Developmental Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Belkis Alberici-bainbridge Date: March 20, 2015

Group Size: 30 Allotted Time 30 Grade Level 1st

Subject: Science

Topic: Diurnal Animals

Common Core/PA Standard(s):

 3.1.K.A5 Observe and describe structures and behaviors of a variety of common animals.
 3.1.1.A1 Categorize living and nonliving things by external characteristics.

Learning Targets/Objectives:
 Students will be able to identify a diurnal animal by creating a book that displays some
characteristics and behaviors of diurnal animals
 Students will be able to identify and classify diurnal animals by circling the diurnal
animals from a group of diurnal and nocturnal animals
Assessment Approaches: Evidence:
1. Characteristics of diurnal animals book 1. Students will be able to complete
2. Animal identification hand out diurnal animal book
2. Students will identify diurnal animals
by circling diurnal animals from a
group of different animals
Assessment Scale:
 Diurnal animals book
o Students complete 4-5 pages correctly _______________________Proficient
o Students complete 2-3 pages correctly _______________________Basic
o Students complete 0-1 pages correctly _______________________Bellow basic
 Animal identification
o Students identify two animals correctly _______________________Proficient
o Students identify one animals correctly _______________________Basic
o Students identify zero animals correctly _______________________Bellow basic

Subject Matter/Content:
 Diurnal animals
 Prerequisites:
o Students should be able to work in small groups to accomplish a task
o Students should have prior knowledge of characteristics of natural animals
from the last lesson plan
o Students should have prior knowledge of what a field notebook is and how
to use one
 Key Vocabulary:
o Diurnal
 Animals that are active during the day and sleep at night
o Nocturnal
 Animals that are active at night and sleep in the day time
o Zoologist
 A Zoologist is an animal expert
 Content/Facts:
o What is a diurnal animal
 Animals that are active during the day and sleep at night
 Animals that hunt and find food during the day
 Examples of diurnal animals:
o Human
o Dog
o Deer
o Squirrel
o Eagle
o What is a nocturnal animal
 Animals that are active at night and sleep in the day time
 Animals that hunt and find food during the night
 Examples of nocturnal animals:
o Bat
o Cat
o Owl
o Raccoon
o Adaptations/Characteristic of diurnal animals
 Diurnal animals hunt and find food during the day
 Some animals are Diurnal because of the food they eat
o For example
 Herbivores (animals that only eat plants) are
diurnal because plants generate more food
during daylight.

 Diurnal animals have good temperature regulation in the daylight

 Diurnal animals temperature drops at night
 Diurnal animals can handle hotter temperatures

 Diurnal animals have well-developed vision, they have many cone

cells in their retina that result in good color vision during daylight
 Most have color vision
 For example
o Birds, like eagles, can identify even a small
movement of a prey from long distance with their
extremely developed vision
Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies:
 Introduction (5 minutes)
o To start the lesson, teacher will dress like a zoologist (optional): tan button up
shirt and tan explorer hat
o Teacher will say, “Hello boys and girls, today we are going to become zoologists
and explore some fun animals and their characteristics.” Teacher will explain to
children that a Zoologist is someone who is an animal expert in Slide 2.
 Teacher should have all the students stand up and say to become a
zoologist you have
 Jump two times
 Say, “I love animals” really loud
 Turn around once
 Then very slowly and quietly whisper, “I love animals” and come
quietly to sit down in your chair with an interested message ready
to start our exploration
 Teacher will tell students, “I have some animals that came to help me.”
From a big box teacher will bring out some diurnal stuffed animals. As
she/he brings each animal out she/he will have the kids tell her/him the
names of the animals. Once she/he is done, she/he will place the stuff
animal on a table in front of her.
 Then, the teacher will ask the students for a volunteer. The teacher will
ask the rest of the class for the student’s name like they did for the stuffed
animals. Then the teacher will say, “This is _________ and ________ is a
human.”
 The teacher will then ask the students what do all the things in front of the
classroom have in common
 Have students turn and talk
 Have students raise hands and share with the rest of the classroom
 After letting the students have a chance to answer the question, tell the
students all the animals in front of the classroom are diurnal
 Teachers will ask the kids if anyone knows what that means. Give kids
chance to answer, and then turn to the slide with the definition of diurnal
Slide 3.
 If school does not have a smart board or projectors for PowerPoint,
put a premade anchor chart that has the word diurnal and the
definition on it
 Teacher will read the definition of a diurnal animal
 Diurnal animals are animals that are active during the day and
sleep at night
 Teacher will tell students, “Today we are going to explore
diurnal animals.”
 Teacher will then have every one say “diurnal” out loud
 Teacher will say what kinds of animals are active during the day and
sleep at night, Student will say diurnal (teacher will repeated again).

