Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Spring

Name of Teacher Candidate: Alyssa Wyatt Date: March 25, 2020

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Lesson Title: Characteristics of Viviparous Animals

Curriculum Areas Addressed: Language Arts and Science

Time Required: 1 hour Instructional Groupings: Are you using whole group, small
group, partners, quads, homogeneous, heterogeneous?
Whole group, small group, and individual
Standards: List the GPS/CCGPS that are the target of student learning and are key to this lesson. Include the number and the text of each of
the GPS/CCGPS that is being addressed. If only a portion of a standard is addressed, include only the part or parts that are relevant.
SKL2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare the similarities and differences in groups of
organisms.
a. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how animals can be grouped according to
their features.

ELAGSEKW2. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in
which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

As a result of this lesson students will…

Essential Question: (Essential questions should be used to guide instruction.)
What are the different ways that animals can be born?

Learning Objectives: (Objectives are stated in measurable/observable terms. These should reflect the thinking skills, skills of the discipline.
These represent the skills that will be assessed.)
By the end of my lesson my students will be able to compare and contrast different types of viviparous animals
based on their known characteristics.

By the end of my lesson my students will be able to draw/write an informational piece about their favorite
viviparous animal.

Support for Academic Language

Vocabulary: (What Academic Language will be taught or developed? Identify the key vocabulary and/or symbols specific to the content area.
These may be derived from the standards.)
Viviparous
Life cycle
Offspring
Compare
Contrast
Characteristics/attributes
Informative/explanatory texts
Language Demands: (Language demands is defined as the specific ways that academic language (vocabulary, functions, discourse, syntax)
is used by students to participate in learning tasks through reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking to demonstrate their disciplinary
understanding. Identify the following way/ways that students will participate in learning tasks to demonstrate disciplinary understanding:
reading, writing, listening, or oral language.)
My students will use the academic language from this lesson by listening to my short presentation/lecture,
completing a play center, and writing in their journals about their two favorite viviparous animals.

Syntax: (Syntax is defined as the set of conventions for organizing symbols, words, and phrases together into structures, such as sentences,
tables, or graphs. Identify the supports that will be provided for students to organize the information – charts, graphs, diagrams. These must
relate to the Language Function.)

Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Spring John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College
Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Spring

● Venn diagram
Assessment (Each learning objective must be assessed. How will students demonstrate their understanding or the lesson’s objectives? How
will you provide feedback for the students? What type of assessment will be used? What evidence will be collected to demonstrate students’
understanding/mastery of the lesson’s objective? What constitutes success for the students?)
Assessment Strategy: (Identify the assessment strategy/strategies to be used for assessment of the learning objectives listed above. Each
learning objective should be assessed. DO NOT restate the learning objective.)
The students will complete a journal entry where they will compare and contrast two viviparous animals based on
their characteristics.

Evaluation Criteria: (Indicate the qualities by which levels of performance can be differentiated and that anchor judgments about the
learner’s degree of success on an assessment.)
Individually:
Journal entry: Success= at least 2 complete sentences with correct information regarding the characteristics of
their favorite viviparous animal, Lack of understanding= only one complete sentence with correct information
regarding the characteristics of their favorite viviparous animal, Failure= sentences are not about an viviparous
animal and/or the characteristics are not correct.

Class average (applies to each assessment individually):

Success: 16-20/20 students were successful
Lack of understanding: 14-15/20 students were successful
Failure: 13 or less/20 were successful

Steps in the Lesson (Include the attention getter or the hook for the lesson; the introduction; the lesson procedures including
strategies/planned supports for whole‐class, small group, and individual instructions; and differentiated activities.)
Attention Getter or Hook: (State how the attention of the students will be piqued at the start of the lesson.)
I will sit all of my students down at the front carpet and line up the stuffed animals that the students will be using
in their play center and ask them what they think all of these animals have in common (they are all viviparous
which means that they give birth instead of laying eggs).

