Successful Science Lessons

Grade One

SAMPLE

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Part 1 - What is Science?

Lesson 1 - What is Science? ………………………….. Page 7 Lesson 2 - Natural or man-made ………………………………... 11 Lesson 3 - Living and non-living things - pt. 1 …………. 15 Lesson 4 - Living and non-living things - pt. 2 ………... 19 Lesson 5 - Living things are plants and animals………. 23 Part 2 - Animals

Lesson 6 - What is an animal? …………………………………… 29 Lesson 7 - Animals can be very different ……………… 33 Lesson 8 - Classifying and sorting animals …………….. 37 Lesson 9 - The needs of animals ………………………………. 41 Lesson 10 - How do animals meet their needs? …….. 45 Lesson 11 - How do animals move? ……………………………. 49 Lesson 12 - What do animals eat? …………………………… 53 Lesson 13 - What kind of homes do animals have? . 57 Lesson 14 - People are animals, too ………………………….. 59 Part 3 - Plants Lesson 15 - What is a plant? ……………………………………. 65 Lesson 16 - Parts of a plant ………………………………………. 71 Lesson 17 - What do plants need? …………………………… 75 Lesson 18 - What do seeds look like? ………………………. 79 Lesson 19 - What is a seed? ………………………………………. 83 Lesson 20 - Growing seeds …………………………………………. 87 Lesson 21 - Plants that we eat …………………………………. 91 Lesson 22 - Have you ever met a tree? ……………………. 95 Part 4 - The Five Senses Lesson 23 - What are the five senses? …………………. 101 Lesson 24 - The sense of sight …………………………………. 105 Lesson 25 - The sense of hearing …………………………….. 109 Lesson 26 - The sense of touch ………………………………… 113 Lesson 27 - The sense of smell ………………………………….. 117 Lesson 28 - The sense of taste …………………………………. 121 Lesson 29 - The five senses ………………………………………. 125

Lesson Index

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Part 4 - Daily and Seasonal Changes Lesson 30 - What is a day? ……………………………………. 129 Lesson 31 - What do we do each day? ………………… 133 Lesson 32 - What is a year? …………………………………… 135 Lesson 33 - Winter …………………………………………………… 139 Lesson 34 - Spring …………………………………………………… 141 Lesson 35 - Summer …………………………………………………… 143 Lesson 36 - Autumn …………………………………………………… 145 Part 5 - Temperature and Weather Lesson 37 - What is temperature? ……………………….. 151 Lesson 38 - The thermometer ……………………………….. 155 Lesson 39 - What is weather? ………………………………… 159 Lesson 40 - What comes down from the sky? …….. 163 Lesson 41 - Clouds ……………………………………………………… 167 Lesson 42 - What is wind? ……………………………………….. 171 Part 6 - The Water Cycle Lesson 43 - Setting up a terrarium ………………………… 177 Lesson 44 - What is evaporation? …………………………… 179 Lesson 45 - What is condensation? ………………………… 183 Lesson 46 - What is precipitation? ………………………… 187 Lesson 47 - What happens to the precipitation? … 191 Lesson 48 - The water cycle ……………………………………. 195 Part 7 - Matter and Materials Lesson 49 - Introduction to matter ………………………. 199 Lesson 50 - What are solids? ………………………………….. 203 Lesson 51 - What is liquid? ……………………………………….. 207 Lesson 52 - What is gas? ………………………………………… 211 Lesson 53 - Some matter can change form …………. 215 Lesson 54 - Materials around us …………………………….. 219 Part 8 - Motion and Energy Lesson 55 - What is motion? …………………………………… 223 Lesson 56 - Moving objects …………………………………….. 227 Lesson 57 - Friction …………………………………………………… 231 Lesson 58 - What is gravity? ……………………………………. 235 Lesson 59 - Other things have motion …………………… 239 Lesson 60 - How do things move? …………………………… 243

