The College of New Jersey School of Education Bianca Venice and Heather Wuest Title: Individual Animal Project

Grade Level: 1st grade Cooperating Teacher: Ms. Tindall Time Allotted: 45 minutes Description of Topic: Students will use different resources to collect facts about their assigned sea animal. The students will create a mask of their animal. The students will present their animal report and their mask to their parents. Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.1.4 Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.8 With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure Objectives Students will collect basic information about their sea animal from different resources. Students will present their animal report and mask to their parents and classmates with confidence and clear expression of ideas. Assessments The teacher will scaffold the students research skills, and take note of the students ability to recall information from the provided sources. The teacher will observe the students oral presentation of the material.

Materials: Non-fiction sea animal books, laptop, magazines, My Animal Report worksheets, crayons, scissors, glue, masks Prior Knowledge: Students will have newly acquired knowledge from other ocean lessons. Most students will also have seen pictures or movies or read books about their animal prior to the unit. Most students will begin their sea animal report with h a primitive knowledge of their sea animal/ Hook (5 minutes): The teacher will tell the students that each table is going to get to research a different animal The teacher will play the Who am I game with the students so each table will be given the chance to guess their animal.

Procedure :( 30 minutes) 1. The teacher will begin by modeling for the students how to find information about their animal from the books. 2. The teacher will distribute the My animal report worksheets to the students. 3. The teacher will issue the different books to the different students. The students will do their research while the teacher walks around to assist the students understanding. 4. The teacher will distribute the materials to the students. 5. The teacher will show the students his or her mask. The teacher will work step by step with the students on their masks

Closure: (10 minutes) The students will present their animal report and mask to their parents on the last day celebration. Questions: 1. What does your animal eat? 2. What is your animals habitat? 3. What is the coolest fact you found about your animal? 4. What book did you use?

Classroom Management: The students will sit in their previously assigned mixed level groups. The ESL students are near one another and can assist each other with the activity. The teacher will utilize the whole brain learning strategies for managing the classroom including Hands and eyes, hands and eyes and Bring it back bring it back bring it back now. The teacher will hand out the My Sea Animal Report printouts to the students. The students will use the crayons they have in their desks. The teacher will hand out glue and scissors to students who do not have their own. Students working conscientiously will be placed on the happy list. Students who are off-task will be placed on the sad list. Differentiation: The lower-leveled and ESL students will be given more guidance with their animal report. The teacher will have specialized resources for the ESL students and lower-leveled students. Their resources will display pictures over the difficult words to scaffold their understanding. The ESL students will be given a support sheet which will highlight key terms of the lesson for the students. They are seated together at their desks so they are able to support each other during the activities. The sheet will contain the word placed next to its picture. It will also contain regularly used classroom phrases to provide them with more comfort and therefore enhancing their development and learning in the classroom. The higher leveled students will pick out a challenge from the Challenge Bucket to complete while the other students finish working.

Transitions: The students will remain at their desks during the research process. The teacher will call up student by student to present their research report.