Animals+and+Plants+in+their+Environment

September 24- November 21 Text/Workbook: Harcourt Chapter 4
 * Alain L. Locke Magnet School for Environmental Stewardship 2012-2013 **
 * Unit 1: Animals and Plants in Their Environments/Ecosystems **


 * Enduring Understanding: ** All living things are required to change in order to ensure their survival.


 * Essential Question: ** How do people, animals and plants adapt to social and physical changes in their environment?

W.4.2.  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
 * Common Core Learning Standards**

W.4.3.  Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. W.4.4.  Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. RI.4.3.  Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. RI.4.4.  Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a //grade 4 topic or subject area//. RI.4.5.  Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text. RI.4.10.  By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4–5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range

Responsible Local and Global Citizenship: Sustainable Economics <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';">Natural Laws and Ecological Principles <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';">Dynamics of Systems and Change
 * Education for Sustainability (EfS) Standards: **

Native American Museum Exhibits: As museum curators students will create a museum installation, for tourists, depicting the relationship Native Americans of NYS had with plants and animals-nature. A writing piece will accompany your installation explaining how it depicts the nature of the relationship. Final project can include: ●an artifact depicting a Native American tool ●an ecosystem model ●a poster of an ecosystem ●mobile food web/chain ●persuasive brochure/pamphlet/poster to save a particular ecosystem
 * Performance Task:**

Show: [|BrainPOP Jr. | Science | Learn about Plant Life Cycle] || Students can view video as often as they like on NetBooks ||
 * Lesson  ||   Procedures, Materials and Discussion Questions   ||   Differentiation options/ check for understanding   ||
 * 1. Understand expectations and objectives of unit || Introduce unit and expectations of learning. Introduce enduring understanding, essential question and performance task. Introduce [|performance task rubric]. Display performance task teacher example. || Check for understanding: Students will use the performance task rubric to score the teacher example ||
 * 2. classify plants and explain their life cycles || Teacher will show a [|power point presentation] that has two parts. The first part demonstrates how plants are classified and the second part explains a plants life cycle. Students will complete [|graphic organizer] along with presentation. Students will be responsible for completing Reading Support and Homework page 7 and 8
 * 3. classify animals and explain their life cycles || Teacher will facilitate a [|Smart Board lesson] that has two parts. The first part demonstrates how animals are classified and the second part explains an animal’s life cycle. Students will be responsible for reading pages 66-70 and answering questions 3-6 on page 71 and the health link at bottom of page.

Show videos about frog and butterfly life cycles [|BrainPOP Jr. | Frogs] [|BrainPOP Jr. | Science | Learn about Butterflies] || Smart Lesson has interactive portions that require students to participate and demonstrate understanding || Have you ever changed your behavior? Why? T reads aloud __The Lorax__ by Dr Seuss, then asks the question: How do people, animals and plants adapt to social and physical changes in their environment? What did the Barbaloots do when there were no more Truffula trees? Etc… T charts responses || Provide cause and effect graphic to help students track the changes in behavior || Play the diminishing rewards game After game, discuss strategies, observations and results. Ask what they could do differently.
 * 4. brainstorm how people, animals and plants adapt to social and physical changes in their environment || Ss will respond to the question:
 * 5. Explain the basic concept of sustainability and analyze the effects of unsustainable practices || T explains the rules of the Diminishing Rewards (fish game from cloud).

Discussion questions: Fish are a natural resource that humans depend on and if not responsibly utilized cannot sustain itself. How does this concept apply to other natural resources? What are the consequences of unsustainable practices? ||  || Discussion Question: How can we put these two words together to create a definition of ecosystems? Identify an ecosystem/habitat as a place where living and nonliving things work together (interact) to survive. Show Brainpop video [|BrainPOP Jr. | Freshwater Habitats] Students will take notes on video. T shows the model ecosystem and instructs students on the process of creating their ecosystems using the following pages as a guide: “Modeling and Ecosystem” – student book pg. 131 Ss will create ecosystems while completing LM 59. Students will predict what will happen to different ecosystems. || Provide a note taking outline to help students identify most important information.
 * 6& 7 construct a model of an ecosystem || Begin with review of previous lessons of plants and animals. Introduce the word ecosystem breaking into its parts. Eco=Earth: System= group of things working together.

Students will work in groups to create a model ecosystem. They can be assigned various roles. ||
 * 8. explain how biotic and abiotic factors interact in ecosystems

analyze how living and non-living parts of an ecosystem interact and are dependent on each other to sustain a natural balance || Read pgs. 132-136 & Read pgs. 140-143

Transparency RS 14

Project an illustration of an ecosystem with living and non-living things. Classify the components of the ecosystem as either biotic or abiotic. Discuss their effects on each other

Teacher poses the following question in what ways have humans, a biotic factor, affected their ecosystems? ||  || Display a world climate map and ask for noticings. Select two different climates; create a T-Chart listing the different plants and animals living in them. Discuss the characteristics of each that help them sustain life in their ecosystem. Read pgs. 144-146 ||  ||
 * 9. describe how climate affects ecosystems and analyze the effects of climate change on biotic and abiotic factors || Read aloud, __Some Like it Hot__ . Discuss the purpose of the book.
 * 10. explain how we use natural resources

describe positive and negative ways humans affect ecosystems || Read pgs. 152-154

Reading Support pg. 32 #4

Teacher shows a PowerPoint that depicts how humans have been destructive in their environment. The PowerPoint will also shows efforts that humans have made to restore their environments. ||  || Benchmark ||   ||
 * ** 11. Assessment ** || Chapter Assessment pgs. 160-161
 * 12. explain how living and non-living things use energy from sunlight

*describe how yeast decays bananas

*describe how living things relate to each other || T reviews concept of interactions between living and nonliving things. Introduce activity and make predictions. Students will complete the following activity in groups: “Decomposing Bananas” – Student book pg. 165 LM 68 Discuss pictures pgs. 162-164

Read pgs. 166-170 ||  || After several rounds discuss the outcomes and explain how consumers depend on other living things. Also discuss how humans can help sustain or destroy an ecosystem by hunting or building responsibly. Teacher also discusses the importance of eating and describes how energy moves through food chains and food webs ||  || (add EfS questions to test)  ||   ||
 * 13. participate in the construction a food chain or web || Take Students to park or large space to play “Food Chain Tag”. Ss are assigned a role in the chain/web and must tag and stay attached to their food source. A food chain chain/web will result from playing the game.
 * 14-17. . create the culminating project || Ss will work on project ||  ||
 * 18. Assessment || Assessment pgs. 186-187