Abby Menchinger Eled 3221 November 13, 2013 Indirect Science Lesson Plan 5 E Fossils Big Idea: Fossils

are evidence of history of the Earth and its changing life forms; we can compare fossils to one another. Grade Level: 4th grade Rationale: Students are learning this material to understand how to compare fossils to one another and to living organisms. This is important for students to learn because they need to understand how fossils can help us learn things about the past. This connect to their lives because they can see how by comparing fossils to one another, they themselves can become scientists and learn from fossils. NC Essential Standard: 4.E.2.1 Compare fossils including molds, casts, and preserved parts of plants and animals ) to one another and to living organisms. 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. Instructional Objective: Students will be able to compare fossils of plants and animals and know that the use of fossils correlates with changes of the earth and earth history. Prerequisite knowledge and skills: Students should already know what a fossil is. They should know that there are different kinds of fossils and should know that you can sometimes look at a fossil and can tell what it is Materials: Pictures of different fossils 7 pictures of fossils 7 pictures of living organisms T-Chart Scissors Day books

Estimated time: 45 mins Accommodation for Special Needs/ different learning styles: Special needs students will be working with the teacher assistant while our lesson. The teacher assistant will sit with the student one on one and help with the assignment. ESL students will be paired in groups with other students who may be able to help them. Safety Considerations: Make sure students are spaced out on carpet. Content and Strategies Engage: I will ask the students to come to the carpet. I will print our pictures of different kinds of fossils. Some will be of plants and other will be of animals. Some fossil pictures will be of plants and animals that do not exist anymore while some fossil pictures will be of plants and flowers from our time period. I will first begin by telling students a story. I will tell them that I was walking the other day and I tripped over something. They will ask me questions to try and guess what I tripped over. I will give hints and guide them to guess that I tripped over a fossil. After telling the story, I will ask the students to guess what they think each picture is. I will ask students What is this a picture of? Can someone tell me what a fossil is? Have you ever seen a fossil before? Explore: I will hold up one picture of an animal fossil and one picture of a plant fossil. I will ask the class what they notice are differences about the two fossil pictures and things that they notice are same about the two fossil pictures. I will ask to the students How are the sure that this picture is of a plant fossil? How are they sure this picture is of an animal fossil? What do you notice that is different? What do you notice looks the same? Explanation: Students will be given pictures of living organisms and fossils. At their tables, they will have to match the fossil with the picture of the organism as it is living today. They will create a T-Chart that will match the fossils to the living organisms. I will tell my students that some fossils will not have matching living organism pictures. They will talk within their groups trying to figure out why not all of the fossils have pictures of living organisms. Students will discover that some pictures dont have matching living organism pictures because that organism

is no longer living anymore. This shows the students that fossils can teach us how things have changed over time. They will write some of their findings in their day books. Elaborate: Students will be given the name of a plant or animal. They will have to find pictures of this plant or animal as a fossil and as a living organism. They will make a collage of their plant/animal and will compare and contrast the two pictures. They will write their comparisons and contrasts on their collage. Evaluate: Formative- the formative assessment will be my questions in the beginning; I will know what I need to teach/ re teach depending on how the students answer those questions Summative: I will collect the students collages and see if they can compare and contrast the fossil and the living organisms. Closure: Students will share their collages with the class and will be asked to share one new thing they learned about fossils today in class.