The
science lesson that I taught in my first grade PDS classroom was about
camouflage. The students had already learned the vocabulary word and written
the definition in their science dictionary books. But my cooperating teacher
wanted me to go more in depth with the meaning and make the lesson fun and
hands on.
I started
out my lesson by reading Mister Seahorse by
Eric Carle. Eric Carle is an amazing illustrator. In the book, he does a really
good job of camouflaging animals in the pages. The students were really engaged
while I was reading it. I knew that they were because they have not ever paid
that much attention to me and stayed quiet for that long. They even verbally
expressed they liked the book with “ooh” and “ah”. After reading the book, I explained
to them the activity that they were going to be doing. For this lesson I gave
each of them a paper with an outline of a butterfly. I gave them directions to
color in the butterfly with crayons to camouflage it somewhere in the room.
Then they also needed to cut it out. I had already done an example and hidden
my own somewhere in the room. They found it quickly once I told them to look
for it. Before they went back to their seats from the carpet, I told them to
look around the room and think about where they wanted to put their butterfly
and what colors they would need to use and the patterns that they would need to
draw.
One
strength of the lesson was that it was really engaging and hands on. The students
were really understanding the concept when it came to camouflaging their
butterfly. I noticed a couple of students who would go to put their butterfly
somewhere and then say, “This doesn’t blend in, it needs to be darker.” And they
would color in their butterfly darker. It really showed that they were
understanding the concept. I also noticed that some of them got really upset
because the colors they had were not matching with the colors that they were
trying to camouflage with. This was an unavoidable problem because I could not
supply them with all of the colors that they wanted. They only had the crayons
available to them in their desks. When this happened, I tried to brainstorm
with them if they could blend in with somewhere else in the room. I had them
walk around with me and look for a different spot that would match with their
color more.
Something
that I could have improved on is explaining the book more. My lesson was
towards the end of the day and I did not have a lot of time to go over
everything that I wanted to before it was time to go home. I would have liked
to stop more throughout the book I was reading to ask questions and point out
how the animals in the book were camouflaged in their surroundings. I would
have really liked for more time to explore the book. The book also talked about
how seahorses have their babies. This is very different from the way any other
animal has their babies. I think it would have been beneficial if I had more
time to talk about the way that seahorses reproduce. Another thing that I could
have improved on is explaining more about why I used a butterfly. I would have
explained more about how a butterfly is an insect that camouflages very well
into its surroundings. I would have also liked to read a book about butterflies
but I knew that I would not have time to do so. I would have explained to the
students that there are many different animals and insects that use camouflage
to survive every day. I think that it would have also been really interesting
if I showed the students a video about camouflage. But the factor of time
played a big role in my planning and implementation.
Another
thing that I could have improved on is grouping the students. I had them in a
large group while reading the book to them. Then I had them work at their desks
to camouflage their butterflies. I would have liked to also have them in small
groups. From what we have been learning in our courses, it is always beneficial
to have the students in large group, small group, and working individually
throughout a lesson. But I could not think of a fun way to have them in a small
group for this lesson. I had them working individually because I thought it
would be fun for them to make sure no one else saw how they were coloring their
butterfly so they could hide it somewhere without it being noticed.
I felt
that I was very knowledgeable throughout the lesson. I made sure to review the
definition of camouflage as the students had learned it so there was no
confusion or differences in the definition when I discussed it. The students
had first learned about camouflage on a day that I was not at the site.
My cooperating
teacher and I discussed the lesson after I had implemented it. She had the same
concerns as me when it came to the time constraints and expanding on the book
more. Her suggestions were to spend more time throughout the book to stop and
ask questions. I also could have spent more time just discussing more with the
students about camouflage and using their prior knowledge. Since they had
already went over the vocabulary word in the day prior, they should have had a
lot to contribute. But overall, my cooperating teacher enjoyed my lesson and
she said that it would be something that the students would remember, which is
important to me. The butterflies are still camouflaged throughout our classroom
and I feel like I am still finding some that I had not seen before!
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