Third Grade Lesson Plan on Living Systems SOL 3.4

This blog introduces a Virginia specific Standards Of Learning concept related to Living Systems for third grade. The information came from Virginia Department of Education website. The Standard is 3.4 reads as follows:

"The student will investigate and understand relationships among organism in aquatic and terrestrial food chains. Key concepts include:

a. producer, consumer, decomposer
b. herbivore, carnivore, ominivore; and
c. predator and prey."

"The standard focuses on student understanding of the food chain in water and on land environments. It focuses on the types of relationships among living things and their dependence on each other for survival. The strand focuses on the life processess of plants and animals and the specific needs of each."

The following lesson came from the Virginia Department of Education's Science Enhanced Scope and Sequence for Grade 3. Adjustments can be made based on the needs of your students.

At the conclusion of the lessons, students should be able to differentiate between predators and prey.

The Essential Question is: Why do predators and prey act the way they do?

Materials Include: Acorn or othe shelled nuts, four large circles cut from brown paper, Predator/Prey Game Cards, Headbands for each student, staplers, Science journals, Clay, Writing paper, Books about animals. Other resources can be found at


http://www.oaklandzoo.org/

http://predatorconservation.com/carnivores.htm


Anticipatory Set.

Introduce the lesson by having student sit in a circle to play a quick game of "Mouse, Mouse, Owl. Talk about what each of the two players in the game did. The owl chased or hunted while the mouse ran and tried to stay alive. Introduce vocabulary. The owl is the predator and the mouse is the prey.

Procedure.

Activity 1
Have student to play "Predator/Prey Charades" as follows.
1. Pair students and have them work as teams. Each team takes a turn choosing and then acting out a predator-prey combination, such as:

baleen whale/krill
weasel/hare
bat/mosquito
woodpecker/insect
mountain lion/deer
shark/tuna
fox/rabbit
snake/tree frog
seal/squid

After all teams have had their turns, review prey and predator, discuss actions and behaviors of each animals. Have students identify prey and predator and record their observations in their journals.

Activity 2.
Have students play the "Predator and Prey" game on the playground or in the gym.
1. Before the game, make headbands for the class. Label one-fourth of them "Predator" and the remaining three-fourth "Prey". For the demonstration game, the predators will be hawks and the prey will be squirrels. Therefore every fourth student will be a predator (hawk).
2. While in the classroom, give each student a headband and a matching predator or prey card. Have students color their animal, staple it to the headband, and wear the headband.
3. Take the students to the playing field. Spread food (shelled nuts) about four per student throughout the area. Place four trees (large brown circles) in the "Hunting Forest" area.
4. Explain to the student that the object of the game is for all the animals to get enough food to eat each day. The squirrel can collect only one piece of nut at a time, and they must return to the "Safe Zone" to bury it for safekeeping until the end of the day. They need to collect at least three nuts to survive. In the Hunting Forest, they may find temporary safety by standing in a tree, where hawks cannot touch them.
5. Hawks also need to eat. They eat squirrels and need to get at least two to survive. They hunt for squirrels in the Hunting Forest. To collect a squirrel, they tag one and take him/her outside the playing field.
6. After everyone is in place, start the game by yelling "hunt." Have the students play for three to five minutes. Then, stop the game by calling "night time" Have the students sit down where they stopped and record the number of survivors. Talk about the results and the predator/prey relationship.
7. Have the students change roles (headbands) and play again.

Observation and Conclusions.

1. Check for understanding by asking probing questions. For example, how does each react to the other? What adaptations might the prey use to survive? What natural occurrences might change the relationship.

Sample Assessments
Use modeling clay to build a predator and its prey.
Write what was learned in science journals.
Take SOL 3.5 Paper and Pencil Assessment.