Introduction: (State how the lesson will be introduced. This should communicate the purpose of the lesson, be directly related to the goals
and objectives of the lesson, tap into prior knowledge/experiences, and develop student interest.)
● I will complete a quick review with the students about the animals we learned about yesterday (formative
assessment). I will pull sticks with the student’s numbers on them to call on them for an answer. I will ask
the students what the animals were called (oviparous), what is special about oviparous animals, what
animals they know are oviparous, and the steps to a life cycle of a frog. We will also compare and contrast
two oviparous animals by creating a venn diagram on the board (the students will choose which two
animals they want to compare). This will ensure that the students have a chance to build on their
background knowledge before talking about other types of animals that do not lay eggs. I will then ask the
students what other ways animals are born to start the new topic on viviparous animals.
● We will review the vocabulary from yesterday as well as the new vocabulary that will be added today. I
will write compare, contrast, life cycle, and characteristics on the board one at a time. I will ask the
students to raise their hand if they remember the word and can tell me what the word means. Then I will
write viviparous and offspring on the board and give the students the definition of this word.
Instructional Strategies: (Use a bulleted or numbered format to communicate the procedures for the lesson – what the teacher will do as
well as what the student will do. Describe the strategies which will be used to support students’ learning. Knowledge of students’ cognitive,
social, emotional, and physical development along with their cultural backgrounds should be evident.)
1. After reviewing what the students learned yesterday about oviparous animals and they work together to
figure out that other animals give birth, I will tell them that these animals are called viviparous animals.
2. Once we cover the idea that animals that do not lay eggs are called viviparous animals, I will ask students
what animals they know that do not lay eggs but instead give birth to their offspring. I will explain that the
word offspring means the animal’s babies. I will give every student a chance to answer.
3. I will then say, “Today I want everyone to compare/contrast two viviparous animals that we have
mentioned, just like we did yesterday with oviparous animals. However, today I will give you all a chance
to explore some viviparous animals before writing in your journal.”
Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Spring John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College
Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Spring

4. For the play center, I will place two stuffed animals at each table (there are 8 animals total) for the
students to work with. I will also place various veterinarian tools at each table for the students to use to
pretend that they are working on the animals at a vet’s office. While they are pretending to be a vet,
every student will have a clipboard with ‘examination sheets’ to use as they are thinking about how they
can compare and contrast these animals. These sheets have various questions that the students will
answer to identify different characteristics about each animal (what the animal is, what color it is, if it is
big or small, and so forth).
a. Incorporating a feel of being a veterinarian builds on my students cultural backgrounds in that
during my experience in this classroom, I have learned that many of our students have parents
who are a vet or they want to be a vet themselves when they grow up. Also, almost every
student in our class has a pet so they all have various experiences with animals.
5. The students will be given their instructions before returning to their seats to start the play center.
a. The students will start at their seats and rotate when the timer goes off to each table. (The timer
will be set for 7 minutes.) I will tell the students that I will show them how to rotate each time so
that there is not much confusion.
b. I will show the students the ‘examination sheet’ with the various questions on it. We will practice
with one of the animals so that they can see how the sheet will be filled out before doing it on
their own.
c. I will tell the students that this will be not only a learning experience about viviparous animals,
but it is also a sharing experience. This center will help students to learn how to communicate
with each other and share the animals so that everyone gets a turn with all of the animals and
vet tools. *If any students are having trouble sharing, they will not participate in the play center
and will have to write in their journals the entire time instead.* *The students must complete
their examination sheet before being able to move on to the next table.*
d. I will call on students based on their table color to grab a clipboard from the bucket (the bucket
will be at the front of the room and will already have all of their examination sheets on them)
and go back to their seats.
6. As the students are completing the play center, I will walk around to each group to ensure that everyone
is sharing and is staying on task. I will also remind them of the timer on the board to make sure they know
how much time they have left to complete their two sheets.
a. Working together in the play center will further develop my student’s social and emotional
development. A major part of this center is that the students will have to practice their skills in
sharing and being patient while they wait on a turn to use a tool or to look at an animal. Sharing
and being patient with others is not an easy task for five and six year olds.
7. After all of the rotations are finished I will give the students a chance to ask questions in case they missed
any of the questions on the examination sheet.
8. After all of the questions have been asked I will ask the students to return to their original seats and take
out their writing journals as we will complete a similar journal from yesterday. The students will need to
turn to the first clean page that they find in their journal. I will ask the students what type of writing we
have been working on (informative) and will call on a student who is raising their hand.
9. The prompt for today’s journal entry is that the students must write about two of their favorite viviparous
animals and compare and contrast them based on their examination sheets of characteristics. (I will go
over the idea that this type of writing is called an informative writing as they are giving the reader factual
information.) They must write at least two sentences to talk about the two different animals. (summative
assessment). I will write a few of the high frequency words that the students might use on the board (fur,
feet, big, small, color words, life cycle, animal, similar, different). I will also make sure that the students
understand that the main characteristic that the animals share is that they all do not lay eggs and give
birth instead. I will remind the students that as always, they will be allowed to draw after they have
finished writing so they will not need to raise their hand when they are done writing. For clarification I will
say, “Everyone all together...what will we do when we finish writing?” “Draw!”
a. *If the students need to draw their picture first to brainstorm ideas of characteristics to write
about they may.*

Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Spring John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College
Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Spring

b.
Before the students start to write I will ask the students to raise their hand and tell me what type
of writing they are completing and that we have been completing all week (informative writing).
c. As my students begin writing I will remind them to write the date at the top of their new sheet of
paper in their journal.
d. While my students excel in their gross-motor development, they struggle with their fine-motor
development as far as their writing skills. So, for my lessons I will be bringing in as much writing
and drawing that I can to give them more practice to develop such skills.
10. Once the students finish, they will be allowed to draw the animals that they talked about in their writing.
a. As the students are writing I will walk around to make sure that everyone is staying on task. If a
child seems to be confused I will prompt them by asking, “What were your two favorite animals
from the center that we did?” Once they provide a response I will say, “Now find your two
examination sheets on those animals and write at least two sentences about their
characteristics.”
b. As I am walking around and I see students drawing pictures I will compliment their drawings and
tell them one thing that I love about their drawings. I will also have them read their sentences to
me and I will tell them to make sure that their sentences have all of the parts that it needs to
make it a complete sentence such as a period and a capital letter.
11. Once everyone has finished their journal entry, I will have them put their journals away and gather back
onto the carpet to watch a video.

Closure/Wrap up: (Describe how the CONTENT of the lesson will be summarized.)
To summarize the lesson I will have my students watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMNRiLxrGMY. This is
a video that summarizes the difference between oviparous and viviparous animals in that they either lay eggs or
give birth to baby animals.
Instructional Supports
Resources and Materials Used to Engage Students in Learning (Provide citations for all resources that you did not create.
Attach key instructional material needed to understand what you and the students will be doing. Examples: class handouts, assignments, slides,
and interactive white board images.)
● EDUBULL. “Viviparous and Oviparous Animals | Reproduction in Animals | CBSE Class 8 Science | Learning
App.” Youtube, 2 Feb, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMNRiLxrGMY.

Additional Resources and Materials Used to Increase Teacher’s Background Knowledge of the Content: (List any
websites and sources of materials and background information that you will need or use as the teacher to engage the students.)
N/A
Other Relevant Information
Clear Links to Learning Theories, Educational Research, and Principles of Development:
● Piaget viewed play as integral to the development of intelligence in children. His theory of play argues
that as the child matures, their environment and play should encourage further cognitive and language
development. As the main form of learning in this lesson, students will explore various viviparous animals
through self directed play.
● Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory is one theory that I incorporated into this lesson. The major
theme of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the
development of cognition. In my lesson I not only ensure that I have plenty of social interaction between
my students and I as the topic is first introduced, but I also ensure that there is plenty of social
interactions between the students as well. The students are given time to work as a team in their table
groups to complete the examination sheets given to them. They must learn how to be patient in this
learning setting as well as making sure that they are sharing.
Connections to Technology and/or the Arts:
● The students will be drawing their two favorite viviparous animals along with their writing as another
form of self expression.
Description of Collaboration with Others: (These might include the inclusion teacher, media specialist, counselor, guest speaker,
grade level coordinator, community experts, families, etc.)
I collaborated with my partner teacher as she helped me to find resources to use for the advancement of this
Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Spring John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College
Early Childhood Program Lesson Plan Format Junior Spring

lesson. She provided me with ideas of resources and strategies that she has used in the past to teach her
kindergarten class the same topic.

Early Childhood Program – Lesson Plan Format – Junior Spring John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College