Development/Teaching Approaches
 Development (20 minutes)
o After the introduction, students should have a clear definition on what diurnal
animals are and what the lesson will be all about.
o Teacher will say, “OK little Zoologist, let’s begin our animal exploration!”
o In order to make this lesson a little more problem solving and interactive, the
lesson will be shaped as a guessing game. The teacher will read the information of
an animal off of a slide and then have the children guess the animal.
o Teacher should remind children of expectation before beginning the guessing
game
 Teacher should say, “I have an important announcement from the Zoo;
 Boys and girls I know you are very excited to begin our
exploration of diurnal animals, but we want to make sure that we
are being respectful to everyone.
 Wait for the Zoologist to read all the information about the animal
before your hands go up.
 The Zoologist will only call on students whose hands are raised.
 The Zoologist will only listen to the person who was called on.”
o The teacher will then read Slide 4 with information about an animal
 Ok little Zoologists listen up
 Hello class,
o I live in the forest
o I like to play during the day because I'm an herbivore
(which means I only eat plants) and plants generate more
food during daylight.
o I can jump high and swim well
o I also have long legs
 Who is it? Slide 5
 Deer
o The teacher will allow the students to guess which one of the five diurnal animals
matches the description, then move on to the next animal.
o The teacher will then read Slide 6 with information about the next animal
 Ok little Zoologists listen up
 Hello class,
o I live in the forest, cities, towns, parks and many more
places.
o I like to eat nuts and berries.
o I bury extra food in the ground to retrieve it later in the
winter when food is scarce.
o I like to climb trees.
o I hunt and find food during the day and sleep at night
 Who is it? Slide 7
 Squirrel
o The teacher will allow the students time to guess which one of the four diurnal
animals matches the description, then move on to the next animal.
o The teacher will then read Slide 8 with information about an animal
 Ok little Zoologists listen up
  Hello class,
o I live in a house with a family.
o I have good temperature regulation during the day.
o I communicate by barking.
o I like to eat bones.
o I have well-developed vision, and like humans, I can see
colors.
 Who is it? Slide 9
 Dog
o The teacher will allow the students to guess which one of the three diurnal
animals matches the description, then move on to the next animal.
o The teacher will then read Slide 10 with information about an animal
 Ok little Zoologists listen up
 Hello class,
o I live in the forest.
o I like to eat smaller animals like rats, squirrels and fish.
o I am one of the largest birds.
o I like to play during the day because I have good vision.
o I can identify even a small movement of a prey from long
distances.
o I can fly
 Who is it? Slide 11
 Eagle
o The teacher will allow the students to guess which one of the two diurnal animals
matches the description, then move on to the next animal.
o The teacher will then read Slide 12 with information about an animal
 Ok little Zoologists listen up
 Hello class,
o I live in a house.
o I like to play during the day.
o I can walk on two feet.
o I have really good vision.
 Who is it? Slide 13
 Human
o The teacher will allow the children to guess the last diurnal animal that matches
that description.
o The teacher will then explain to the students that we are going to move on to our
next section of the lesson
o Teacher will say, “Like all good explorers, we need our exploration journals to
help us keep tract of all the new information we learned.”
o Teacher will then ask the paper distributor to give every student a diurnal animal
journal.
o The teacher will explain to the children that every page of the journal will have a
picture of an animal and we will be adding the information we have discovered.
o Teacher will have students use scissor to cut out the icon of the diurnal animals
characteristics and glue them on the correct animal.
  Teacher will walk around and assess children and help them if they need
help with anything.
o As students are finishing, give them all an animal identification sheet and have
them hand it in.

Closure/Summarizing Strategies:
 Closure (5 minutes)
o To bring the lesson to closure, give students a short description of our lesson
 Little Zoologists, today we learned about animals that are active during the
day and sleep at night. These animals are called diurnal. Some examples of
diurnal animals are humans, dogs, deer, squirrel, and eagles.
o The teacher will say is time to turn back to students
 Teacher should have all the students stand up and say to become a student
you have
 Jump two times
 Say, “I love learning!” really loud
 Turn around once
 Then very slowly and quietly whisper, “I love learning” and
quietly sit down on your chair with an interested message ready to
start our next lesson.

Accommodations/Differentiation:
 Make accommodation for all students’ IEP
 Sit students that have trouble seeing in the front of the classroom

Materials:
 Tan button up shirt
 Tan hat
 Big box
 Stuffed animals
o Dog
o Deer
o Squirrel
o Eagle
 Foldable table or Two desks
 Exploration journal
 Identification hand out
 Scissors
 Glue
 Crayons
Resources:
 https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/astronomy-and-space-
exploration/astronomy-general/diurnal
 https://animalsake.com/difference-between-diurnal-and-nocturnal-animals-and-plants
 http://pediaa.com/difference-between-nocturnal-and-diurnal-animals/
 http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/deer.html
  http://animals.mom.me/kind-food-squirrels-eat-10131.html
 https://onekindplanet.org/animal/eagle/
 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nocturnal-Animal-Book-388560

Reflective Response:
Report of Student Learning Target/Objectives Proficiency Levels

 Remediation Plan (if applicable)

Personal Reflection Questions

 How was my classroom management?
 Did I have enough time for the lesson?

Additional reflection/thoughts
 Did I engage the students? If yes, how? If no, what can I do better?