Lesson Plan Template ED 3501 (Version C)

Lesson
Title/Focus

Lesson 8: Building Houses

Date

December 3rd 2015

Subject/Gra
de Level

Science
Grade 1

Time
Duratio
n

35 Minutes

Unit

Topic C: Building Things

Teacher

Miss Benson

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General
Learning
Outcomes:
Specific
Learning
Outcomes:

1-7. Construct Objects and models of objects, using a variety of different materials.
Students will select appropriate materials, such as papers, plastics, woods;
and design and build objects based on the following kinds of construction
tasks.
Construct model buildings; e.g., homes (human)
Students will be able to identify component parts of personally constructed
objects, and describe the purpose of each part.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Students will be able to recall terminology important within the building unit.
2. Students will be able to construct a model that represents a house.
3. Students will be able to identify the component parts that create a house.

ASSESSMENTS
Observations:

Key Questions:

Products/Performan
ces:

Students will be able to recall the terms materials and fastener as we

have been spending a lot of time on these two terms and they are very
important when building things.
Students will be able to build a house with the given materials.
Students will be able to explain the important components of a house and
why they may be important.
Can students recall what materials and fasteners are?
Cans students explain the important parts of the house and why we may
be putting this on our house?
Can students construct their houses independently or with very little
guidance?
Students know to stay well behaved and show respect during the lesson.
Students will be on task and engaged when discussing during the story
and when reading the story.
Students will be able to construct their own house with the given
materials and explain what materials and what fasteners they have used
on their house.
Students will be engaged when building their houses.
Students will be formatively assessed on their overall product and
performance of their house. Of course, their creativity cannot be assessed
as that is not the point of the lesson, but students need to be able to
construct objects with given materials independently.

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Alberta Program of Study- Science Grade 1
Edmonton Public Schools Building Things Unit
Plan
Science Alberta- Lets do Science

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

The House that Jack Built
Construction Paper (red, black, yellow,
blue)
Mini Cereal Boxes x 13

PROCEDURE
Prior to lesson

Have all materials ready prior to the lesson. This requires cutting
out the paper for students so that they can trace the correct size for
their box.
Introduction
Time

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Attention Grabber
Assessment of
Prior Knowledge

Expectations for
Learning and
Behavior

Advance
Organizer/Agenda

Transition to Body

Learning Activity
#1

Lesson Plan Template ED 3501 (Version C)

Students will already be ready in their desks, in order to grab
30
their attention; we will do some quick crossovers to get their
seconds
brains focused and ready to learn about science!
Have a quick discussion at the beginning of the lesson will
ensure that students are in the science zone. We have been
looking at different houses and what we need to do when we
build a house. When we read the Three Little Pigs, we talked
about the right materials we need. Can we build our houses out
of sticks and hay? Why not? We also talked about different
fasteners and what could be some fasteners that we could use
1 minute
when building a house?
This discussion will ensure that students have been focused
and have gained knowledge from the past few lessons. This will
also act as a reminder to students as to what we have learned,
as they tend to get confused if I just say What did we learn in
science yesterday?
Today is very focused on construction and building of
our house. Students are expected to have their listening
on and showing respect towards whoever is talking.
Building a house can be tricky, so we need to make sure
that we are listening to directions and when Miss.
Benson is talking, we are not talking, we are listening
and we are not playing with anything on our desks.
In addition, when students are constructing, I need to
make sure that they are staying on task and not
becoming distracted with all of the manipulatives.
Students need to be aware of expectations when we are
constructing things and will need to be reinforced of the
rules. (Do we use a lot of glue and create a puddle on
our boxes? Etc.) Ensure that students are not throwing
their materials around and making a larger mess, and if
they do they have to clean it up at the end.
Daily agenda is on the board at the beginning of the day. This
allows for students to have prior knowledge on what is
expected which allows them to get into the science zone.
All Materials will be organized and ready so that when we begin
building it doesnt take aware from our building time.
Yesterday we planned what we wanted our house to look like,
and now today we are going to build one. Lets read a quick
story on a house that Jack Built so we can learn even more
about houses. Can we move over to my chair please boys and
girls?
Body
Reading of a Story: The House that Jack Built
This story will get students minds into constructing and
building a house
Before reading: ask students if they can tell me what the
purpose of a people home is? Why do they need to be
strong? What materials do they need? What can we use as
fasteners.
During reading, ensure that students are paying attention
and are focused on the story.
Ask students to focus on different things that may be in
Jacks house or comparing Jacks house to our houses.
When the story is finished, as the students to stand up and
sit back down at their desks to get ready for our next

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

30
seconds.
Time
8 minutes

Lesson Plan Template ED 3501 (Version C)

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Learning Activity
#2
This is more of
transition to
prepare students
for the building
activity than a
learning activity.

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Learning Activity
#3

activity.
At this point in the lesson, I will not be assessing the students,
as this is an introduction to what we will be doing for today. A
story tends to be a great transition for the students between
lessons and allows them to get into the science mind. This
learning activity almost acts as an assessment of prior
knowledge as I am touching on things that students should be
aware of based on previous lessons.
In order to differentiate this lesson, students may require some
guided questions when discussing during the story.
Discussion of the story/Transition into the building
activity
Today we are going to build houses, and instead of it
being the house that jack built; it will be the house that
you built.
Yesterday we were architects and now today we are
builders.
Explain to students what we will be doing and show
them an example of what we will be making.
Ensure that the students know that their house does not
need to look identical to Miss Bensons.
Show them all of the materials that we will be using and
explain the expectations of the students when we are
creating.
Once students are aware of the expectations, have one
student from each row come grab the cereal boxes for
their row and hand them out and students can get to
work.

