Lesson Plans - Life Cycles LT-B2.1 & LT-B2.3

			Science	Social Subjects
			ICT	Technology
			Health Education
Home Page	Site Guide	Investigative Approach	Strands & Targets in Guidelines

TSEC Strategies for Teachers of 5-14 Science -
Improving Science Education CPD through Practical Activities

LESSON PLAN: LIFE CYCLES (LEVEL B)

Attainment targetS:	ISE code
Recognise the stages of the human life cycle	LT-B2.2
Recognise stages in the life-cycle of familiar plants and animals	LT-B2.3

Planned activities KWL Grid

Knowledge and Understanding

Pupils :

know that some animals have babies which are just like themselves.
know that some animals produce ‘babies’ which do not look like themselves.
know that plants produce seeds from which new plants grow.
should be able to sequence the stages in a variety of plant and animal life cycles.

Skills (Level B)

Carrying out Task

Pupils:

use simple equipment and techniques to make observations (Level B)
record findings in a range of ways e.g. simple chart (Level B)

Reviewing and Reporting on Task

Plan simple approaches by asking questions and making suggestions.
Make suggestions about what might happen.
Answer questions on the meaning of the findings.
Recognise simple relationships and draw conclusions.

Developing Informed Attitudes

the importance of interrelationships between living things and their environment

VOCABULARY

BABY, TODDLER, CHILD, TEENAGER, ADULT, FROG, TADPOLE, BUTTERFLY, EGG, CATERPILLAR, CHRYSALIS

Planned Activities

Activity	Organisation	Resources	Questions
Using ‘pair and share’ technique, question pupils on their understanding of the term ‘Life cycle.’	Pairs then class		What do you think is meant by a life cycle? Can you give an example of an animal or plant life cycle?
Teacher introduces Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for this part of the lesson and writes them on the board for reference. See attached grid 1. Ask pupils to name examples of parents and babies. Read book and highlight parents/baby similarities or differences.	Pairs then class	Book –Monkey Puzzle	What animals have babies that look like the parents? What animals have babies that don’t look like the parents?
Using ‘Walk about, talk about’ technique, pupils draw and write about life cycles of some animals (human, butterfly, snake, bird, frog, cat).	Groups of 3 or 4	Large sheets of paper Marker pens	What happens next in the life cycle? What order do these happen?
Using KWL grid discuss what sources of information can be used and what experiments carried out to find more information about Life Cycles. Teacher refers to Learning Intentions introduced earlier and enters them in the grid on the board. See attached completed grid 2.	Class	Board, learning Intentions and Success Criteria for the lesson.	What do you already know? What do you want to find out? Where can we get that information? What experiments could we carry out and how?
Pupils draw and write about one animal life cycle.	Individual	Large sheet of paper	What are the stages in the life cycle of this animal?

We will understand that:

some animals have babies that look like themselves.
some animals have babies that do not look like themselves.

Success Criteria

We will be able to fill in these lists:

Baby like parent

Baby not like parent

KWL Grid

WHAT I KNOW

WHAT I WANT TO FIND OUT

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT

HOW I WILL FIND OUT (EXPERIMENTS OR SOURCES OF INFORMATION)

Some animals have babies that look like themselves –humans, sheep

Some animals have babies that do not look like themselves – frog, butterfly

Both types of animal progress through a life cycle

What do the baby animals look like?

What do butterflies look like when they grow?

What are the stages of development?

How can we show that plants also go through a life cycle?

What are the different parts of a plant?

Internet
Ask teacher or friend
Ask someone who knows a lot about your question (an expert)

We could take a trip to Butterfly World
Buy caterpillars in a special box to watch them grow
Watch a video
Go to the library

In the classroom – plant seeds

Look on a seed packet or in a book

Information entered by teacher following prior learning activities and discussion of Learning Intentions in topic.

(Blue Italics) Ideas added after question and answer session with the children.

Strategies

INTERACTIVE - TEACHING LEARNING

PLANNING FOR IMPROVEMENT - SCHOOL AUTHORITY -BASED APPROACHES

DEVELOPING - SKILLS UNDERSTANDING

OUTWITH THE CLASSROOM

RAISING ETHICAL ISSUES

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Back to an Investigative Approach
to Science & Teaching Strategies

Attainment targetS:

ISE code