The Five Senses Unit The five senses unit can be done at any time of the year. It can be correlated with a season or a holiday. You can have the children make Christmas books - I can see Christmas. I can hear Christmas……. , etc. Put one on each page with a drawing or sample of this….. for example, a tiny candy cane for taste, a gingerbread man cut out of sandpaper and ‘coloured’ with a cinnamon stick for smell, a little bell for hearing, etc. This idea can be used in the autumn or spring, for Easter or Halloween. As with many of the other units, the Five Senses unit can be extended so that it lasts for a month or more. See the additional ideas to give you lesson extensions. Vocabulary five senses, sight, see, eyes, hear, ears, feel, touch, skin, smell, nose, taste, mouth

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Lesson 23 - What are the five senses? Review: Review the word ‘science’ and what it means to be curious. Lesson: This lesson is to make the students aware that we learn about our world through our different senses. Go outdoors and sit in a circle in an interesting place as wild as possible - under a tree, on the grass near weeds/plants/flowers, etc. Ask the children to tell you what is around them. They will begin by talking about things they can see. Collect a list of things they can see. How do the children know that these things are there? How do you see them? We see with the eyes. Close the eyes - what can the children learn about the things around them? They can hear sounds. What sounds can be heard? How do we hear? With the eyes closed, we can learn about the things around us by touch. What can the children feel around them? How can they tell what it is? How does it feel? With what part of our bodies do we feel things? What other ways can we tell about the world? We can smell things. What can the students smell? Do nearby flowers smell? Can they smell automobiles or smoke? Does the soil smell? With what part of the body do we smell? There is one more way, of course, the taste sense. You may get the students to taste dandelion leaves or other plants that you know are safe - or just talk about this way of learning about the world. How do we learn about the taste of things? Go back indoors and make up a simple chart. Explain that these 5 ways of learning about the world are called the ‘Five Senses’. On the chart write a few things the children saw, touched, heard, smelled and tasted. Touch as you say “we see with our eyes, we hear with our ears, we smell with our noses, we feel with our skin and we taste with our mouths.” Follow-up exercise: Match each sense with the part of the body by drawing lines. Desired lesson outcome: Understanding that there are many ways we can learn about the world.

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Additional Ideas Using a popcorn popper is a good way to test all the senses, and makes a good introductory lesson, too. You can see the kernels and the popped corn, you can hear the kernels rattling and the pops of the corn opening, there is a lovely smell and a savory taste, and we can feel the kernels and the popped corn. Talk about all the different ways that we can learn about popcorn.

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My Five Senses _______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________

see hear smell taste feel

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Notes:

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Lesson 24 - The sense of sight Review: Review the 5 senses and the parts of the body that match. Lesson: Today we will talk about the sense of sight. This is perhaps the most important of our senses and tells us the most about our world. Tell the students to close their eyes very tightly. Tell them that you are going to pass something around and that they are not to peek. Can they feel the object and keep what it is a secret? Give the first child in the circle an apple or an orange. Each student feels it and then passes it to the next child without peeking or saying anything. After it has been passed all around, let the children tell you how they knew what it was. Then do this again, with a book. The children will all know that it is a book, but will not be able to tell the title without being able to see. What do we call people who cannot see? Talk about how blind people read by braille. Why do we have two eyes? Having two eyes makes us more able to see distance - how far away things are. Close one eye and reach for something. Have the children thought about the focusing of the eyes? Because we have two eyes, each eye sees things a bit differently. Hold a finger up in front of the eyes and look at it. There are two images of the room beyond. Now keep the finger up in front of the eyes and look at the far classroom wall. Now you can see two fingers. Can the children explain why they see two images? Use the word ‘focus’. Close one eye to see the difference. We see our world in colour. We can bring in a lesson of the rainbow colours here and also discuss colour blindness. What would it be like to see the world in black and white? (That is very rare!) How do our eyes ‘see’ things? The eyes are wonderful! Light from the world around us goes into the eye and the eye sends the pictures to our brain. Have the children think about reading - how the words are seen and the brain ‘reads’ them. Follow-up exercise: Complete the sentences and illustrate what the student can see. If you give every child a different object, the sheets can be made up into a booklet. Desired lesson outcome: Understanding that sight is one way we learn about the world.