3-5
minutes

Not required for this learning activity.

Today we are builders; Lets Build our houses.
NOTE: This activity is going to take majority of the class
and is meant to be taken step-by-step so that the
students can fully understand the directions and then
less confusion can occur with what students are
expected to do.
Important: Students will need to be able to identify the
component parts of the house and why we need each
different part on our house. Ensure that students are
aware and contributing to conversation when we are
discussing a new part of our house.
Step 1: Students will be given a mini cereal box and the
first step that they will have to do, is tape their cereal
box shut. They will be given two pieces of tape that they
will have to use to shut their top and bottom with.
When students are done this activity, they will raise
their hand and I will give them their next material that
they will need.
Step 2: When majority of class is done taping their
boxes together, we will move onto measuring the sides
of the box to cut paper and glue it onto the cereal box. It
is important that I am not waiting for all students to
finish, as the students that finish quite quickly will be
bored and become distractions within the class. As long
as there are only around 3 students not quite finished
then we can move on to the next step. If students did
not quite finish before the next step, they need to

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

25
minutes

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Consolidation of
Learning:

Lesson Plan Template ED 3501 (Version C)

remember to finish the first step, in order to get the
material for the next step.
Students will not be actually measuring the exact length
of paper they will need, but they will be tracing their
boxes and cutting their paper from the lines that they
have traced.
While students are cutting their paper out, I will be
handing out their white glue, so that once they are done
cutting they can begin gluing their papers to their
house.
Step 3: The next step is the roof. For this part of the
activity, have students gather around the front of the
classroom, so that while I am giving further instructions,
students will not have any distractions near them. This
will ensure that all students are focused when I am
giving instructions, which will lead to fewer questions
after.
Show students how they will be creating the roof and
what they will need to do.
Once students know what they are doing, they can go
back to their desks to finish up their houses.
Step 4: Adding a door and some windows. This is where
students have much more creative freedom to make
their houses unique. Students will be using construction
paper to put a door onto their desk. Ask the students
what shape a door is? This shows that they are aware of
what they should be cutting. They can put one door on
the front or one door on the back? Or both.
It is important for students to know to make the door on
a hinge, so that means we will only be gluing it on the
one side so that we can open our door to our house.
(This will allow for us to transition to door hinges in the
building unit at a later date).
This is the same for the windows, as students will be
able to put their windows wherever is most appropriate
in the house and can apply as many as they would like.
They can apply them on the sides, front or back.
It is important that we leave about 5 minutes for clean
up at the end and to wrap up what we have done today.
Note: This activity has potential of not being completed in just
one lesson, which is completely fine, but these are the steps for
the full building activity and with watching the clock, I will be
able to determine the appropriate time to stop if we start to cut
close on time.
Students will be assessed on their construction of their houses.
Students will be assessed on their ability to understand the
concept of building a house independently. Of course, students
will have questions, but they are expected to be doing a
majority of the work on their own. This activity is for students to
receive hands on learning experience to look at different ways
of building. When students are building houses they need to be
aware of what materials and what fastener and the properties
of those are appropriate to be using.
Closure
Time
Review of what we have done today. Discuss the story and our
1-2
discussion during and after the story. In order for students to
minutes
show what they have learned ensure that students that they
realize that materials and fasteners do matter when we are

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Feedback From
Students:

Feedback To
Students
Transition To Next
Lesson

Lesson Plan Template ED 3501 (Version C)

building and the properties affect its structure. Ensure that
students realize that they cant build an ACTUAL house out of
these materials, but this was to show that we could build a
model similar within our grade 1 classroom.
With students answering the questions from the consolidation
of learning and taking part in discussion, I will be able to gain
feedback from students as to how much they understand. A
direct question of feedback would be Did you like building the
houses? to see if this is something that we can do in future
classes with other concepts.
Great Work Today Boys and Girls! You are all awesome builders,
and all of your houses look fantastic. I think that we can build
even more different objects.
Depending on how todays lesson goes, next lesson will be
used to finish our houses or even to look at a specific part of
building such as door hinges, or pop up cards.

Sponge
Activity/Activities

There shouldnt be a need for a sponge activity, but if students do finish

completely building their houses, students can share their houses and
explain what materials and fasteners they would use when they build their
actual houses.
Since this lesson is right before recess, if lesson ends 2 minutes early,
students can go get their winter gear on as it takes them so long to get
ready for such a short recess.

Reflections from the

lesson

Loved how this lesson turned out!! A major success that helped this lesson
was passing the materials out as students needed them, and also step-bystep instructions as a majority of students finished. Something that also
helped motivate students was the use of positive reinforcement. I was so
concerned for this lesson as building an object can be a lot for a grade 1
student.. Breaking the steps up and going slow helped students not to
become overwhelmed. We were unable to finish our houses completely, but
we ended at a perfect spot as I can introduce an important topic (door
hinges) and then finish. (Touches on KSA 6). With having step by step
procedure, KSA 5 was met as students were able to move on if they were
done and if they werent/t quite finished then they could keep working.
Overall very happy with this lesson I have been focusing on my use of
vocabulary and trying not to use can you? or will you? Also, my time
management seemed to be much better during this block as I was able to
actually do a closure. Progress

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe