Grade 1: The Five Senses Unit Plan - MICHAEL TSCHRITTER

Running Head: UNIT PLAN

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Grade 1: The Five Senses Unit Plan

Developed by Michael A. Tschritter EDUC 3106: Curriculum Instruction in Teaching Science (Elementary) Instructor: Jason McLester

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The Five Senses: How We Use Our Senses and the World Around Us Unit Plan Michael A. Tschritter

EDUC 3106: Curriculum Instruction in Teaching Science (Elementary) Instructor: Jason McLester November 2, 2015

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The Five Senses: How We Use Our Senses and the World Around Us Unit Plan

Michael A. Tschritter

Grade 1 Science- EDUC 3106: Curriculum Instruction in Teaching Science (Elementary)

Introduction/Rationale for Unit

Whether we are playing outside or spending a night at home with our families, our five senses play an integral part in how we perceive the world around us. Both humans and animals use senses such as touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight and these senses associated sensory organs (skin, tongue/mouth, nose, ears, and eyes) in order to detect information about the world. In turn, each of our senses is highly interconnected with our brain because all of our senses tell our brains how to perceive nearly every aspect of our lives. On the other hand, we must also come to understand that sometimes there can be limitations to our sensory organs and these limitations will drastically affect the way we perceive the world. "The senses are essential survival mechanisms and any organism deprived of one or more of its senses is at a serious disadvantage if it does not learn to adapt" (Science Alberta Foundation, n.d., p. 70). It is extremely important for young students to begin to grasp how our senses work because understanding the observations that one's senses help us make form the foundational understandings that students will continue to subconsciously use throughout all other aspects of schooling and in life. The purpose or intended goal of this unit is to allow students to learn about their different senses and sensory organs using student-centered and engaging contexts/activities. Many cross-curricular outcomes have been woven into the very core of this unit to uphold the Alberta Education Ministerial Order of 2013 that schools must try to develop well-rounded students/citizens of the world.

Learner Focus

Students are expected to actively use their prior knowledge of the real world throughout the unit by applying what they know about the world in relation to the different scientific and cross-curricular concepts such as mathematics being taught. There are seven major areas of understandings that students are expected to grasp/learn by the end of the unit. These understandings are: Identifying each of our senses and explaining how our senses help us to interpret the world, recognizing how our senses keep us safe/contribute to our quality of life, applying particular senses to identify and describe the characteristics of objects, understanding the limitations of our senses/how our senses can mislead us, recognizing that other living things have senses, describing ways that people adapt to limited sensory abilities, and explaining how we can take care of our sensory organs. Furthermore, the students will also gain experience working with the scientific skill of bringing focus to investigations by making observations

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through inquiry and demonstrating a positive attitude for the study of science. Finally, three of the major cross-curricular outcomes/understandings in mathematics that this unit will achieve are: Obtaining number sense by practicing counting through understanding how to count-on, representing and describing numbers up to 20 concretely, symbolically, and pictorially, and sorting objects using one attribute while being able to explain the sorting rule.

I believe this unit is best suited to be taught at the beginning of the Grade 1 school year (September/October) so that students can practice using their understanding of the senses throughout the remainder of Grade 1. I must help students to bridge the gap between just recognizing the world and introduce them to more sophisticated, academic principles that will form the backbone of their work with science, mathematics, and many other subject areas throughout the rest of their elementary school years. As a teacher I need to not only monitor every students' individual progress in learning these scientific understandings, but I must also self-monitor my own teaching to ensure that I am introducing students to appropriate scientific inquiry investigations that actually help them learn the understandings. Moreover, I must adapt to the reality that the beginning of the Grade 1 school year is a time where students are just beginning to learn how to read and write and I must make this unit accessible to all students by varying the learning experiences to include describing observations in various formats. It is my expectation that by the end of the unit, that the students will be able to use their senses to make general and specific observations and to communicate these observations orally and by producing captioned pictures.

Overview of Unit General Learner Expectations

Science Grade 1 Topic D: Senses:

The students will be able to:

General Learner Expectations-1-9: Use the senses to make general and specific observations, and communicate observations orally and by producing captioned pictures.

General Learner Expectations-1-10: Describe the role of the human senses and the senses of other living things, in enabling perception, and action.

Science Grade 1 Process General Learner Expectations:

Skills:

General Learner Expectation- Science Inquiry-1-1: Bring focus to investigative activities, based on their own questions and those of others.

General Learner Expectation- Science Inquiry-1-2: Describe materials and objects that have been observed and manipulated, and identify what was done and found out.

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Attitudes:

General Learner Expectation-Attitudes-1-4: Demonstrate positive attitudes for the study of science and for the application of science in responsible ways.

Overview of Unit Specific Learner Expectations

Science Grade 1 Topic D: Senses:

The students will be able to:

Specific Learner Expectation 1: Identify each of the senses, and explain how we use our senses in interpreting the world.

Specific Learner Expectation 2: Identify ways that our senses contribute to our safety and quality of life.

Specific Learner Expectation 3: Apply particular senses to identify and describe objects or materials provided and to describe living things and environments. Students meeting this expectation will be able to describe characteristics, such as colour, shape, size, texture, smell and sound.

Specific Learner Expectation 4: Recognize the limitations of our senses, and identify situations where our senses can mislead us; e.g., feeling hot or cold, optical illusions, tasting with a plugged nose.

Specific Learner Expectation 5: Recognize that other living things have senses, and identify ways that various animals use their senses; e.g., sensing danger, finding food, recognizing their own young, recognizing a potential mate.

Specific Learner Expectation 6: Describe ways that people adapt to limited sensory abilities or to the loss of a particular sense; e.g., colour blindness, inability to see objects at close range.

Specific Learner Expectation 7: Describe ways to take care of our sensory organs, in particular, our eyes and ears.

Science Grade 1 Process Specific Learner Expectations:

During this unit, the students will obtain:

Skills of Scientific Inquiry:

Focus: o Specific Learner Expectation: Ask questions that lead to exploration and investigation.

Explore and Investigate: o Specific Learner Expectation: Manipulate materials and make observations that are relevant to questions asked. o Specific Learner Expectation: Identify materials used. o Specific Learner Expectation: Recognize and describe steps followed, based on independent activity, on directed activity and on observing the activity of others.

Reflect and Interpret: o Specific Learner Expectation: Describe what was observed, using pictures and oral language.

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