Developmental Lesson Plan #1

Teacher Candidates: Alyssa McDonald, Meghan Artley, Sarah Supplee Date: 10/21
Group Size: 20 Allotted Time: one 50-minute period Grade Level: 2nd
Subject or Topic: Lesson 1: What is a Deciduous Forest? - Content

Common Core/PA Standard(s):

4.1.3.D - Identify organisms that are dependent on one another in a given ecosystem.
● Define habitat and explain how a change in habitat affects an organism.

Learning Targets/Objectives:
● Students will visually define habitat by making a model paper plate habitat.
● Students will list organisms dependent on another in a given ecosystem by
making a model paper plate habitat.

Assessment Approaches: Evidence:

1. Hand Signals 1. Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down,
2. Performance-based Waving of Hand
3. Performance-based 2. Collection of model paper plate
habitat
3. Collection of flip book

Assessment Scale:
1. Model paper plate habitat
a. Advanced/Proficient- 2 or 3 of following criteria: trees/ plants/ flowers
in background, one or more animals in model, possible showing of a
season
b. Basic- Only 1 out of 3 of the above criteria
c. Below Basic- None of the above criteria
2. Flip book
a. Advanced- Three facts or pictures on each page of flip book
b. Proficient- Two facts or pictures on each page of flip book
c. Basic- One fact or picture on each page of flip book; incomplete pages
d. Below Basic- No facts or pictures on most or all of the pages
Subject Matter/Content:
● Prerequisites:
○ All living things need energy to survive.
○ Plants use photosynthesis to survive.
○ Animals need food and water to survive.
● Key Vocabulary:
○ Woodland Forest: A habitat that gets enough rain and sunlight for
trees to grow well. (aka Temperate Deciduous Forest)
○ Deciduous: trees that lose their leaves during a season
○ Temperate: not too cold and not too hot
○ Habitat: the physical surroundings that influence and is used by any
group of living things
○ Ecosystem: a community where any group of living and nonliving
things interact with one another
○ Abiotic: the nonliving elements of the ecosystem
○ Biotic: all the living organisms in the ecosystem
○ Niche: the role an organism has in an ecosystem
○ Diurnal: active during the day
○ Nocturnal: active at night
● Content/Facts:
○ The temperate deciduous forest is constantly changing and experiences
all four seasons.
○ Temperate deciduous forests are in Pennsylvania.
○ An ecosystem is a place where living and nonliving things reside; how
living and nonliving things react to their environment.

Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies:
● Introduce mystery box in the front of the classroom
○ Ask what they think is in the box
○ Explain that the items in the box will be the topic of the science unit
○ Have the students come to the table where the mystery box is
■ Teacher opens box and reveals what is in it
■ Have the students guess what the topic will be based off what
is in the box
○ Let each student take a component of the box back to their desk.

