Animal Lesson 2

5/23/2013
Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Template
Name: Mary Horvath Lesson Title: Food Chain Shuffle

Date: Grade Level: Preschool Circle one: ECE PKSN
Standard(s)/Guideline(s):
Cognition and General Knowledge, Science Inquiry and Application, Inquiry: Describe, compare, sort, classify, and order.
Language and Literacy, Listening and Speaking, Expressive Language: With modeling and support, use words acquired through conversations and shared
reading experiences. (Vocabulary)
Pre-assessment of current knowledge: I will do a lesson about predators versus prey so that learning will be a pre-assessment of what students know about
many predators and prey in a food chain.
Instructional Objectives (2-3) Assessment of Student Learning Learning Experience

Academic Language:
Two- Three Assessed Identify Evidence: Food chain, producer, primary consumers, secondary
Instructional Objective(s): The teacher should make a checklist for each student with consumers, predator, prey, organism, animal, plant
how many pictures the students placed in the correct
The student will be able to order. Pictures of their work can also be taken. (For Procedural steps:
distinguish where animals should example, if there are three spots on a food chain, how 1. In groups of 4-6, the teacher will show students a
go on a food chain by sorting, many out of three was each student able to get correct). pre-made, filled-out food chain with examples and
describing, ordering, and Anecdotal records can also be taken to see if students labels.
comparing pictures of animals. where able to use the vocabulary they just learned 2. The teacher will go through the food chain, defining
throughout the lesson. vocabulary and answering any questions the
The student will be able to use students may have. The teacher can also connect
vocabulary learned through this Program Monitoring: this learning to their previous lesson about predators
lesson and the previous one about Based on the checklist, if 80% of the class was able to get and prey.
while describing their experience. each picture in the correct spot, the class can move on. If 3. Each student will be given a food chain template
not, this might be a topic worth revisiting using literature, with vocabulary labels and pictures of different
One Assessed Developmental videos, and more sentence stems to scaffold learning. If organisms that are a part of a certain food chain.
Skill: 70% can use at least one academic language term during 4. Students will place the pictures of the organisms
The student will be able to the activity, the class can move on. If not, teachers should where they think they belong on the food chain.
physically manipulate and place emphasize vocabulary implementation in another lesson 5. After all the students are done, the teacher and
pictures on the food chain map. like this but also other lessons so students can practice group will discuss their findings, what they thought
this skill. was difficult or easy as well as fix any
Safety Considerations: misconceptions still had.
Students use the paper materials
in an appropriate way making sure Authentic Materials:
to not hurt themselves or others by Food chain templates, pictures of organisms
throwing them.
Adult Roles:
Give instructions
Guide small group investigations
Scaffold learning
Guide final discussion and provide sentence stems
5/23/2013
Early Childhood Education
Learning Experience Template
Resources & References:

*attached separately
Reflection: (What have you learned about your students? How will this inform future instruction?)
I learned that some of my students remembered more about the previous lesson than others. During the pre-assessment some students
were able to supply more information about predators and prey. Some students remembered everything, some just needed a reminder, and others
pretty much forgot everything. Next time, maybe I will leave the anchor chart somewhere in the classroom so students are actively able to come
back to the lesson and be constantly reminded.
The students really wanted to get the order right. However, it was easier to start with parts rather than the food chain as a whole. Many of
them were able to narrow it down by having them start with the “big predator”. Then they could decide which one was the “small prey”. Some of the
students, about six of them, needed a little prompting. Usually for this if I just asked, “Which one eats the other?” they were able to figure it out.
They definitely struggled more with the two preys. Next time, I would scaffold this learning more for some students by having one of the
animals/organisms already placed so they could decide between the two. This would make it less overwhelming and also give them a better chance
at getting it correct! At the end of the day, some students thrived, some needed a little prompting, and some did not care enough to really try.
While this was my last lesson for this concept, this concept could still continue being built. Another lesson that could be built on this one
could be a food web. Students are beginning to understand food chains, but they could also explore “horizontal/diagonal” relationships rather than
just “vertical” relationships. This could be done similarly to this activity but with different box layouts that represent a food web. However, I would
keep reviewing predators and prey to make sure this foundation is built before continuing on with this idea.

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5/23/2013

Early Childhood Education

Name: Mary Horvath Lesson Title: Food Chain Shuffle

Instructional Objectives (2-3) Assessment of Student Learning Learning Experience

Resources & References:

back to the lesson and be constantly reminded.

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