Scientific Organization and SequencingSC010204
Unit 2: Parents and Offspring
Lesson 4: The Cycle of Life
Big Ideas of the Lesson
- A cycle is something that happens over and over again.
- A spider begins as an egg, becomes a baby spider, turns into an adult spider, and then dies. This is its life cycle.
Abstract
This lesson is about the cycle of life including birth, growth, reproduction, and death. The video, Charlotte’s Web, is used as a tool to introduce and explain these concepts. Children watch as a spider is born, grows up, has babies, and dies. They also see the life cycles of other animals on the farm.
Grade Level Context Expectation(s)
Children will:
- generate questions based on observations of various animal life cycles (S.IP.01.12).
- communicate and present findings of observations of parent/young characteristics (S.IA.01.13).
- classify young animals based on characteristics that are passed on from parents (e.g., dogs/puppies, cats/kittens, cows/calves, chickens/chicks) (L.HE.01.12).
- identify characteristics (e.g., body coverings, beak shape, number of legs, body parts) that are passed on from parents to young (L.HE.01.11).
- describe the life cycle of animals including the following stages: egg, young, adult; egg, larva, pupa, adult (L.OL.01.21).
Key Concept(s)
adult
egg
growth
life cycle
trait
young/offspring
Instructional Resources
Equipment/Manipulative
Crayons
Pencils
White 9” X 12” construction paper (1 sheet per child)
Student Resource
Charlotte’s Web. Videocassette. Burbank, CA: Paramount, 2001.
Kalman, Bobbie. Animals Grow and Change. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2008.
---. The Life Cycle of a Spider. New York: Crabtree Publications, 2002.
Kalman, Bobbie, and Jacqueline Langille. What is a Life Cycle? New York: Crabtree Publishing, 1998.
Kessler, Dawn, and Claudia Douglass.Supplemental Materials (SC01020401.doc). Teacher-made material. Waterford, MI: Oakland Schools, 2008.
Teacher Resource
Kalman, Bobbie. Animal Life Cycles: Growing and Changing. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2006.
Kessler, Dawn, and Claudia Douglass.Grade 1 Unit 2 Teacher Background (SC010200TB.doc).Teacher-made material. Waterford, MI: Oakland Schools, 2008.
Kramer, David C. Animals in the Classroom. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1989.
Lesson 4: The Spider’s Life Cycle. 2008. Southwest Educational Development laboratory. 21 November 2008
Simon, Seymour. Spiders. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Spiders. 1996 - 2008. The Long Point Schoolhouse. 21 November 2002 <
Sequence of Activities
Advance Preparation: Spiders are easy to keep in the classroom and provide an exciting opportunity for the children to learn about one of the most abundant animals in the world. David Kramer provides a clear explanation of how to house and feed spiders in Animals in the Classroom. Basically, put a spider in a screen-covered jar with about 2” of moist soil and a few sticks. Duplicate the environment where you found the spider. Keep the soil moist and feed it a live insect smaller than the spider about once a week. Harvestmen (“Daddy Long Legs”) are often called spiders by children but are classified under a related group.
Safety Precautions: Make sure that you know the species of spider. Under no circumstances maintain venomous spiders, including Tarantulas.
1.Begin this lesson by mixing up the daily routines for a portion of the day. After awhile, bring the children together to discuss what happened. Ask the children to explain how the classroom routine or pattern should be. Have them sequence the day to the way it usually is. Expand this discussion to their daily schedule including time before and after school (e.g., get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to school, come home, eat dinner, take a bath, read a book, go to sleep.) Help the children to make a connection that when the same pattern occurs over and over again, it is a cycle. Explain that animals have life cycles and that their cycle of life happens over and over again in the same way.
2.Introduce the video, Charlotte’s Web, to the children. Explain that they are watching this video to notice all the changes and growth that the animals make. Have the children watch the video and discuss the stages of development of the different farm animals. It may be necessary to show the video in parts to accommodate the attention span of young learners.
3.After viewing the video, ask the children: “How did the spider begin her life?” [Hatched from an egg.] Ask them to describe the changes that occurred throughout her life. [Hatched from an egg, grew older, had babies, and died.] Help the children make a connection that these changes are called an animal’s life cycle. Repeat this activity for the other animals in the video.
4.View photographs of spiders hatching from an egg sac on the Spiders web site.
5.Share the book The Life Cycle of a Spider. Highlight the pictures on the last page that show the life cycle of a spider.
6.Have the children draw pictures of the various stages of the spider’s life cycle on their Student Pages. Explain to the children that the pictures should be drawn in order. Each child’s set of pictures should include an egg sac, baby spider (spiderling), and an adult spider. As they are sharing their drawings help them to make the connection that the adult spider lays an egg sac and the cycle begins again.
Assessment
Individually assess the children as they describe their pictures of a spider’s life cycle.
Application Beyond School
Children could discuss with their parents the cycle of their lives and make connections to family members who were just born and to those who have died.
Connections
English Language Arts
After viewing the video, the children identify the events that happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the movie.
The Oakland Schools Curriculum Page 1of 3
scope.oakland.k12.mi.usJanuary 14, 2010