Grade 1 Teacher Background Information
Teacher background – Plants and Animals of Seas and Rivers
Formative Assessment Probe
Background information on formative assessment probe and 1st grade probe.
Purpose
The purpose of this probe is to assess students’ abilities to recognize different characteristics of animals and to classify according to those characteristics. Eliciting the justification for their decisions will reveal students’ level of understanding.
Explanation
Each animal in the top group has fins or flippers, but no legs. The bottom group includes animals that have four legs. The fox and rabbit belongs in the group of animals that have legs and the walrus and the salmon belong in the group that have no legs. Students may come up with different groupings for the two main groups. This is fine as long as they can support their reasoning. If they choose “land animals” and “water animals”, you might ask them if the animals that live on land (or in the water) have something in common. This will help them recognize a particular characteristic.
Children at this age can only be expected to use two groups at the same time when sorting. In later years they are able to use a number of sorting groups at the same time. “By the age of 13, most children, when asked, could use the group ‘animals’ to include groups such as ‘bird’, and by the age of 16 most students used hierarchical classification more spontaneously.” (Making Sense of Secondary Science, p24).
Administering the Probe
The teacher should present the scenario, then ask students to write or tell the reasoning for their choices. This justification is critical to assessing their level of understanding and/or misconceptions. We suggest that this probe be administered in small groups or one-on-one, to help with reading the probe. This setting will also ensure that the students’ reasoning is clear, whether their responses are verbal or written. Teacher prompting may be needed for students to go beyond guessing, to explain and/or elaborate on their responses to clarify their level of understanding. Non-leading prompts in a neutral tone of voice might include: Tell me more… Why did you choose that response?
Grade Level Curricular and Instructional Considerations
“Biologists classify organisms into a hierarchy of groups and subgroups on the basis of similarities and differences in their structure and behavior.”(Science for All Americans, p. 60).
“In the beginning, children can focus on any attribute – size, color, limbs, fins, or wings – but then should gradually be guided to realize that for purposes of understanding relatedness among organisms, some characteristics are more significant than others.” (Benchmarks for Science Literacy, p.101)
“By the end of 2nd grade, students should know that some animals and plants are alike in the way they look and in the things they do, and others are very different from one another.” (Benchmarks for Science Literacy, p.102)
“In classroom activities such as classification, younger elementary students generally use mutually exclusive rather than hierarchical categories. Young children, for example, will use two groups, but older children will use several groups at the same time. Students do not consistently use classification schemes similar to those used by biologists until the upper elementary grades.” (National Science Education Standards, p.128)
National Science Education Standards
K – 4 The Characteristics of Organisms
- Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.
- Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking.
Related American Association for the Advancement of Science Benchmarks
K- 2 Diversity of Life
- Some animals and plants are alike in the way they look and in the things they do, and others are very different from one another.
- Plants and animals have features that help them live in different environments.
3-5 Diversity of Life
- A great variety of kinds of living things can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which things belong to which group.
- Features used for grouping depend on the purpose of the grouping.
Around our school
Enlist the help of local naturalists to develop knowledge of plants and animals around the school environment. Prior to taking children outside, preview the area and have ideas about what they can discover. Plants and animals discovered on this walk are not necessarily the aquatic life forms that they will focus on during the remainder of the unit, but this initial activity is important to support observation skills and to begin to understand how plants and animals can be sorted and how they are used by people. Sharing the Joy of Nature with Children by Joseph Cornell has ideas for focus games or initial nature walks.
Biologist and Subsistence Backpacks
Connect the “Backpack” lesson to children’s prior experiences with using science tools and/or hunting and gathering.
Read about subsistence in Alaska:
Alaska’s Subsistence Fisheries
AK Dept. of fish and Game Division of Subsistence
Plant and Animal Characteristics
Peer interaction and sharing are important. Students learn from each other and need time to listen to each other and work together.
Shells: Take a Closer Look
For the “Measuring Shells” activity in Sorting Shells, use concepts of “size” or “space covered” rather than area, to be mathematically correct.
