Life Cycles: The Life Cycle of a Frog (for early elementary)
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Objectives:
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Students will be able to state, identify and describe the four stages in the life cycle of a frog.
Questions that encompasses the objective:
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In which stage or stages of its life cycle is a frog most like a fish?
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In which stage does it look like it's half frog and half fish?
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In which stage does it look like a frog?
Prepare the Learner: Activating Prior Knowledge.
How will students prior knowledge be activated?
Warm up by asking students:
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Ask students to recall the definition of life cycle.
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A life cycle is the steps or stages in the life, from beginning to end, of a living thing.
Materials and Free Resources to Download for this Lesson:
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Poem, written on the board or chart paper, included in Guided Mini Lesson section
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YouTube video: "The Life Cycle of a Frog" by 最短・最強の英語学習
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Paper plates, one per student.
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Clay in blue, brown, white, black, and green
Input:
What is the most important content in this lesson?
To reach this lesson’s objective, students need to understand:
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A life cycle is the stages or steps in the life, from beginning to end, of a living thing.
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The frog life cycle has three stages: eggs, tadpole, and frog.
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All living things have their own life cycle.
How will the learning of this content be facilitated?
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In this lesson, students will be initially engaged by learning a poem, with actions, that describes the life cycle of a frog. Students will name each stage in the life cycle of a frog.
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In the next part of the activity, students will watch a video that describes the life cycle of a frog. Students will compare the stages named in the video to those named in the poem.
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Next, students will create a diorama or 3D model representation of each stage in the life cycle of a frog using clay.
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Finally, students will answer a written independent assessment question that requires students analyze and synthesize the information learned about the life cycle of a frog; In which stage or stages of its life cycle is a frog most like a fish?
Time/Application
3-5 minutes
Guided Introduction
Review the class/ agenda with the students:
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Guided Mini-Lesson: Life Cycle of a Frog Poem (10 minutes)
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Activity Part 1: YouTube video, Life Cycle of a Frog (10 minutes)
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Activity Part 2: Let’s Make the Life Cycle of a Frog (30 minutes)
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Independent Assessment (10 minutes)
10 minutes
Guided Mini-Lesson: Life Cycle of a Frog Poem
POEM
Tiny eggs in the water, waiting there to hatch
(Tuck down close to the floor and wrap your arms around yourself)
Swimming tadpoles, with tails that make them hard to catch
(Stand up hold arms close to body and close legs together wiggling just the body)
Once they grow legs and the tail goes away
(Move arms in front in a swimming motion while wiggling body, but stop when you hear the word away)
They become a frog and their own eggs they’ll lay
(Hop in one spot, then squat down to lay eggs)
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Display poem for students to see and read aloud once through for the class.
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Ask students to suggest a name for this poem. Answers should tend towards, Life Cycle of a Frog.
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Have students read the poem with you.
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Now teach students the actions to go along with each line. Read each line, model the action, and have students follow you.
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Now read the poem and do the actions as a class a few times through. Suggestions for re-reading include adjusting the pace of the reading (really fast and then really slow) and a cloze activity leaving the keywords for the stages out for students to fill in.
15 Minutes
Activity Part 1: YouTube Video: Life Cycle of a Frog
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Inform that they are going to watch a video about the life cycle of the frog.
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Play the video "The Life Cycle of a Frog" by 最短・最強の英語学習
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Ask students to name the three stages in the life cycle of a frog as described in the video. Answer: Eggs, tadpole, frog
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Ask students to identify the names of these stages in the poem from the previous activity. Underline these words, i.e. eggs, tadpole, frog.
30 Minutes
Activity Part 2: :Let’s Make the Life Cycle of a Frog
- Display the pictures that depict the life cycle stages of a frog for students to see.
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Ask students to name each stage, refer to the underlined words in the poem.
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Ask students to help you put the pictures in order, attach pictures and label each stage on the board.
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Give each student a paper plate and access to clay in blue, brown, white, black, and green.
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Inform students that they are going to build a diorama to show the stages in the life cycle of a frog using the paper plate for the base and the clay to model each stage.
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Upon completion allow time for students to view each others’ dioramas.
Closure/Assessment
10 minutes
Independent Assessment:
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In which stage or stages of a frog’s life cycle is a frog most like a fish? Explain your answer in complete sentences. Illustrate the frog in its “fish” stage in the area below.
Possible answer: A frog begins its life cycle as eggs, like a fish and also a tadpole is like a fish because it swims and lives in water.
Individualized Instruction/Scaffolding
English Language Learners/Students with IEPS will be supported in this lesson through written repetition of new vocabulary words, and multiple representation of vocabulary words through printed images. In addition, scaffolds such as sentence starters and note-taking graphic organizers should be implemented at the teacher’s discretion.
