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The aim of "Are you a Plant?" is to introduce plants and the basic
vocabulary belonging to plants. This curriculum web is aimed at children
functioning
at the Pre-K/Kindergarten level.
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Young children will become more aware of the world around them and
how to take care of their environment. Young children need to know
the basic vocabulary and the needs of the environment in order to be
able to take care of it.
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By the end of this thematic unit which will include this curriculum
web and enrichment activities, the students will be able to:
- identify an object as a plant
- identify types of plants (i.e., tree, bush, flower, vegetable)
- name and identify parts of a plant
- distinguish between a plant and an animal
- describe what a plant needs to survive
- count and add parts of plants
- decide if they are a plant
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"Are you a Plant?" is aimed at children functioning at the
Pre-K/Kindergarten science conceptual level. They are just beginning
to learn basic picture
vocabulary and are also just being introduced to science concepts.
- Prerequisites to using this curriculum web
- Students should be able to:
- follow directions
- use a computer with a mouse
- be aware of plants in their environment
- be motivated to learn about plants
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- Subject Matter
- Science Concepts
- Idenfication of plants
- Basic names of plants
- Difference between plant or animal
- Parts of plants
- Needs of Plants
- Plants and humans in the same environment
- Math Concepts
- Counting (one-to-one correspondence)
- Adding
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- Instructional Plan
- Begin unit by using this experiment and
write daily journals* describing progress.
- Teacher created web page called "I am a plant".
- Teacher created web page "What kind of plant am I?"
- Teacher created web page "Am I a Plant or Animal?" .
- Teacher created web page "My
parts"
- Teacher created web page "What do I need?"
- Teacher created web page "Count and Add parts"
- Teacher created web page "Are you a plant?"
- While other students are completing above steps, any finished
student can use the plant games.
- Culminating Activity: We will permanently plant the one surviving
plant from each of our experiments, and each student will give
a short presentation about what they learned about plants.
- There will be intermittent activities that will be implemented as
we go along. We will take a walking field trip through our neighbor
hood to find examples of the plants we have learned about. There will
be more literacy included as well. (The teacher does not currently
have access to her books about plants. Once she does, she will plan
her literacy activities to intertwine with the curriculum web.)
- Journals will include daily drawings of their experiments. It will
also include list of vocabulary they have learned from literacy activities
and curriculum web. It will also include data of how much their plant(s)
has grown in measurement terms.
- As we learn about plants, the students will take mutliple trips to
the outdoors. They will take pictures of plants, parts of plants, etc.
We will put them on the website. We will also include "cool" assessment
results as part of the curriculum web.
The students will progress on the web pages and complete assessments
at their own pace.
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- Materials
- 3 hours in computer lab the first week, 1 hour in the computer
lab weekly thereafter
- Materials listed on this page for
the experiment (each student will conduct his/her own experiment)
- computer with internet accessiblity
- Internet resources for "Are you a Plant?"
- www.cuip.net/~agrosenheider/plant.html
- http://www.education.com/common/resources/lp/sci/971110ks.html
- http://www.funschool.com/php/games/game.php?g=1095&t=j&w=620&h=360§ion=g3
- http://www.funschool.com/php/games/game.php?g=1076&t=j&w=620&h=360§ion=g3
- http://www.groovygames.com/kitty/garden/
- http://www.zeeks.com/php/games/game.php?g=1257
- http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/vegquiz/plantparts.html
- http://snaithprimary.eril.net/dfacts.htm
- http://snaithprimary.eril.net/dfacts2.htm
- I have higher grade level internet games for more advanced
students to use, I will add them to the curriculum web as needed.
They are waiting in my Backflip.com folder.
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- Assessment
- Student Assessment will include:
- Every teacher-created webpage will include an online assessment
pertaining to that lesson's particular goal. There will
also be a performance-based assessment pertaining to each
lesson's goal. (The performance-based assessment is listed
on the on-line quiz forms.)
- Students will complete online activities at their own pace.
They need to get a 70% average on each assessment before
they
are considered to have successfully completed the online
activities. They will repeat on-line and in-class activities
and assessments until this happens.
- Student participation in experiment as well as daily journal
of plant progress.
- Culminating activity's presentation
- Identification of plants found in the community
- Assessment of Theme's activities and validity of lessons/assessments
will include:
- Peer discussion with another teacher.
- Students' presentations will outline and highlight what
the students learned.
- Teacher will observe students' use of the curriculum web
and take note of consistent strengths and weaknesses of the
curriculum web itself
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- Implementation
Before I implement this curriculum web, I need to...
- add sounds with icons
- add ceritification/incentives
- add cool assessments to on-line assessments
- Background of Students and Classroom
- The students have very limited internet experience.
When they do use the computer, it is unstructured time, and
the students generally
play instructional games (CDs). We have one computer
that does not have internet access. There is one student that
does
not
have
the
motor skills or self-control required to use a mouse. Out of
10 students, 4 students have internet access at home.
- In order for my students to use the curriculum web, we will
need to reserve time in the computer lab. The students
will be able
to work independently on their own computer. If the
computer lab is not available, I will work with another teacher
to use
her room
during her students "specials" time. This
curriculum web is aimed at 4 students. Most classrooms
have 4 computers
with internet access.
If not, we will pair up and work together on each
lesson. During the first week, I would like to use
internet connected computers
for at least 3 hours. The students will be introduced
and learn to be independent using the internet, browsers,
kid-friendly
websites and the classroom website. The teacher/teacher's
assistant will
assist the student with motor
skill needs.
- After the students are independent using the internet, I
will introduce the curriculum web. We will have already
begun our experiment,
so the concept of "plant" will be familiar.
I would like to spend 6 weeks on the actual curriculum
web. Hopefully,
the students will
complete 1 lesson and corresponding assessments a
week. Again, we are allowed special accomodations,
so we will go the pace
each student requires.
- Since this particular curriculum web is aimed at 4 out of
10 students, the other students will use the "My Page" feature of
the classroom website. These students will be involved in the introduction
to the internet, browsers, kid-friendly websites, and classroom
website. While the other students are completing the plant curriculum
web, they will be using "My Page" which is aimed at each individual
student. All students will take part in the experiments. If the
other 6 students want to, they can complete "Are you a plant?"
as well, but will probably complete it in one or 2 sessions. After
completion, they will use "My Page".
- We will begin the plant them by the 2nd week of school.
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