Disciplinary Unit: Lesson Plan

Student Name: Shane Miller

I. General Information:
Grade Level: K
Discipline: Close Reading of Informational Text
Unit Topic: Polar Bears
Time Frame: 3-4 day study. Intervention period 40mins each day.
Text: Where Do Polar Bears Live
Other Materials: switchzoo.com (Create your own animal and/or
create a habitat suitable for your animal.)
Polarbearsinternational.org
Student handout/workmat
Student picture of a Polar Bear to draw on and label its adaptations.
Large poster board to have the students create and draw polar bears
and their habitat and adaptations. Post-It notes. Realiapictueres of polar
bears and their environment. Warm, fuzzy blankets to depict their thick fur.

II. Standards/Indicators
RI.K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key
details in a text.
RI. K.8 With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to
support points in a text.
SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to
provide additional details.
L.K.6 Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and
being read to, and responding to texts. (Cub, adaptations)

III. Lesson Objectives

StudentI can describe HOW a polar bear survives in the Artic.
TSWuse close reading strategies to describe in writing and orally, what
adaptations the polar bear has to help it survive in the Article.
TSWuse their listening comprehension strategies and the illustrations from
the story to support their answers.

IV. Procedures:
Introduction
As the students come in the room, they will chorally read with me
todays objective.
Show and give the students a picture of a polar bear in its habitat.
Prompt: I want you to look at your picture and take 2minutes to think WHY
the polar bear looks the way it does. Do you think it would survive/live well
where it does? Why? Write your thoughts on the post-it notes provided.

Teaching/Activities
While the students are writing, place a large, undetailed picture of a
Polar Bear on the board. The students will receive a smaller copy once the
lesson gets underway.
Have the students share their thoughts. Record their answers on the
board next to the polar bear.
Write the word: Adaptation and survive on the board above the
polar bear. Define each term. Survive--- to live, despite challenges.
Explain that I will be reading the book: Where Do Polar Bears Live as
we work like reading detectives to find those clues to help us answer our
question.
Open the book and look at the picture of the Polar Bear traveling
across the tundra. Model a think-aloud. The polar bear is white. Here, the
whole land looks white. I think the Polar Bear is white so he can blend in with
his surroundings. He has camouflage to help him survive!
At each page, have the students turn and talk and discuss something
they found from the story.
TSW share their finding. As a class, we will add their discovery to their
polar bear picture. Ex: Where we see the polar bears claws helping it get out
of its den, the students will draw claws on their polar bear.
Pg. 13After reading, the students will turn and talk and draw a den
on their paper. TSW write HOW the den helps it to survive. Allow the students
time to look back at the book and find those clues to explain why the polar
bear lives in the den under the snow for 6 months.
Day 2Bring in thick blankets to show how warm the polar bears are
with their fur. Have the students complete their description of their polar
bears and its adaptations.
Day 2 or 3 (depending on progress through lesson)
Once the students have demonstrated an understanding of the polar
bears adaptations for its survival (through their drawing and reviewing of the
book), show the students the switchzoo site. Develop a biome and then think
aloud. I know that my animal would need to be cool because it is very hot
here.
Take the students to the computer lab to create various animals on the
switchzoo.com site. Have the students explain their reasoning for their unique
animal and why it would survive.

Closure
After the students have completed their animal on switchzoo.com and written
about it in their interactive journal and shared with the class, the students will
have give feedback to each others animal based on the following prompts:
First model and demonstrate these questions with the class by sharing your
own thoughts and statements with the students who shared.
2. Give the students time to think and develop their answers to the questions
by writing them down on post-it notes.
I think your animal would survive because:.
I think your animal would have trouble surviving because..

I like how your animal has

A question I have is..

VI. Evaluation/Assessment:
Assessment of Objectives
-Turn and talk, anecdotal notes from the reading, student completion of
their worksheet, according to the rubric given.
-Students picture and writing in their interactive journal that details
what animal they created on the switchzoo.com site and WHY their animal is
best suited to survive.