1. Information: Class being taught: Pre-K 4A Lesson being taught: Trees and its changes
2. Standard: Domain 5: Cognition and Knowledge of the World Scientific Thinking: 1C. Makes observations and describes changes in objects, living things, and natural events in the environment.
3. Lesson Being Taught: The lesson being taught is about trees and what changes they go through. The students will first go on a nature walk to observe trees, then will draw pictures of their observations, next will see pictures of trees in different seasons and finally will learn about why the leaves are all different in different season.
4. Big Idea: The big idea in this standard has to do with observations, changes, objects, living things, natural events and environment. In this lesson, the big idea has to do with observing trees, noticing changes in trees, describing these changes and understanding why the trees change and how seasons affect them.
5. Objectives:
5.1. 1. Students will be able to make observations about trees.
5.2. 2. Students will be able to describe changes in trees.
5.3. 3. Students will understand how changes occur in trees.
6. Scaffolding Techniques:
6.1. Objective 1 Scaffolding Technique- Modeling The teacher should divide the class into 3-4 groups and take them out for a nature walk. As the class is walking, the teacher should think out loud by looking at the trees and pointing out differences in the trees. The students will then know what to do and will follow the teacher’s method. To grab the attention of students, have students touch the leaves and feel how different each leaf is.
6.2. Objective 2 Scaffolding Technique- Show and Tell After the teacher has taken the students on a nature walk, the students should draw a picture of their observations. Once everyone is done, the students should stand in front of class, show their drawings and explain to the class what they drew. This would be similar to Show and Tell.
6.3. Objective 3 Scaffolding Technique- Visual Aids To make sure that everyone understands how trees change, the teacher should first read a story about the seasons and how they affect trees. Next the teacher should have the students watch a video clip about the different seasons. At the end, the class should make a poster together that will show how a tree changes in different seasons. For instance, the class will draw four trees and in their own way show how trees are different in fall, winter, spring and summer.
7. Readiness Skills
7.1. Objective 1 Readiness Skill: The students have seen the trees many times before but haven’t really observed them closely. On this nature walk, the students will examine each tree and leaf.
7.2. Objective 2 Readiness Skill: In Pre-K4 students have Show and Tell every day. So the students will not have any difficulty in presenting their pictures because they have been doing something similar in Show and Tell.
7.3. Objective 3 Readiness Skills: Most of the students can spot the changes in trees just by looking at the color of the leaves. The concept of how tress change during the seasons is familiar to many students.
