Core Knowledge Foundation
A Time for All Seasons - Summer
The sun is shining and the birds are singing, what better time to teach young learners about the fun season of summer. In this week-long science series, children learn how the rotation and orbit of the earth influence the days and...
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Chalkboard Challenge
Here's a terrific Jeopardy-style game that's designed for 3rd and 4th grade students of science. The topics include living things, animals, plants, matter, and "hodge-podge." The questions are all age appropriate, and there is an...
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
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Fact or Opinion: Animals
How many legs do spiders have? Is that an opinion, or is it a fact? Complete a worksheet with four sets of five questions about different animals and their attributes, noting whether each statement is a fact or an opinion.
PBS
Season Seeking
It's a time of change. A hands-on activity engages young scientists in a lesson highlighting the change of seasons. They brainstorm indicators of season changes in nature and then look for them. Next, they record observations in a field...
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The Seasonal Cycle
Students complete a unit of lessons on the four seasons. They examine the effect each season has on plants, animals, and people during the actual season, read magazine and newspaper articles, and create a calendar and poster about each...
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Let's Get Warm!
Students investigate various methods that animals use to warm up in cold weather. They also explore the science principals involved. They then identify a human parallel, discuss what we can learn from nature, and create multimedia...
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Migration
Students study reasons for and examples of bird migration as a behavioral adaptation. They investigate the Bernoulli's Principles.
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Turtle Lesson
Students explore the five common turtles that are native to the eastern United States. They investigate each turtle's characteristics, environment, means of protection, eating habits, and show how they can help these turtles survive.
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Pets: Oh Behave
Students develop an understanding of how innate and learned behaviors and the environment determine behavior. They see how a variety of factors affects our pet's behavior-including species-specific traits, the environment, training, and...
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Weather and Seasons: Mt. Seymour Winter Fieldtrip
Students explore winter adaptations and glare. In this winter weather instructional activity, students discuss the season of winter and how animals and plants adapt to the changing weather. Students discuss the glare off snow and make...
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Charlotte's Web
Students examine the story, "Charlotte's Web" in the nine lessons of this unit. As the students progress through the book, they will explore the story plot, setting, character, and the value of friendship.
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Brown Bears
Students read books and facts to learn about the brown bear. In this brown bear lesson plan, students also color coloring pages, and make a paper bag craft.
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At the Crossroads
Third graders explore where South Africa is and then research details about the country to fully assess the background to the book, "At the Crossroads." They receive a map of Africa and color in the country of South Africa and list five...
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Life Cycles
Using computers, Students work in small groups and progress through the roles of Explorer, Researcher, Designer, and Evaluator as they study the life cycle of plants, insects, butterflies and frogs.
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Groundhog Day
Learners use the SMART Board to learn about Groundhog day and create a tally chart of predictions for whether he will see his shadow or not. In this Groundhog day lesson plan, students respond to questions throughout the lesson.
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Pets: Oh Behave
Young scholars develop an understanding of how innate and learned behaviors and the environment determine behavior.
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Learned Behavior
In this learned behavior learning exercise, students review different types of learned behavior including habituation and trial-and-error learning. This learning exercise has 7 short answer, 8 matching, and 10 fill in the blank questions.
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Turtle Fun Facts
In this turtles learning exercise, students read two pages of facts about turtles. Students match four kinds of turtle pictures to their habitats.
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Meadow Mammals Crossword Puzzle
In this meadow mammals activity, students complete a crossword puzzle about meadow mammals. Students complete 25 blanks in the crossword puzzle.
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Fearsome Creatures 2
In this fearsome creatures worksheet, students choose the correct words to fill in the blanks to sentences about dangerous animals. Students complete this for 10 animals.
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Tick-Tock: Biological Clock
Learners complete several activities that stimulate their assessment of time. They consider the term 'biological clock' and how animals in the wild depend on their own internal clocks for survival.
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Adaptable Animals
Pupils examine the types of adaptations that animals use to survive. They research the animals and report their findings to the class.
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Make a Cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex Fossil
Second graders examine the formation of fossils and list the different types. They make cast model of a dinosaur fossil. They write about conditions that are necessary for fossils to form and create a model of a buried fossil.