Lesson Plan Template

Your Name: _______________________________________

For each lesson that you do, please fill in the following table of information.

What grade and 3rd Grade Science

subject is this
lesson for?
What standard(s) 3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat
are you teaching? some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some
cannot survive at all. **
Will you reword the I can decide how well an animal could survive in a certain environment.
standards for the
students? If so, give
your rewording.
What standards
from other content
areas are you
teaching (if any)?
What do you want By the end of the lesson, students will be able to determine what traits
the student to an animal might have that would allow them to survive best in an
learn? environment.

How will you know Given a predetermined set of variations in the organism, students will be
if they have able to create an argument for which variation will allow an organism to
learned? survive best.

Describe the lesson 1. Before beginning the activity, point students towards the I can
activities step by statement and define the vocabulary environment with the students.
step. Also, list the 2. Verbally explain to the students that they are going to be a new
amount of time in species of bird called a Cottonbird and that the way they gather their
minutes you food is using a spoon. Some Cottonbirds have spoon-shaped bills, some
anticipate spending have fork-like bills, and some have binder clip-shape bills.
on each step. 3. Ask students to make a prediction about what type of bill will best
gather the food by having them stand up and move different points in
the room based on their prediction was correct. Take a visual tally of the
numbers.
4. Explain to the students that we are going to simulate how Cottonbirds
eat by using cotton balls and the bills. Using whatever type of bill they
have, they will have 15 seconds to gather as much food as possible
with their bill in their dominant hand. Remind them to respect
classroom rules and other peoples personal space.
5. Run the simulation. At the end, ask each type of bill to count the
number of cotton balls in their bowl, and record the sum on the board.
6. When finished, point students to the numbers on the board, and lead
a discussion about what they found. Ask students again to move to sides
of the room based on who would survive best. Was your prediction
correct?
7. Lastly, have students fill out a cause-and-effect flowchart for the
experiment they ran. Students can choose to draw pictures, write
 sentences or both if they have time.

Will students be Students may submit some writing in their flowchart, look for answer like
doing any written My prediction was _____ and What happened was ______
work as part of this Pictures should reflect what was predicted and what actually happened
lesson? If so, please (look for tools, cotton balls and bowls)
describe it and
provide a rubric or
list of exemplary
answers.

Materials needed:

Bowls
Tools
Cotton balls
Large tub
Signs with names of tools
Timer