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Teacher: Melissa Scherer

Grade: Kindergarten
Content Area: Science/ELA

1. Content and Standards: List standards that are aligned with the content, the text, and
materials. (These should be listed with your curriculum and standards documents.)

AL.1 K.A Explore and ask questions to seek meaningful information about a growing range of
topics, ideas, and tasks.

AL.2 K.C Accomplish challenging tasks by employing familiar and new strategies as needed.

AL.2 K.E Retain and recall information presented over a short period of time.

AL.3 K.A Use music, art, and/or stories to express ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

AL.3 K.B Create an object to serve a functional purpose.

1.3 K.A With prompting and support, retell familiar stories including key details

1.3 K.B Answer questions about key details in a text.

1.3 K.C With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

1.3 K.E Recognize common types of text

1.5 K.A Participate in collaborative conversations with peers and adults in small and larger
groups

1.5 K.B Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information
presented orally or through other media.

1.5 K.C Ask and answer questions to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not
understood

3.3 K.A.7 Participate in simple investigations of earth structures, processes, and cycles to
answer a question or to test a prediction.
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Prerequisites: State what students should know prior to this lesson.

 Students should be able to identify wind

2. Essential Questions: List essential questions (Usually, this is in your curriculum
documents.)

Essential Question: What does a scientist do to find out if something will blow in the wind?
(predicts and tests)

Materials and Equipment: List all materials and equipment to be used by the teacher
and students. Tell how they will be used to meet the objective.

o 3 Little Pigs – by Patricia Seibert o Plastic utensil

o Book o Popsicle sticks
o dominos o Poster board
o Fan o Prediction worksheet
o Laptop o Smartboard
o Metal utensils o Straws
o Pencils o Tissues
o Pipe cleaners

3. Instructional Objective: State what students will know and be able to do at the end of
this lesson. Fill in the blanks:

Children will develop observation and recording skills as they conduct a variety of experiments
to learn how wind can move different types of materials and how the wind affects their
environment.

4. Instructional Procedures: List instructional strategies and learning experiences that are
in alignment with the objective(s). Include information about what teaching strategies
you will use to engage students. Include information about what type of technology,
manipulatives, etc. you will use to facilitate students meeting the objectives.

 Before: Anticipatory set, minilesson

a. Students will be seated on the floor in their special spots
b. Ask students what is Wind?
c. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBqohRu2RRk (Bill Nye – Wind Video)
d. Read the 3 Little Pigs books
i. Have students discuss what the pigs house were made of and what effect the
wind had on them?
ii. Have them think/pair/share to compare and contrast the straw house to the
brick house.
e. Ask students “What does a scientist do to find out if something will blow in the
wind?”
i. Display scientist anchor chart
 During: Group work, independent practice
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a. Whole group
i. Will be working with the teacher to test if items blow in the wind.
1. Students will first fill out their prediction paper (independent)
a. Items will be showed to students
b. Questions to be asked:
i. Does the size of the object decided if it can blow in the
wind?
ii. How does shape play a part?
iii. How does wind speed effect if an object can blow in the
wind?
2. Students will test and place items on correct chart with using the hair
blower.
a. As we test objects we review questions previously discussed.
3. Students will complete their prediction paper with their peer groups and
then as a whole class.
b. Group 2 & 3
i. Students will be working in two groups building the 3 Little Pigs homes.
1. The groups will try to build homes out of dominos, sticks, and straws
a. Assist groups on ways to build their homes if they are struggling
after a few minutes.
2. Students test to see if they can blow their houses down
3. Based on results students may try modify their design
a. Ask students if they could have one additional supply what
would it be and how would it help their house structure?
 After: Closure, assessment

a. I will ask students “What would a scientist do to find out if something will blow in the
wind?”
b. We will discuss the findings on the Group Activities

5. Assessment: Tell how you will know if all students have met the instructional objective.
What tool(s) will you use to measure if all students can meet the objective?
a. Walk around the classroom and listen to the students communicating with their peers on
the topic. This will help pinpoint the students who are explaining and understand the
topic vs. the students who listening and possibly copying answers
b. Observe and speak with students while performing their experiments to discover their
finding.
c. Students will speak about the house they built and present how they believe their house
will preform in the wind.

