Jacob

Title of Lesson: Fossils

Grade Level 3rd Grade
Time Needed 1 hour (in a 3rd grade class; 20 mins in I/UCAT class)
Driving Question Where was this rock formed and how do we know?
Ideal Response
This rock has fossils of brachiopods and crinoids. Brachiopods and crinoids are animals that
used to live in a shallow sea millions of years ago. When they died, their shells fell to the bottom
of the sea and got mixed into the mud on the ocean floor. The original shells are gone, but their
imprints were left in the mud. The mud was buried under other mud and over millions of years,
became hardened into a rock called limestone.
Lesson Overview
The purpose of this lesson is to explore student ideas about fossils, where they come from, and
what they tell us about ancient life and environments. Students will make observations of a
piece fossiliferous limestone, making drawings of the fossils they find in their science
notebooks. Students will then use a fossil guide to identify the fossils. At the end of the lesson,
students will write a short paragraph about where they think the fossils came from and what
they tell about the rock.
Next Generation Science Standard
3-LS4-1. Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the
environments in which they lived long ago.
Arizona Science Standard
Strand 6 Earth Science
Concept 1: Properties of Earth materials
PO 4: Describe fossils as a record of past life forms
Learning Goals
KNOWING: Students will know that:
1. Fossils are found in some rocks.
2. Fossils are evidence of either plants or animals that are no longer alive.
3. Fossils are part of the rock; the original plant or animal is gone.
4. We can use fossils to figure out what ancient plants and animals looked like and
what type of environment they lived in.
 5.
DOINGS: Students will be able to
1. Record careful observations of rocks.
2. Use fossils to interpret the story of a rock.
Language Goal
1. Students will share ideas about their rocks in small groups (listening & speaking)
2. Students will write stories about their rocks in English.
ELL Accommodations
1. The number of sentences in English depends on students proficiency (writing)
Scientific Practices:
1. Analyzing and Interpreting Data
2. Constructing Explanations
Materials
For each group (6 groups)
Fossiliferous limestone sample
Hand lenses (as many as possible)
For each student
Fossil guide
Science Notebook
Pencil
Preparation
1. Gather fossils & hand lenses
2. Make copies of fossil guides
3. Students will be grouped into groups of 6. Groups will be pre-assigned for heterogeneity.
Each student will have a science notebook. Each person in the group will be assigned a number
(1-4).
a. Materials Gatherers
b. Materials Returners
c. Timers (2)
4. Rock samples and hand-lenses will be available at the front of the room. After the teacher
gives directions for the activity, the teacher will call out a number (1-4). The student assigned to
that number will be the Materials Gatherer, will walk to the front of the room to get the materials
and return to the table.
5. The teacher will pass out fossil guides when fossil guides are needed.
6. At the end of the activity, the teacher will call out another number (1-4). The student
assigned to that number will be the Materials Returner and will be responsible for returning the
rocks, fossil guides and hand-lenses neatly to the front table.
Safety
Students will be reminded to examine the rock samples carefully. Students may pick up the
rocks to look at them, but they must return the rocks to the table. Students will also be reminded
not to hit the rocks with anything, including other rocks.
1 Title: I-AIM Stage & Function
Rock Stories Question: Ask driving question, elicit
student ideas

Step-by-step directions for teaching. Include what students do and what the teacher
says/does.
1. Teacher introduces rocks and asks how rocks tell stories.
2. Students will make suggestions, teacher writes all ideas on the board. Someone might bring
up fossils.
3. Teacher asks driving question: Where was this rock formed and how do we know?
Students write driving question in science notebooks.

Assessment:
What will you look for in student talk/writing/activity that will tell you what students are
thinking? Be sure to align with your knowings and doings.
Pre-Assessment: The teacher gets information about student understandings about rocks and fossils
by asking what types of clues students would look for in rocks. (Knowing #1-4).

Accommodations/Adaptations:
(Jacob- vision challenges)
Use large print, braille, and give him a handout of the questions (input)
Allowing more time to read and respond to questions (time)

2 Title: I-AIM Stage & Function

Examining the Rocks Explore & Investigate: Explore
phenomena for patterns

Step-by-step directions for teaching:

1. Each student in the group gets a number 1-4.
2. Teacher calls out a number (1-4) to assign Materials Gatherers who gather materials and return
to group table.
3. Teacher calls out a number (1-4) to assign Timers (2), and Materials Returners.
4. Students place the rock in the center of the table and look at it (no touching). Timer times 1
minute.
5. Students write down everything they notice about the rock in their science notebooks (i.e. color,
shape, size, things in the rock)
6. Students pass the rock around in the group. Each student has 30 seconds to look at the rock
closely. Timers keeps track of time and tells students when to pass the rock. Students may use the
hand lens to look up close. After 2 rounds, the teacher calls out another number (1-4) for the second
timer.
7. After looking closely, each student makes one or more drawings in her/his science notebook of
the things they observed in the rock.
8. Students put the rock back in the middle of the table and continue drawing. Students may pass
the rock again if they want, but each person may hold it for only for 30 seconds at a time.
9. During this activity, the teacher walks around to groups and asks the following types of
questions:
a. What do you think this thing (pointing to a fossil) looks like?
b. Does it look like anything you have ever seen before?
c. What might the other side of it have looked like?
d. Do you think it was a plant or an animal? Why?
Is it alive? How do you know?

