Disciplinary Unit: Lesson Plan

I. General Information:
Grade Level: 2nd grade
Discipline: Science
Unit Topic: Animal Habitats
Time Frame: 2 50 minute classes
Text: The Magic School Bus Hops Home: A Book About Animal
Habitats by Joanna Cole
Other Materials: self-made scientific Habitat jornal, graphic
organizer of a frogs lifecycle, crayons/collored pencils

II. Essential Understanding/Questions:

Day 1:
What is a habitat?
How do habitats help animals survive?

Day 2:
How do habitats help animals survive?
How does a habitat help animals fulfill their basic needs?
How does a frogs habitat help it throughout its lifecycle? (Frogs
interaction with its habitat throughout its lifecycle)

III. Standards/Indicators
Topic
F. Ecology
Indicator
1. Explain that organisms can grow and survive in many very different
habitats.
Objectives
1. Investigate a variety of familiar and unfamiliar habitats and describe
how animals and plants found there maintain their lives and survive to
reproduce.
2. Explain that organisms live in habitats that provide their basic needs
o Food
o Water
 o Air
o Shelter

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2
topic or subject area.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided
sources to answer a question.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2
topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

IV. Lesson Objectives

Students will be able to identify habitats that they have encountered
before.
Students will be able to identify various habitats and the
plants/animals that may live in each.
Students will explore how a frog interacts with its habitat throughout
its lifecycle.

V. Evaluation/Assessment:
Assessment of Objectives
Quick write on their backyard as a habitat and the animals that
may live there
Quick writes on how a frogs needs changes throughout its
lifecycle
Habitat journal will be collected at the end of the unit for a
grade

VI. Procedures:
Introduction
Day 1:
Students will be asked to think about what a habitat is and a
class discussion will be held to gauge students prior
knowledge.
 The teacher will write student answers on the board and
students will write their own definitation in their scientific
journals.
Thedefinitation of a habitat will be given and students will
write it in the beginning of their habitat jornal underneath their
predicted definitation.

Day 2:
As a class, students will complete a graphic organizer of a frogs
lifecycle.

Teaching/Activities

Day 1:
Introduce students to the text The Magic School Bus Hops Home and
the teacher will lead a picture walk through the book.
Students will take part in a Think, Pair, Share activity with the person
to their left and discussion 2-3 things they think they will learn from
this book.
The twacher will lead the initial reading of The Magic School Bus
Hops Home.
The teacher will periodically stop reading to ask students, What
habitats are Ms. Frizzles class exploring?
At the end of the reading, the teacher will revisit the book and take
another picture walk while asking students, What other animals
might live in ________? (Filling in the blank with habitats explored
in the text.)

Day 2:
Students will wrtie in their habitat journal their answer to the
following question, How does a frogs needs change throughout its
lifecycle?
The teacher will reread the text, placing emphasis on the pages that
discuss the various steps in a frogs lifecycle. As the teacher reads,
they will ask probing questions to understand the students
comprehension and level of attention during reading.
 The teacher will stop at the different stages of a frogs lifecycle and
ask students to identify the habitat the frog is living in; as well as how
the frogs needs are met by its current habitat.

Closure
Day 1:
Students will draw a picture of their backyard then complete a quick
write.
Students will do a quick write explaining what habitat their backyard
is most similar to. Students will also name 2-3 animals that might live
in their backyard and why/where the animals would live there.

Day 2:
Students will go back to their habitat journal and write what they have
learned about a frogs lifecycle and how a tadpole/frog fulfills its
needs in its habitat.

Resources

Cole, Joanna. 1995. The Magic School Bus Hops Home: A Book About
Animal Habitats. Scholastic Inc. New York, NY.