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Additional Ideas Read ’Brown Bear, Brown Bear’, Have your students do a sharing time where the object is hidden in a bag. They must explain what it looks like to the others. Ask the students to think about the hidden object. What do they think it looks like? Can they ‘see’ the object in their minds? Talk about making mental pictures. Is what you ’saw’ in your mind the same as the real thing? Look at science objects with a magnifying glass. Can you see more than without it? Examine grass, soil, tree bark, leaves, etc., outdoors. Learn some Braille. Learn about the parts of the eye. Play ‘Blind Man’s Buff’ outdoors on the grass. (Some children may not want to be blindfolded….) Put the children in partners and blindfold one. Have the other child guide the blindfolded one on a short walk. Then trade places so everyone feels what it is like not to be able to see. Notice that things look small when they are far away and big when they are close. Do a colour theme as part of this unit. Talk about safety and the eyes. Our eyes can become damaged by a blow, sharp objects, looking at the sun, etc. Talk about the body’s way of keeping the eye clean and safe - the eye lid, blinking and tears.

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I Can See _______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________

I can see a ________________. It looks ___________________ and _____________________.

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Notes:

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Lesson 25 - The sense of hearing Review: Review the 5 senses and the sense of sight. Lesson: Stand where the children can’t see what you are doing - one idea is to stand several file folders up to give a screen. Have assembled in a bag or box some items that will make a noise. A speaking toy, a glass bottle or drinking glass and something metal to tap it, a whistle, a wind chime, a clock alarm, clapping hands, a bell, etc. Make each of the noises in turn, and see if the children know what is making the sound. Talk about how they are able to tell what the object is without seeing it. How do we hear things? Talk about the ears, and that sound travels through the air. Our ears pick up the sound in the air and send messages to the brain. What would it be like to be deaf? What are some things that you could not do if you could not hear? You would not be able to hear the teacher or your mother. You would not be able to hear a car coming or someone calling you. Many people are deaf. How are they able to know what people are saying? Some are able to read lips and some do sign language. You could teach some signs to the children if you wish….. and talk about other ’signs’ that we use all the time - the ’sh-sh-shhhh’ finger to the lips, gesturing for someone to come to you, etc. Have everyone in the class be perfectly still and quiet. What can you hear? Go outdoors and listen. What can you hear there? How do these sounds tell you things? The sounds may tell you that there are birds nearby, that cars are on the street, that the wind is blowing, etc. Listen to some lovely music, and listen to a story. Our sense of hearing gives us lots of information and pleasure! Follow-up exercise: Complete the sentences and illustrate what the student can hear. You may want to make some sounds, have children singing or play an instrument. If you give every child a different object, the sheets can be made up into a booklet. Desired lesson outcome: Understanding that hearing is one way we learn about the world.

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Additional Ideas Learn to play some simple instruments with recorded music. Talk about rhythm. Can the children make some musical instruments? Get a set of glasses and add a different amount of water to each to make the notes, make drum sticks, ring bells, make shakers, etc. We make sounds as we speak - can you speak in different ways? We can whisper, shout, speak in a high or a low voice, grown, squeak, etc. Have each child make a sound in turn. Have the other children describe what they hear. Can the others make the same or a similar sound? Do sound patterns. See if the students can copy the patterns that you make. Play classical, jazz, folk or other music at times during the day. Discuss the kinds of music and the artist or composer. Have the students read into a tape recorder and play their own voices back to see if it sounds the same as when they speak. Talk about safety and the ears, and the things that could put hearing in danger - sharp or other objects, very loud noise, etc. Use cotton balls or ear plugs so the children can see what it might be like to be hearing impaired. Talk about your favourite sounds. Some sounds are pleasant, some are funny, some can be scary or unpleasant. Talk about some sounds in each category.

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I Can Hear _______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________

I can hear a _______________. It sounds __________________.

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Notes:

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Lesson 26 - The sense of touch Review: Review the senses of sight and hearing. Lesson: What parts of the body do we use for the senses? Talk about the eyes, nose, mouth, ears. But what about the sense of touch? We think of it as the hands, but we can feel all over our bodies. We feel with our skin, but more than that - sometimes we can feel inside our bodies, too, when we get hurt. Use the term, ‘sense of touch’. Have a good selection of different textured objects. You might choose pieces of sand paper, cloth (cotton, satin, wool, silk, velvet, rough), plastic, orange or apple peel, sticky tape, carpet squares, rounded pebbles, sharp little rocks, water, sand, an ice cube, etc. Touch each of these and tell what it feels like. This is also a good language exercise. Collect interesting adjectives that tell how these things feel - rough, smooth, cold, hot, sticky, bumpy, etc. What do things in the immediate environment feel like? Touch the desk top, your hair, shoes, the carpet, a crayon, etc. Go outdoors and touch the things in the environment. Touch different trees and talk about how they feel. Touch the grass and leaves, sticks and pebbles. What can we learn by touching things? Take off the shoes and socks and go barefoot on the grass. Can you touch and feel with your feet? How does it feel? Can you feel more than one thing? Touch one thing with one hand and something different with the other. And if you have bare feet on the grass you may feel a third. Can you feel lots of things at the same time? Why do we feel scratches and sores on our bodies? Why are these painful? Follow-up exercise: Complete the sentences and illustrate what the student can touch. You may want to provide some objects that have a specific texture. If you give every child a different object, the sheets can be made up into a booklet. Desired lesson outcome: Understanding that touch is one way we learn about the world.

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Additional Ideas Touch many things and then vote to see which is the favourite texture. Why do you like this one? Make up one or more feeling bags. Put a variety of small objects in it. Each child can get a chance to put his/her hand inside and try to guess what the objects are. Can you feel with your fingernails? Your hair? If you could, how would it feel to have these cut? Talk about things you can’t feel. Brainstorm things that can’t be touched and talk about what senses you would use to learn about them. The feeling goes from nerve endings under the skin to the brain, and then the brain tells us what that feeling is like. If the feeling is painful or unpleasant, the brain tells to move away. If you touch something that is too hot, the brain says move away! Did you know? We can touch things and things can touch us! Hold hands with the person next to you! See if the students can recognize cut out or 3-D shapes by touch.

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I Can Touch _______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________

I can touch a _______________. It feels __________________.

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Notes:

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Lesson 27 - The sense of smell Review: Review the senses of sight, hearing and touch. Lesson: Collect a number of things that have odors. You could bring an orange, a peach, an onion, perfumes, soaps, cinnamon sticks, strawberries, lemon peel, bubble gum, cedar shavings, etc. Put each in a paper bag and ask the children to smell each. Can they tell what is in the bag by the smell? (This could also be done with closed eyes, putting the item under the nose.) Use interesting vocabulary to discuss the smells. We could use strong, weak, flowery, perfumed, fruity, etc. Talk about smells that can’t be put into a bag. Smoke from a bonfire, the smell of a barbeque, the smell of a bakery or candy store, popcorn popping, etc. What part of the body do we use to smell? Talk about the nose. The smell is in the air and we breathe it in. The nose sends messages to the brain and the brain tells you about the smell. Some smells we will recognize and some we may not. Some smells are pleasant! Can the students tell you about some pleasant smells? Some smells are unpleasant. They will be able to tell you some of those! Some smells warn us of danger - smelling smoke or food that is not good to eat. What happens if you have a cold? You can’t smell things if your nose is not breathing well. Many animals have a much better sense of smell than people do. Can the children tell you about any? Dogs have a very good sense of smell. If you were lost, a dog could find you by following your smell that is left on grass and leaves. Did you know that each person smells differently to a dog? Many of our foods smell very good! Can the children name some foods that smell good? Pizza, chicken cooking, apple pie, and many others smell delicious. Follow-up exercise: Complete the sentences and illustrate what the student can smell. You may want to provide some objects that have an odor. If you give every child a different object or a piece of fruit, the sheets can be made up into a booklet. Desired lesson outcome: Understanding that smell is one way we learn about the world.

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Additional Ideas The sense of smell gets tired! When we first smell something it may smell very strongly, but after a minute or so you may not be able to smell it. Discuss the nose. What do you use the nose for? Talk about the different noses that people have, and the different animal noses. Buy a variety of smelly stickers. See if the children can identify the scent without seeing the sticker pictures. Brainstorm things that have an odor - and then decide if they are pleasant or unpleasant.

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I Can Smell _______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________

I can smell a _______________. It smells __________________.

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Notes:

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Lesson 28 - The sense of taste Review: Review the senses of sight, hearing, touch and smell. Lesson: There is one more way we can learn about the world. That is the sense of taste. There are four widely different tastes - sweet, savory, sour and bitter. Put out for each child - a wrapped ‘kiss’, a potato chip or cracker for the savory, a piece of lemon or a dill pickle for sour, and a piece of radicchio, which is mildly bitter (or well-washed dandelion leaves or banana peel). Have the children try each of these, but give some time between each taste so the palate is fresher. Use the word to talk about the taste. All the foods we eat are in these 4 categories, but, of course, many foods are a mix of the flavours. Many young children have lots of likes and dislikes of food, and often will not try new foods. To encourage them to try unfamiliar foods, make a class fruit salad. Go to your local market and buy a variety of fruits, especially the odd ones. You can get a variety of apples, melons, soft fruit and many others. If you have a Chinese market nearby, they often have fruit items that are different, too. Buy a pineapple, cocoanut, plums, mango, pomegranate, kiwi, and others. As you make the salad, give each child a small piece of each to try. You may want to have these ready ahead to save time. Have them eat all at the same time and talk about the flavour. As most fruits are delicious and the children will enjoy them, the more reticent kids will be encouraged to try with the others. Talk about each taste and whether it is sweet, sour, savory or bitter. You can also review the other senses while making the salad. Talk about how the different fruits look, how they feel and how they smell. Finally, cut all the fruit into bite-sized bits and make a big salad. Everyone can have a small bowl to see how it tastes all together. Follow-up exercise: Complete the sentences and illustrate what the student can taste. You may want to provide some food bits. If you give every child a different object, the sheets can be made up into a booklet. Desired lesson outcome: Understanding that taste is one way we learn about the world.

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Additional Ideas You can also make a vegetable salad with the students, or dip plates with different tastes. Go in partners. One gives a gum drop or jellybean to the other and tastes to name the flavour. Do this with several different flavours. Can they name the flavour without seeing the colour? There is a selection of jelly beans from Jelly Belly where there are dozens of different flavours. This is really neat! Can the children tell what some of the stranger ones are? When the students are eating their lunches, talk about the flavours there. Are there lots of different flavours and tastes in the lunches? We want the children to be aware of taste.

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I Can Taste _______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________

I can taste a _______________. It tastes __________________.

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Notes:

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Lesson 29 - The ‘Five Senses’ Review: Review the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Lesson: Review the senses and the parts of the body that help us learn about the world. Brainstorm sentences beginning with the following: I use my eyes to see……. (my teacher……. my book…… my mother and father….., etc.) I use my ears to hear ….. (music…… my mother calling me……., etc. I use my nose to smell…… (dinner cooking…… Mom’s perfume……, etc.) I use my mouth to taste…… (my lunch….. ice cream……. pizza…. etc.) I use my hands to feel …… (my hair……. the scissors….. my dog’s fur….., etc.) Give out the little book that goes with this lesson. Have the students put their own endings to the sentences. Give them the words they need to spell the items correctly. Then they can illustrate the book. On the front page they can draw a self portrait of a head and a hand to show the body parts that go with the five senses. Follow-up exercise: Doing the little book is the day’s exercise. Make sure the students can read all the words and you can do a guided reading lesson to teach the vocabulary. Desired lesson outcome: Reviewing the five senses and how they help us learn about the world.

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Additional Ideas Take your children outdoors and give each a brown paper lunch bag. Ask each child to secretly pick up just one item - it could be a leaf, a stick, a pebble, a piece of grass, a flower, etc., or they could bring an item from home. Back in the classroom, ask the children to think about their items and the five senses. Can they see, hear, touch, smell or taste their object? What does it look like? If it makes a sound, what kind of sound? How does it feel if you touch it? Does it have a smell? Is the smell pleasant or unpleasant? Should you taste it? If yes, how does it taste? Print the five senses on the chalkboard or chart. Have the children do a sharing time where the other children ask questions to guess the objects. If several classes are doing the 5 senses unit, you could have stations where all the children go around to do activities on each. Go on a sensory scavenger hunt. Ask the children to find certain things - a colour, a scent, a shape, a surface, something noisy, etc.

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