Kindergarten Science Units - WCSnet

1 1 Westerville City Schools Kindergarten Science Units unit Strand Estimated Time Core Materials 1 Animals and Plants Five Senses Life Science Throughout Year Fall Harcourt Science 2 Earth s Land, Air and Water Weather and Seasons Earth & Space Science Throughout Year Harcourt Science 3 Objects Around Us Investigating Water Physical Science Throughout Year Harcourt Science Materials Materials adopted by BOE, October 2003 Harcourt Science Publishers Kindergarten Program Last Revised Date: June 28, 2004 2 Life sciences unit of Study Grade K unit of Study: Animals Time: Throughout year unit Overview: Animals come in a great diversity of shapes and sizes. They all have body parts that help them get food and move.

2 The body coverings of animals protect them and help them stay warm. All animals grow and change over time. Content/Concepts Taught: What is Living? What is Nonliving? What is An Animal? What Body Coverings do Animals Have? What Do Animals Need? How Do Animals Move? Where Do Animals Live? How Do Animals Grow? Core Materials: Harcourt Science Curriculum See unit A Academic Content Standards used in this unit of study: Earth and Space sciences , Life sciences , Physical sciences , Scientific Inquiry, Scientific Ways of Knowing Standard: Earth & Space sciences Benchmark B: Explain that living things cause changes on Earth. Indicator: Processes That Shape Earth 2. Explore that animals and plants cause changes to their surroundings. Standard: Life sciences Benchmark A: Discover that there are living things, non-living things and pretend things and describe the basic needs of living thing (organisms).

3 Indicators: Characteristics and Structure of Life 1. Explore differences between living and non-living things ( , plant-rock). 2. Discover that stories ( , cartoons, movies, comics) sometimes give plants and animals characteristics they really do not have ( , talking flower ). Benchmark B: Explain how organisms function and interact with their physical environment. Indicators: Diversity and Interdependence of Life 5. Investigate observable features of plants and animals that help them live in different kinds of places. 6. Investigate the habitats of many different kinds of local plants and animals and some of the ways in which animals depend on plants and each other in our community. Benchmark C: Describe similarities and differences that exist among individuals of the same kind of plants and animals.

4 Indicators: Heredity 3. Describe how plants and animals usually resemble their parents. 4. Investigate variations that exist among individuals of the same kind of plant or animal. 3 Standard: Physical sciences Benchmark A: Discover that many objects are made of parts that have different characteristics. Describe these characteristics and recognize ways an object may change. Indicators: Nature of Matter 3. Describe and sort objects by one or more properties ( , size, color and shape). Standard: Scientific Inquiry Benchmark A: Ask a Testable Question Indicator: Doing Scientific inquiry 1. Ask a what if question. Benchmark B: Design and conduct a simple investigation to explore a question. Indicators: Doing Scientific Inquiry 3. Use appropriate safety procedures when completing scientific investigation.

5 4. Use the five senses to make observations about the natural world. 10. Make new observations when people give different descriptions for the same things. Benchmark C: Gather and communicate information from careful observations and simple investigations through a variety of methods. Indicators: Doing Scientific Inquiry 6. Recognize that numbers can be used to count a collection of things. 9. Make pictographs and use them to describe observations and draw conclusions. Standard: Scientific Ways of Knowing Benchmark A: Recognize that there are different ways to carry out scientific investigations. Realize that investigations can be repeated under the same conditions with similar results and may have different explanations. Indicators: Nature of Science 1.

6 Recognize that scientific investigations involve asking open-ended questions. (How? What if?) 2. Recognize that more people are more likely to accept your ideas if you can give good reasons for them. Benchmark B: Recognize the importance of respect for all living things. Indicator: Ethical Practices 3. Interact with living things and the environment in ways that promote respect. Benchmark C: Recognize that diverse groups of people contribute to our understanding of the natural world. Indicator: Science and Society 4. Demonstrate ways Science is practiced by people everyday (children and adults). Vocabulary For unit A: Animals animals insects reptiles fish birds mammals life cycle caterpillar pupa butterfly fly hop run swim beak jaws claws teeth feathers fur Scales skin Process Skills included in unit A.