Sorting Shells
Accept and include different ways to sort the shells. Children may have unique categories that we might not have imagined. Be open to new ideas.
Creature Features Class Book
Put the Creature Feature book together in published form and share it with other classes or parents. Bind the pages together with a spiral binder or three rings. Laminating the cover and/or pages will make it last longer and create a special book for the classroom.
“What Do You Know” Game
Add to the cards based on things your class has learned, and customize the game board to fit your needs.
ABC Sea/River Book
Examples of sentence frames to include on the student pages for the ABC book:
Basic information:
The _________________ is ____________________. ( an animal or a plant)
It lives in (on) _____________________________________.
It eats ___________________________________________.
Uses:
We use ______________ to feed our families.
We eat _______________ because they taste good.
I put ______________ on my garden to fertilize it.
You may want to decide on a couple of sentences that each student will have on their page, and allow them to come up with others specific to their plant or animal.
ABC examples for Southeast Alaska. Some will also be appropriate for other areas:
A –anemone, abalone
B – barnacle, blenny, bivalve
C – crab, clam, cockle, chiton
D – dall porpoise, dulse
E – eel, echinoderm
F – fish
G – gumboot,
H – hermit crab
I – isopod, invertebrate
J – jellyfish
K – kelp, king crab
L – limpet, (sea) lettuce
M – moon snail, mussel
N – nudibranch
O – octopus, oyster, otter
P – periwinkle, phytoplankton
Q –
R – ribbon worm
S – seaweed, sea cucumber, snail, squid, shrimp, sculpin
T – tidepool sculpin
U – urchin
V – vertebrate
W- whale, whelk, worm
X –
Y
Z – zooplankton
Again, put the book together in published form and share it with other classes or parents. Bind the pages together with a spiral binder or three rings. Laminating the cover and/or pages will make it last longer and create a special book for the classroom.
Plant or Animal Research
It is important to have enough and appropriate resources. Non-fiction books, ZooBooks, and pamphlets from the Alaska Department of Fish And Game all provide potential pictures and information to inform young scientists.
The sculptures may take 3-4 days to complete depending on the details, size and use of paints or markers. Letting paper dry between project times will assist the sculpture to stay intact. Smaller sculptures could be made using half sheet sized paper with more attention to detail in the drawing.
Life Cycle Wheels
Help students connect their new learning with previous experiences they may have with life cycles. They may have experience with butterflies or salmon, and most will have observed siblings, grandparents, and other family members.
Students may have learned that plants and animals have an ‘adult’ stage when they did their animal research project. This will have provided some initial thinking about how an animal or plant changes as it grows.
High-Tide, Low-Tide Game
Use the information from the Meet the Invertebrates lesson. This game assists children in learning more about those creatures: how they move, what they get from high or low tide and how they survive. This is an active game that encourages children to move, supporting those who learn best through using their body ( kinesthetically).
Marine/Freshwater Animal or Plant Riddle
Information from students’ animal research will be important to the development of the riddle. Paying attention to characteristics and specific traits of plants and animals will enable children to create logical riddles. It’s helpful to have information on local plants and animals so children can create riddles including number of legs, antennae, habitat, life cycle, etc.
Field Trip Session
A previous visit to the field session site is strongly suggested. Local knowledge of plants and animals is important for this investigation. Field guides for the local area can help you develop knowledge, as will local naturalists and scientists. Scientists from local government agencies are often eager to help with education projects.
Every previous field session will build experience and understanding of how to more successfully explore during this extended session. Children will have had many scientific conversations to support their use of “claims and evidence”, use of science notebooks for documentation and team building experiences to make this session useful to them. They are no longer “practicing” to be scientists; they are biologists in the field gathering important data and documenting their findings in a scientific notebook.
It’s important to craft this lesson to best match the local environment. Understand and decide what information can be gathered for physical evidence, and what information needs to be acquired before or after the trip through field guides, local scientists and/or Native culture bearers or elders.
Sharing What We Know
Take note of students’ questions and desires for more information and research. The celebration will be a good time to enlist parents, community members, and other guests to assist students to continue their quest for more information.