Unit: CHANGES OVER TIME Grade: 2

Topic: How do we know about animals of long ago?

VSC Goal / Content Standard: B- Applying Evidence and Reasoning B.1.a., B.1.b.,

C- Communicate Scientific Information C.1.d.

  1. An organism’s patterns of behavior are related to the nature that organism’s environment. When the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce and others die and move to new locations.
  2. Fossils provide evidence about the plants and animals that lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that time.
  3. Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.

Objectives:

  • Students will learn about life from long ago by digging up and examining buried fossils.
  • Students will learn that fossils can be either parts of animals or other non-living objects on Earth.

Materials:

  • Teacher’s Manual DiscoveryWorks pages C32-C39
  • Teacher’s Resource Book Discovery Works page C19
  • Tray
  • Sand (enough to cover the bones)
  • Water
  • Paintbrush
  • Plastic spoons
  • Newspapers
  • Bones and other fossils including shells and rocks
  • Large paper plates
  • Book for engagement- Fossil by Claire Ewart
  • Science Vocabulary: skeleton, crest, puzzle, scientist, and silt

Engagement / Motivation /Accessing:

  • Interns will greet the students and introduce the objectives and vocabulary for thelesson.
  • Two interns will read a short story about fossils called Fossil, by Claire Ewart,to help students better understand the topic for the day. They will ask questions during the reading.
  • What is silt? (small grains of rock)
  • Like the girl in the book, we are now going to find fossils too!

Exploration / Procedure: (Mentally Active Learning)

Interns will work with their individual groups to explore the question for the lesson:How do we know about animals of long ago?

Have students engage in a digging for bones activity to help them understand the importance of fossils and what they can tell us about animals from long ago.

  1. Interns will first go over the rules for the digging activity.
  2. They will then provide each group with a tray filled with damp sand and different kinds of fossils.

3. Tell students to pretend they are scientists digging for dinosaur bones.

4. Students will use the plastic spoons to dig in the sand and place the sand containing no bones on the paper plate.

5. They will stop digging when they find a bone or another object and use a paintbrush to brush away the rest of the sand.

6. Students will place all the bones they find on a clean paper plate.

7. On the worksheet found on page C19, students will make a sketch of the bones or other types of fossils they found.

8. What can you learn from the bones and other fossils you found?

Exploration/ Procedure: (Inquiry Question)

HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT ANIMALS OF LONG AGO?

Interns will have a discussion with their groups about the different types of fossils found during the exploration (answers will be written in notebooks).

  • Possible questions to ask after the exploration:(Ideas and Good Reasoning / Making Sense)
  1. Do you think the bones that were found came from more than one animal? Tell why.
  2. What part of the animals do you think the bones came from?
  3. What other types of fossils did you find?
  4. How old do you think these fossils are?
  • Encourage students to answer all questions in complete sentences. Anticipated student answers could include:
  • Two animals; one set of bones is larger than the other
  • They came from the legs
  • We found shells, rocks….
  • Very old; before people lived
  • Answers will be followed up by questions such as
  • How do you know that?
  • Can you predict what animal the bones came from?
  • How can you tell that they are very old?
  • Clear up any misconceptions here.

Extension / Elaboration / Procedure:

Students will draw a fossil and write one sentence about what they have learned today.

Evaluation / Summary / Closure:(Figuring Out)

As a whole class, interns will review what has been learned by using the objectives and questioning students about what was learned.

1. Intern will ask the class what types of fossils were found. We now know that not all fossils are bones, but can be other items as well.

2. The students will be asked to think about why scientists usually are not able to dig up complete skeletons of dinosaurs. What may happen over time to make scientists unable to do so?

Differentiation/Modification:

For students with disabilities, interns can carefully go over the procedure with the children and check frequently for understanding. We will help them devise a plan for digging in their trays.If the students choose to write down their experience for the extension, we will help them using sentence starters.

Time Structure:

10 minutes: Introduction / Definitions

20 minutes: Group Work (Procedure/ Exploration/ Explanation/ Plans/ Assessment)

5 minutes: Clean up all materials.

5-10 minutes: Interns ask students questions to help summarize what was learned and to determine if the students met the objectives.

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AGC / 03.03.2009