Assessment:

Formative: Teacher asks probing questions about students observations (Knowings #1-3, Doing #1)

Accommodations/Adaptations:

Provide larger hand lense and allowing him to use sense of touch instead
(input, substitute curriculum)
Work with partner- verbally state observations, while partner records (participation, level of
support, output)

3 Title: I-AIM Stage & Function

Science Talk Explore & Investigate: Explore students
ideas about patterns & identify patterns.
Step-by-step directions for teaching:
1. Students talk in small groups about the fossils they see. They group fossils into categories based
on similarities and differences.
2. Student should notice the following patterns:
a. Fossils that look like life-savers
b. Fossils that look like clams
Fossils that dont look like anything they recognize.

Assessment:
Formative: Teacher attends to student ideas about fossils in the science talk (Knowings #1-4)

Accommodations/Adaptations:

Provide students group with actual life saver and clam to feel in order to
make comparisons to the feeling of the rocks/fossils (substitute curriculum, input)
Place student in group with students who will support him- friends, helpers
(level of support)

4 Title: I-AIM Stage & Function

Looking at the Fossil Guide Explain: Introduce scientific information.

Step-by-step directions for teaching:

1. The teacher passes out fossil guides, one to each student.
2. The teacher provides directions for steps #3 #4
3. Students compare their drawings to the pictures in the fossil guide. Students may also compare
the fossil guide to their rocks.
4. Students write in their science notebooks what they think each fossil is, based on their
comparisons of the drawings to the fossil guides.
5. During this activity, the teacher walks around to groups and asks the following types of
questions:
a. Is this fossil on the fossil guide?
b. Which one do you think it is?
c. Why do you think that one?
How did it get into the rock?

Assessment:
Formative: Teacher attends to student drawings and guides student observations. (Knowing #2, #3;
Doing #1)

Accommodations/Adaptations:

Print fossil sheet in a darker font or have contrasting colors as well as make
the text and pictures larger (input)
Allow student to type observations or use chart paper instead of science
notebook (substitute curriculum)

5 Title: I-AIM Stage & Function

Identifying Fossils Explain: Introduce scientific ideas and
explain patterns.

Step-by-step directions for teaching:

1. Fossils are clues to the plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. They can tell us what
the environment was like when the rock was formed.
2. Lets look at these fossils (refer to rocks and fossil guide)
a. Did anyone find a brachiopod? This was an animal. It looks like a clam, although it wasnt the
same as the animals we call clams today. But it did have two halves to the shell and the animal lived
inside the shell.
b. Did anyone find a crinoids? This organism looks like a plant but it was really an animal. It
secured itself to a rock and then the long spine would wave around in the water. Its head was that
thing that looks like a flower. All those little things that look like life-savers or cheerios were part of
the spine.
c. Did anyone find a bryozoa? This is actually the house for a bunch of tiny animals, kind of like
an apartment house.
d. Did anyone find a horn coral? This is a different type of coral from the ones that grow on reefs
today. These corals actually floated separately in the water.

Assessment:
Formative: Teacher attends to students ideas about where the rocks came from (Knowing #4, Doing
#2)

Accommodations/Adaptations:
Student may name ancient organisms after superheroes or comic characters
in order to help him to remember how they look (output)
Provide picture cards of fossils to help identify whether he saw these fossils
(input)

6 Title: I-AIM Stage & Function

Explaining where the rock was formed and how we Explain: Students explain patterns and
know compare scientific ideas to previous
ideas.

Step-by-step directions for teaching:

1. Teacher instructs students to write in their science notebooks where the rocks came from and
how they know, based on the fossils that they found in the rock.
2. During this activity, the teacher walks around to groups and asks the following types of
questions.
a. Where might all of these fossils have lived?
b. What does that tell us about the story of this rock?
c. What is our evidence for this story?
Teacher calls out a number (1-4) to assign Materials Returners to return all materials to the front of
the room.

Assessment:

Summative Assessment: The teacher assesses student science notebooks to see if they included
the following features.
That the rock had fossils. (knowing #1)
That the fossils were evidence of animals that used to live in a sea (crinoids, brachiopods). (knowing
#2)
That the shells are no longer in the rock. (knowing #3)
That the fossils are evidence that the rock formed at the bottom of the ocean. (knowing #4, doing #2)

Accommodations/Adaptations:

Student may type his response to the driving question in large font and
share verbally (output)
Student Science Toolkits
Building on student ideas Students will likely have heard of fossils, probably in the
context of dinosaurs. They probably understand that fossils are very old. This will help them
think about new kinds of fossils of animals they have never seen before.
Connecting to funds of knowledge Some students may have seen fossils in museums or
have their own rock collections that include fossils. These funds of knowledge are family, peer
activities, and interests/talents.
Students are familiar with mystery stories and know that in mysteries, clues are provided
to help figure out what happened. This lesson builds on students understanding of stories and
clues to help them make sense of using fossils to figure out where rocks were formed. These
funds of knowledge are family, popular culture, and peer activities.

Bibliography/Sources
Fossil guide picture from:
Rhodes, F. H., Shaffer, R. R., Zim, H., & Perlman, R., (1962). Golden Guide to Fossils. New
York: Golden Guide Press.