1st Grade Living Things And Their Needs Lesson Plan (Science)

Topic: Living things and their needs

Objectives & Outcomes

• Students will understand how environmental factors such as temperature, moisture, and light affect living things.

Materials

• Pictures or real specimens of various living things (e.g. plants, animals, fungi)
• Interactive whiteboard or smart board
• Temperature sensor (e.g. infrared thermometer)
• Humidity sensor (e.g. hygrometer)
• Light sensor (e.g. photoresistor)
• Blank chart paper and markers

Warm-up

• Show the students a picture or real specimen of a living thing and ask them to guess how the environmental factors of temperature, moisture, and light affect it.
• Ask the students to share their ideas and write them on the chart paper.

Direct Instruction

• Explain that all living things need certain environmental factors in order to survive.
• Tell the students that the environmental factor of temperature refers to how hot or cold a place is.
• Show the students a map or globe and point out different regions, explaining how the temperature varies in each region.
• Explain that the environmental factor of moisture refers to how dry or wet a place is.
• Show the students a cotton ball and a piece of paper and explain how they absorb moisture from the air.
• Explain that the environmental factor of light refers to how much sunlight a place receives.
• Show the students a picture of a forest and a picture of a desert and explain how they differ in terms of the amount of sunlight they receive.

Guided Practice

• Have the students work in pairs and give each pair a set of pictures of different living things.
• Have the students sort the pictures into groups based on their habitat (e.g. desert, forest, etc.)
• Have the students explain why they grouped the pictures in the way they did.
• Ask the students questions about the environmental factors needed by the living things in each group.

Independent Practice

• Have the students work in groups to create a "needs poster" for a fictitious species.
• Have the students research the environmental factors needed by the species and create a poster that shows how the species gets those factors.
• Have the students present their posters to the class.

Closure

• Review the importance of environmental factors in the survival of living things.
• Ask the students to think about how they can help protect environmental resources and preserve the necessary environmental factors for living things.

Assessment

• Observe the students during the independent practice activity to assess their understanding of the concept.
• Collect and review the students' collages and written statements to assess their understanding of the importance of environmental factors in the survival of living things.