. Step-by-step

·      The children will first complete the “Which Animals go here” worksheet based off of the category they were assigned, and look through the animal pictures on their tabled and find the animals that go into their category.

·      Next the children will take the animal pictures they found and glue them into their category.

·      After that, the children will then count together how many animals they have glued in their category and one child will write the number down on their “Guide Matching Animals to Folders Activity” worksheet.

·      After they have written their number down, they will need to take turns writing down the names of those animals on the “Guide Matching Animals to Folders Activity” worksheet.

·      After the group finishes the teacher will come over and sit down with each group and ask them to explain how many animals they had, what animals they had, and how they could tell those animals went into that category.

·      The teacher will go around to each group and make sure they have the correct amount of animals in their distinct category, as well as having named the animals spelled correctly.

·      The teacher will then call over the children to the rug, where they will take the information they have on their worksheets and complete a online game on the BrainPop Jr website.

·      Each group will come up to the smart board and drag each animal card into the folder they were assigned, which are the same as the categories/group they were assigned earlier.

·      After each group as come up, we will submit our answers and see the score we got, and if we put any animals into the wrong category.

·      If needed, we will try to discuss to see where any animals we got wrong, and where they should go.

·      Finally, we will close out the activity by discussing why each animal goes in a certain folder, by going around and asking the children to describe the different characteristics certain animals have and don’t have to allow them to go into certain folder.

C. Closure

- After all of the groups have completed both worksheets, and have been worked on with one-on-one with the teacher, the teacher will then call all groups over to the carpet in front of the smart board. The teacher will then ask the children if they had a good time sorting animals, and what were some of the animals they saw, and if they saw any animals they didn’t know. After that, the teacher will then inform the students that they will be playing a game online using the animals they sorted to play. The teacher will then turn on the smart board, and will have the BrainPop Jr website to the “Sortify; Animals Jr.” game. The teacher explain that each group will come up and take a turn dragging animal card based off of what they put in their chart, down to their designated groups folder. As each group is coming up the teacher will ask for that groups “Guide to Matching Animals worksheet”, to allow for the the teacher to evaluate the students learning for later adaptations and more time spent on this specific unit/topic. After all the groups have finished the teacher will submit the answers, and the website will generate a score to show what animals we got correct and which were incorrect. This allow for students to see if their predictions were correct, as well as an opportunity to discuss the ones that were incorrect and why each animal goes in a certain folder based off there physical features we can place them or classify them to certain categories.

Adaptations:

-       For any learners with special needs such as spelling issues for when the children need to write the name of the animal onto the worksheet, their will be individual cards with the name of the animals spelt out for them that the teacher will give out as needed. Also any students will any language difficulty’s, there will also be the name of the animals on cards spelled out in their native language, as well as in English, and the teacher will work with this student(s) as the help is needed.

Evaluation:

Cognitive- Children in their groups will first look through the pictures of animals on “which animals go here” worksheet and find and place the animals that go into the chart under the category they were assigned. Then later on the BrainPop Jr website, be able take the animal pictures from their chart and match each animal to its correct corresponding folder to demonstrate listening skills and ability to recall information by matching an animal to a folder based off of their worksheets, and previous discussions we had class. 

-  As each groups is coming up to do the sorting activity on the smart board the teacher will observe and check to make sure that the correct animals are in the correct category. If the students seem to be having difficulty placing the correct animals into the correct category, the teacher then will prompt the students with verbal cues about what do certain animals have to have to go into that category.

Physical- When it is each groups turn, each child will be able to come up and manipulate a smart board to complete the activity on the BrainPop Jr website to drag the animal picture cards across the screen to connect the animal cards to to their correct folders to demonstrate hand eye coordination and fine motor skills by using their pointer finger to drag the card across the screen using controlled movements to connect the animal card to a folder.

     -  As the children are taking turn dragging the animal cards on the screen downwards to the folder, “using hand eye coordination and fine motor skills by using their pointer finger to drag the cards across the screen” the teacher will observe to see if student(s) can maneuver the task independently or if assistance is need, if assistance is needed the teacher will assistant the student(s) to try to use the mouse on the computer instead of the smart board.

Unit Topic or Theme: Addition and Subtraction

· Grade: Second Grade

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· Lesson Topic or Theme: Mental Math with Addition and Subtraction

· Lesson Objectives: The student will be able to add and subtract mentally proficiently.

· Instructional Technique: The students will work with the teacher for the first few examples. They will then work on their own with computer while filling out a worksheet.

· Instructional Materials: There will be two different worksheets for the student to complete. The students will need pencils and a personal laptop. https://www.varsitytutors.com/aplusmath/matho

· Theoretical Perspective: The student will need to learn mental math to make higher level math easier. The ability to add and subtract mentally will help when the student is in real life problems (sales while shopping or adding money up to know how much you will spend). Procedure: The teacher will set up the website being used while the students as get ready. The teacher will then explain what mental math is and why it is important to know how to do it. She will give students examples on how to do mental math and give a worksheet with problems for them to solve using mental math. The teacher will then explain how to use the website and show them how she would do mental math to solve the problems. The teacher will then hand out another worksheet that the students will fill out while working on the website. The students will move on to subtraction once they get under 3 questions wrong (they will write down what questions they get wrong).

A. Introductory Activity: When the student gets in there will be a question on the board for them to answer (What is mental math and why do we need it?) They will then listen to the teacher as she explains what it is and why it is needed.

B. Step-by-step:

1) Students answer the question on the board and then talk to the teacher about it.

2) The teacher will hand a worksheet for the students to practice mental math on their own.

3) After ten minutes the teacher will direct the student's attention to the board to show them the website they will use for the day.

4) The teacher will show the students how to use the website and how to fill out the worksheet handed to them.

5) The teacher will hand out the worksheet and have the students work on their own and ask other students if they need help.

6) When the class is over the teacher will collect the worksheet to see what the students can do and what they can’t do.

C. Closure:

Students will talk about what they learned, how they feel about mental math, what they still need help with.

D. Adaptations for different learners:

For the students who have a hard time learning math I will give them more relatable examples for they feel more inclined to learn it. For the students who have a hard time with the English language the teacher will show more pictures to help the student. (i.e. non-native speakers, struggling readers or math phobic learners, students with poor study skills)

E. Homework

· Evaluation: They will have a worksheet to fill out.

A. How/ when will you determine if you have met your objectives?

The teacher will determine if the students have learned the information by having them do projects and or a test.

B. Concerns or questions you have about teaching this lesson?

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