LESSON OVERVIEW

Title: Early Heredity Concepts

Author: Haley Breedveld
Subject: Science
Grade Level: First Grade
Duration: 40 minutes
Unit Description: The following lesson would be a part of a larger unit focused on
studying animal behavior, survival, and body structure.
Lesson Goals:
Students will be able to:

Match baby animals and their parents based off of appearance

Recognize the patterns that they can match baby animals and their
parents by looks
See that while the babies and parents are similar they do not look
exactly alike.

NGSS Performance Expectations:

1 LS3 1: Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that
young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like their parents.
Big Ideas: There is a pattern that, if two or more animals/objects/people/plants
look similar, have the same mannerisms, and/or behave the same, there is a chance
that those things could be related. This is a big idea that students need to start
slowly being exposed to.
Barriers:
Vocabulary
o Trait
o Similarities
o Differences
o Appearance, etc.
The incomplete concepts
o Some animals look alike however have no relation
o Some animals look nothing like their parents until full grown
ex: frog tadpole
Working in groups
METHOD

Anticipatory Set
1. Review vocabulary
a. Go over the following terms and show examples of them.
i. Similarity
1. Show pictures of things that are similar but not animal or people related.
a. Example: show four articles of clothing (pants,
shirt, scarf, glove) all the same color and explain
that they share the color yellow.
ii. Differences
1. Show pictures of four more yellow objects and explain how they are
different
a. Example: banana, shirt, book, car. One is food,
one you wear, one you read, and one you drive.
2. Show on the Elmo a worksheet with objects that are similar and different and
have the students take turns coming up to the worksheet and pointing out a
similarity and a difference. Then have the class decide if they agree or
disagree with what the student pointed out.
a. Pat yourself on your head if you agree.
b. Show thumbs down if you disagree.
Introduce and Model New Knowledge

Provide
options
for
perception

1. Introduce major concepts through reading of the book Are You My Mother?.
a. Students will be read the book Are You My Mother?
i. The book will be read to the students by the teacher, while also
simultaneously being played on the smart board. This will be
helpful for students who need a larger visual.
ii. A book on tape will also be provided in the classroom.
This can be beneficial for the student who has autism if he
cannot handle the class reading that day.
b. At the turn of each page the teacher will ask, Do you think this is
the baby birds mother?
c. The students will respond no to the question every time until the
end of the book when the bird actually finds its mother. Then the
students will say Yes, that is the birds mother.
d. Then lead a discussion with the class talking about how they were
able to tell just from a picture that something was not the birds
mother.

i. Throughout the discussion keep probing the students and

asking them why?, how did you know that? or how can you
tell?
ii. This discussion will activate the students prior knowledge.
The students already know how to pair baby animals and their
parents; this will allow them to start to see the pattern
mentioned in Big Ideas.
Provide Guided Practice
1. Split the students into groups. Give each student a colored index card (either
red, blue, green or yellow); there will be four groups, one for each color.
Have the students move into their new groups.
2. Once the students have settled in their groups pass out the matching game.
a. Each group will be given a bag of 30 pictures of baby animals and
adult animals (15 pairs)
b. It is the groups job to match the baby animal and its parent
i. Students will be given 10 minutes to do this.
3. When the students have completed this activity we will come together as a
class and discuss the patters that we notice.
a. Teacher will go around group to group and have them each pick and
animal pair, bring the pair up to the Elmo, and have them share one
the similarities and differences they found in the pair of animals.
4. Then as a class we will write down the general pattern of the similarities and
differences between baby animals and their parents.
a. Color, size, tail, pointy vs. curled ears, etc.
b. Eventually we will come to the conclusion that baby animals are
similar but not exactly alike
Provide Independent Practice
1. Have the students return back to their seats. Pass out a piece of blank paper
to each student and have them draw any baby animal of their choice and its
parent. Make sure the students understand that their drawings are supposed
to show that the baby and the animal they chose look similar but not are not
exactly the same.
a. Go around the room and check their drawings, assist and interfere
when needed.

Use multiple
media for
communication

WRAP UP
1. The teacher will ask the students what they have learned today.
a. This will prompt the students to reflect on the activities they have
done and the meaning and the patterns behind them.
ASSESSMENT
Formative, Ongoing Assessment
1. Throughout the lesson the teacher will be keeping mental tabs on which
students are participating, answering questions, and sharing their ideas.
2. Check the students drawings to see if they are showing active understanding
of the concepts.
Summative Assessment
1. Each student gets a worksheet. The first part of the worksheet is matching
the baby animals to their parent.
2. Then the students will put a circle around the differences between the baby
and the parent and a square around the similarity.
a. For students who have limited motor skills they can use different
colors to distinguish between similarities and differences.
MATERIALS
Colored notecards
The worksheet mentioned in Anticipatory Set
The book Are You My Mother?
Pictures of objects that are similar and different from Anticipatory Set
4 bags of baby/parent animal matching game
Blank paper, crayons
Summative assessment for each student

Use
multiple
tools for
construction and
compositeon