Development/Teaching Approaches:
● Have the students sit on the carpet in front of the SMART board. They will
need to bring a clipboard and pencil with them.
● Introduce ecosystem terms using the YouTube video linked in the materials
 section. Hand out the flip books to each student and explain that they will be
using this to write down the important information they will be learning
today.
○ Stop at 0:57 and have the students discuss with one another about what
an ecosystem is, then ask a student for the answer. Write in
Vocabulary section of flip book.
■ A place where living and nonliving things reside; how living
and nonliving things react to their environment
○ Stop at 1:36 and have the students discuss with one another about the
two components of an ecosystem and the difference between them.
Write in the Vocabulary and Ecosystem section of flip book.
■ Abiotic components are the nonliving things in an ecosystem
■ Biotic components are the living things in an ecosystem
○ Ask the students to give examples of abiotic things. Write in
Ecosystem section of flip book.
■ Air, water, nutrients, sunlight, temperature
○ Ask the students to give some examples of biotic things. Write in
Ecosystem section of flip book.
■ Plants, animals, fungi, microorganisms
○ Stop at 1:57 and have the students discuss with one another about the
examples of an ecosystem, then have students share out. Write in
Ecosystem section of flip book.
■ Under plant pot, under a rock, a pond, a puddle, the ocean, a
city, our country
○ Stop at 2:27 and have the students discuss with one another about what
it means to have a role or niche, then have the students share out.
Write in Ecosystem section of flip book.
○ Ask the students what they think might happen when more than one
organism has the same niche. Play the video until 3:00. Write in
Ecosystem section of flip book.
■ They must leave or they become extinct
● After the video, ask students to use hand signals to indicate their
understanding of ecosystems
○ Thumbs up- I understand what an ecosystem is and can explain it
○ Thumbs down- I do not yet understand what an ecosystem is
○ Wave hand- I’m not completely sure what an ecosystem is
○ If not all are thumbs up, re-explain.
● Ask the students to remember the mystery box that was shown in the
beginning of class. Ask, “Do you have a better guess as to why I showed you
the things in the mystery box?” Have the students discuss with one another.
 ○ Lead them to the answer that the box is representing an ecosystem.
● Tell the students to think about what kind of ecosystem it is.
● Have the students close their eyes and picture what they think a woodland
forest looks like.
● Explain what a woodland forest is and that it is also called a temperate
deciduous forest. (also explain what temperate and deciduous means)
○ Write in the Vocabulary section of flip book.
● Explain that we have many deciduous forests throughout our home state of
Pennsylvania.
● Tell the students to be thinking about what kind of animals live there and what
kind of habitat exists there.
○ Explain what a habitat is. Write in Vocabulary section of flip book.
● Tell them to open their eyes and ask them what they were picturing.
● Say, “We will be exploring all your thoughts and the facts of deciduous
forests all this week in science class!”
● Move the students to the group reading area.
● Read “A Day and Night in the Forest”
○ After reading page 3, ask the students why a fawn might need to hide
in the forest.
○ After reading page 4, ask the students why a squirrel needs to bury
nuts and seeds to eat later.
○ After reading page 7, mention to the students that this pond can be its
own ecosystem in the forest.
○ Ask the students about the abiotic and biotic components that are in
this specific ecosystem.
○ After reading page 13, ask the students why they think owls and
opossums are awake at night to look for food.
○ After reading the book, ask the students to explain what kind of
animals are in a deciduous forests. Write in Animals section of flip
book
○ Ask the students which animals are diurnal and which animals are are
nocturnal (explain those terms.) Write in Vocabulary section of flip
book.
● Move the students to their desks
● Explain that the students will be working in pairs to play a vocabulary
matching game
○ Hand out the pre-made vocabulary flash cards to each pair of students
○ Allow students to work on the matching game for 10-15 minutes and
walk around the classroom to make sure students are staying on task
○ After those 10-15 minutes, stop the students from working
 ○ Using the Document Camera, put one definition card on the screen and
ask a student to give the vocabulary word that matches the definition.
Continue until all the vocabulary cards have been matched correctly.
○ Have the students check their Vocabulary section to make sure their
definitions are correct.
○ Collect the pre-made vocabulary cards from the students.
● Say, “Now that we know a little bit about the animals in the deciduous forest,
what are other things in the deciduous forest?” Have the students discuss with
one another.
● Show the students a photo of the four seasons (attached in the materials
section)
○ Ask the students about what the picture is showing.
● Explain that a deciduous forest experiences all four seasons.
● Ask the students to explain what happens to the trees as the seasons change.
● Confirm that the leaves change color in the Fall, fall off in the Winter, and
grow back in the Spring.
● Ask the students why they think trees do that.
● Explain that trees lose their leaves and grow them back to survive in the
winter.
● Allow the students to write in the plant section of their flipbook.
● Say, “Before we finish up today, we are going to be creating our own
deciduous forest!”
● Tell the students that they will be making a model of a deciduous forest using
paper plate, construction paper, and markers/crayons.
● Demonstrate how to fold the paper plate:
○ Fold in half
○ Fold in half again the other way, creating quarters
○ Number each quarter from 1-4
○ Cut down the line between quarter 1 and quarter 2
○ Slide quarter 1 under quarter 2 and glue together
○ It should look like the photo in the materials section
● Explain that they need to include a background that looks like a deciduous
forest and at least one animal that lives in the deciduous forest.
● On the back of their model, they will write the definition of a habitat and
explain their model (i.e. the organisms they chose to include)

Closure/Summarizing Strategies:
● Ask students for volunteers to share their model and the thought process
behind it.
● Inform that tomorrow the focus of the deciduous forest will be on the animals
 who live in the deciduous forest.

Accommodations/Differentiation for SLD - Auditory Processing Disorder

● Seat the student in the front of the classroom while showing the ecosystem
video.
● Write the answers to the ecosystem questions on the whiteboard during
discussion.
● Seat the student in front of the teacher during the reading of the book.
● Provide the student with a sheet that shows pictures and uses words of each
step to fold the paper plate model.

Materials/Resources:
● Pre-made flip book (broken into sections: ecosystem, plants of deciduous
forest, animals of deciduous forest, vocabulary)
● Mystery Box (photos, soil, rocks, leaves, flowers, animal figurines, sticks,
etc.)
● Pre-made vocabulary matching cards
● Paper plates
● Markers and Crayons
● Construction paper
● The book “A Day and Night in the Forest” by Caroline Arnold
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKJoXdrOT70
● The four seasons photo:

● Photo reference of the model

deciduous forests: