LESSON PLAN

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Year level: 4

Students prior knowledge:

Date: 18/03/2015

(In order to complete this lesson, students must)

Be able to recognise characteristics of

Time: 130-2pm

living things such as growing, moving,

Learning area: Science

sensitivity and reproduction (ACSSU044)

Strand/s: Biological sciences

Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)

Be able to follow instructions

Be able to work with other students in a
friendly manner
Be competent in the use of iPads, in
particular PicCollage and QR Reader
applications

General capabilities:
Literacy

Numeracy

ICT

Creative and

Ethical

Personal and social

Intercultural

competence

critical thinking

behaviour

competence

understanding

Cross-curriculum priorities:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Asia and Australias engagement

histories and cultures

with Asia

Sustainability

Proficiencies: (Mathematics only) n/a

Lesson objectives: (That is, anticipated outcomes of this lesson, in point form beginning with action verb)
As a result of this lesson, students willIdentify and explain life stages of a living thing - Cognitive (ACSSU072)
Create a life cycle diagram for that living thing using ICT Psychomotor (ACMSP069)
Work collaboratively with group members Affective (ACELY1676)

Teachers prior preparation/organisation:

Provision for students at educational risk:

*Lab coat

*Students with a physical injury may not

*Hula hoop or bicycle

be able to participate on mat session and

*Teacher iPad (PicCollage/QR Reader/web)

will need to remain at desk

*Student iPads (one per student -

* Students with a vision impairment will

PicCollage/QR Reader/web)

sit closer to the front for a clearer

*IWB/TV with working connection for iPad

view

*Images uploaded to teacher iPad for

model of human life cycle in PicCollage

*Enable- Students will have more guidance

*Lanyards (coloured images of living

and be strategically given less difficult

things, coloured card, QR barcodes, hole

living thing

punch, string)

*Extend- Prepare a script for

*Confirm attention-grabbing strategies

presentation to the class (ACELY1677)

used by class teacher

Lesson delivery: (Attach worksheets, examples, marking key etc. as relevant)

Time
130-135pm

Resources

Section
TRANSITION
Mrs Tomlinson transitions from lunch and introduces ND
Student-Teachers,

splits

class

into

two

groups

for

Science & Maths lessons

135-140pm

INTRODUCTION
1. Students are called to the mat and asked to sit

Lab coat

quietly until start of lesson

Thank you for having us in your class, we hope that you
learn as much from us as we will from you
2. Review

prior

knowledge

of

the

seven

characteristics of living things as told by Mrs

Gren
Do you all remember who Mrs Gren is? What is it that Mrs
Gren

helps

us

to

remember?

What

are

the

seven

characteristics of living things?

3. Link Mrs Gren to life cycles
So we can see that it is helpful for us to remember Mrs
Gren;

by

remembering

her

we

remember

the

seven

characteristics of living things. But Mrs Gren is an

older lady in the last stage of her life and as such she
can be a little forgetful...she doesnt tell us that all
living things have life cycles.
140-155pm

BODY
4. Discuss the term life cycle
When we talk about cycles we are talking about sequences
of events that repeat themselves. Imagine a bicycle

Hula hoop or

wheel turning around and around. A life cycle defines

bicycle

the stages of a living thing. Today we are going to

research

the

life

cycles

of

some

different

living

things.
5. Students are handed a lanyard each as motivation
for the activity
Here we have a lanyard for everybody and on each lanyard
is a living thing, we would like you to wear it as you
would a necklace.

Lanyards

6. Students are grouped according to their living

thing
Now there are other students in the class with the same
living thing as you have. On my instruction you are to
find your matching lanyards and sit back on the mat in
those groups. Everybody on their feet... Go!
7. Students are given instructions for the activity
In the groups that you have just formed we would like
you to research the life cycle of the living thing that
is hanging around your neck, and use PicCollage to create
a life cycle diagram of that living thing to share with
the class. In each group there needs to be one or two
Researchers and one Designer. The job of the Researchers
is to discover as much as you can about the life cycle
of your living thing, and feed this information to the
Designer who will use PicCollage to create a life cycle
diagram. On the back of your cards are some barcodes and
if you scan these with the QR Reader app on your iPads
you will be directed to some good resources that will
help with your research.
8. Students are shown an example of the final product
by using a pre-prepared PicCollage to show the
life cycle of a human, projected to IWB/TV via
connection
Before we get started in your groups we thought it might
be helpful to show you a work sample with the life cycle

Teacher iPad

of a human. Please no laughing at the images because

(PicCollage/

this is me! Yours does not need to look like this, you

internet),

can be as creative as you like, in fact we encourage

IWB/TV with

that, however it must have as a minimum the following:

working

it must have a title, so in this case we will have Life

connection

cycle of a human. We have a resource here and you

for iPad

will find your resources via your QR Reader app - that

tells us that a human has six stages in their life cycle,
so we are looking for six images to reflect those stages.
We would suggest that as the Researcher is exploring the
different stages, they are telling the Designer who is
searching

for

appropriate

images

to

reflect

those

stages. Our resource tells us that the stages are foetus,

baby,

childhood,

adolescence,

adulthood

and

old

age/elderly and so we need to create labels to identify

each image (I hope you will all agree that I havent
reached old age yet so this example doesnt show that

stage, but your collages will show all stages). We also

need to include arrows to show the direction of the life
cycle. We will leave this example up so you can refer
to it as you are making your own, and we will be roaming
around to assist where needed. Does everyone understand
the task? Are there any questions? You will each need
an iPad so please make sure you have these before finding
a space in the classroom to work in your groups. You
might also like to take a pen and some paper to make
notes or you might like to make a draft before creating
the diagram in PicCollage. Where are my chickens? If you
could please get what you need and find a space to work
from. Where are my flies? ... Pumpkins? Frogs?
9. Students work in groups to research the life cycle
of their living thing and create a life cycle
diagram in PicCollage

(PicCollage/

[Student Teachers to roam classroom ensuring students

QR Reader/

are on-task, available for any questions, observation

internet)

for assessment...]
155-2pm

CONCLUSION
10. Students save their PicCollage creations and move
to the mat when invited (stagger, per group)
11. Teacher explains that every living thing has its
own life cycle but that most life cycles follow a
similar pattern.
12. Students

are

invited

to

share

what

they

have

created with the class, explaining the different

stages of the life cycle of their living thing,
or do a gallery walk
13. Provide feedback and question students on lesson
You all worked very well today! What did you enjoy the
most? Did you find anything difficult? What did you
learn?
2pm

Student iPads

TRANSITION
14. Students put away their iPads, return to their
desks and quietly await further instructions

Lesson evaluation: (To be completed AFTER the lesson)

Assessment of lesson objectives and suggestions for improvement:
*Questioning and evaluation of life cycle diagram against a rubric will be used to
determine: Did students identify the life stages of living things, and could they
explain them?
*Over-the-shoulder observation will be used to determine: Did students use the iPads
effectively?
*An observation grid will be used to determine: Did students work collaboratively with
group members?

Teacher self-reflection and evaluation:

Lesson plan will be marked up with anecdotal notes on* Student interest in lesson
* Student participation in lesson
* Lesson objectives met/not met
* Parts of lesson completed/not completed
* Effective teaching strategies
* Classroom management
* Opportunities for improvement
Regular class teacher and Student-Teachers assisting will be asked to evaluate lesson
against assessment rubric (Teacher and peer assessment)

[OFFICIAL USE ONLY] Comments by classroom teacher, HOPP, supervisor