6. Differentiated Instruction: Tell how you will meet the needs of all learners during the
lesson. This has to be in alignment with the objective. Look back at the objective and
think about how you can support the learners in this lesson. Will you differentiate
content, process, and/or product? Will you make it more challenging or do you have
students that need support in meeting the objectives
 Teachers will help students fill our forms on predictions and observations.

 Teachers can help assist students in the building of the homes

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Reflection:

The objective of this lesson was to have the student's develop observation and recording skills on

how different materials respond to wind. In our morning meeting, weather discussions students have

been asking more detailed questions about the weather and how it happens. I created this lesson to

help fulfill some of their questions and thought the wind was something that could be easily recreated

in the classroom. My original thought was to have the students huff and puff like the Big Bad Wolf but

thought adding a blow dryer would add the wow factor. The blower dryer also provided us with

different wind speeds which one of my students pointed out.

The opening of this lesson was a discussion to see if the students could define the wind. I was

looking to see if they were able to identify that wind was moving air and when they have experienced

it outside of school. After reading the Three Little Pigs the students had the opportunity to think-share-

and discuss how the wind affected each of the three pigs’ homes. I then had them discuss how wind

affected their lives. They started talking about the time they flew their kites, how the wind always

seems to be cold, and how sometimes the wind is stronger some days than others. I had two

students who referenced tornados that had strong winds.

The next part of the lesson is where I was really impressed with the student’s thoughts, ideas, and

enthusiasm. I took out my basket full of supplies, and I had the students work as a group to complete

a worksheet that contained prediction section where they had to check off yes or no if they thought

the item would blow in the breeze. The only question I asked during the prediction is if they thought

that item would blow in the wind and why? I wanted to leave this section for the students to think and

discuss amongst themselves without my questions swaying their thoughts.

When it was time to perform the experiments, I would ask students more specific questions like?

• I laid the marker flat and it blew in the wind so I asked students why did it blow? Then I asked the

students what would happen if I stood the marker up? (I repeated this question with the spoon as

well.)
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• I asked the students does the shape of the object play a role if an item would blow in the wind?
• I asked if the weight of the object plays a part in items blowing in the wind?
• I asked if wind speed plays a part if an item will blow away or not? (We discussed the breeze vs. a

gale and used the different speeds on the hair blower to demonstrate.)

After the experiments were completed, I divided the class into three groups, which contained six

students, where they needed to build their houses with the supplies given and see if it could withstand

the big bad wolf (my blow dryer). Group one had popsicle sticks, group 2 had straws, and group 3

had dominos. The expectations were to have all six students in the group to work together as a team

to build their houses and to figure out what they could use to withstand the wind based on the items

they were given. The student’s needed to come up with a design for their houses, build the houses,

and to come up with a wish list of items that they thought would make the house better suited for the

wind.

As the groups were working, I had them explain their house design to me and discuss how they were

going to build their houses. I had some students tell me it was like building with Lincoln Logs while

other groups I had to explain we needed to start from the floor to the walls to the roof. As I was

meeting with the groups, I noticed that in some groups some students were becoming dominant

which made others participate less. After speaking to the group about teamwork and everyone to

share their ideas I felt it was best to break that group of six into two groups of three so that everyone

had the opportunity to participate.

Finally, it was time for the Big Bad Wolf to come and test out their houses. Each group had the

opportunity to discuss the house they made and what other materials they would have like to have to

make their houses stronger. They all got a kick out of their houses being blown down and seeing

whose house had more damage. This lesson provided fun experimentation while keeping the

students engaged and asking a lot of questions.