7 Animals Observing Communicating Classifying Inferring Predicting 4 Language Arts Supplemental Materials Available: Newbridge Discovery Links Nonfiction Guided Reading Books (Language Arts Adoption) What s Alive; Who Lives in a Tree; Baby Animals; Ants; Fly Butterfly; How Do Frogs Grow?; Grow, Seed, Grow; Spiders; What Can Fly?; Animals Hide; Everyone Eats; Tails; At the Beach; Who Lives in a Tree?; A Pond; Where s the Frog?; Patterns, Our Earth Language Arts Adoption Book List (Many of the books in the collection will address the indicator of stories giving animals characteristics that they really do not have. We just listed few.) Alphabet Book of Cats and Dogs (Moxley) Anansi The Spider (McDermott) Animals in Winter (Bancroft & Gelder) Barnyard Banter (Fleming) Blueberries For Sal (McCloskey) Book!

8 Book! Book! (Bruss) The Cat Goes Fiddle-I-Fee (Galdone) Chrysanthemum (Henkes) Cookie s Week (Ward) Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Marshall) Grouchy Ladybug (Carle) I Went Walking (Williams) In A Small Small Pond (Fleming) In The Tall, Tall Grass (Fleming) Somebody and the Three Blairs (Tolhurst) Stellaluna (Cannon) Ten Flashing Fireflies (Sturges) The Hat (Brett) The Three Little Pigs (Marshall) The Three Bears (Galdone) The Three Bears (Barton) The Very Busy Spider (Carle) The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle) There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly ( Illus. Adams) Time To Sleep (Fleming) Waiting For Wings (Ehlert) VIDEOS: SONGS: Over in the Meadow, Eensy Weensy Spider, Baby Fish, The Green Grass Grows, Old MacDonald Had A Farm, There Was An Old Lady That Swallowed A Fly. Banana Slugs: Penguin Parade (To be purchased) (Animals are Dancing, What Do Animals Need?)

9 , Noses, Safe at Home, Croak-A-Ribit, Fishies and others.) Assessment Materials: 1. Formal Assessment Harcourt Science Teaching Resources page A 64. Teaching Resources Pages TR 49 TR 50. 2. Harcourt Teachers Edition Language Arts Link Habitat (pages A 40). Children choose a favorite animal in its habitat including as many environmental details as possible. 3. Performance Assessment: Harcourt Teachers Edition Activity 1 (page A 65). This assessment also includes a scoring rubric. Harcourt Teachers Edition Activity 2 (page A 65). 4. Informal Assessment Harcourt Science includes Informal Assessment ideas for each lesson (see pages A11 A 61) 5. Science Journals Children will continuously write about what they have learned or observed. Suggested Possible Field Trips: Innis Woods Blendon Woods Sharon Woods Farms Veterinarian 5 Date Presented GRADE LEVEL INDICATORS ANIMAL unit Standard Indicators 1 Explore that animals and plants cause changes to their surroundings.

10 Earth and Space sciences 2 2 Explore the differences between living and non-living things ( , plant-rock) Life Sciences1 3 Discover that stories ( , cartoons, movies, comics) sometimes give plants and animals characteristics they really do not have ( , talking flowers). Life Sciences2 4 Describe how plants and animals usually resemble their parents. Life Sciences3 5 Investigate variations that exist among individuals of the same kind of plant or animal. Life Sciences4 6 Investigate observable features of plants and animals that help them live in different kinds of places. Life Sciences5 7 Investigate the habitats of many different kinds of local plants and animals and some of the ways in which animals depend on plants and each other in our community. Life Sciences6 8 Describe and sort objects by one or more properties ( , size, color, shape).