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Lesson 1: Animals
Unit 6: Life Science, Part 2
Explore
Activity 1
Advance Preparation
Place the plastic animals (one for each student)
inside the mystery cup. You will use these animals
for several discussions with your students. If you
are unable to locate small plastic animals, the
animal photo cards can be used.
Gather five sorting circles or prepare chart paper
with circles for sorting.
Teacher Instruction
Gather students for a whole-group discussion.
Ask: How man
y legs do animals have? Animals have 2, 4, 6, or 8 legs, and some
have none. (Write each number on a sticky note to label the sorting circles.)
Display the sorting circles and place one sticky note label in each circle.
Pass the mystery cup to one student and instruct the student to remove one
animal from the bag.
Instruct the student to display the animal for the class, identify the animal, and tell
how man
y legs the animal has.
Instruct the student to place the animal on the correct sorting circle.
Allow each
student to have a turn then create a graph using the animals.
Remove the sticky note label from one of the circles and place it in an open area.
Be sure enough space exists to create a graph using all of the animals.
Materials
Activity 1
For teacher
marker
sticky notes
mystery cup from
Unit 1, Lesson 2
Engage
small plastic
animals,
including
fish, zoo and
farm animals,
amphibians,
birds, and
insects
sorting circles or
chart paper with
circles for sorting
Teacher Note Teacher Note
For the Explore activities,
use small, plastic lifelike
animals. These animals can be
purchased from craft and/or toy
stores or online.
Teacher Note Teacher Note
Students need to understand
that animals have limbs. For
this lesson, limbs are defined
as arms, fins, flippers, legs,
and bird wings. Activity 1 will
focus on the number of legs for
each animal then the number
of limbs for each animal.
0
2
4
6
8
