#4624. What is a Dragonfly?

Science, level: 1-2
Posted Sat Nov 17 16:57:49 PST 2012 by Claudette Defranciski (Claudette Defranciski).
Activity Time: 1 hr

What is a Dragonfly?
Lesson Plan

Common Core State Standards
Grade 1 Reading Standards for Informational Text:
• Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
• Retell key information from a text.
• Use the illustrations and details to describe the key ideas from a text.

Preparation
Content Objectives
• Students will be able to label the parts of a dragonfly.
• Students will be able to identify important information about a dragonfly.
Language Objectives
Students will be able to listen to their partner's ideas about dragonflies.
Students will be able to write a descriptive sentence about dragonflies and decide (through turn and talk).
Key Vocabulary
Insect
Hunt

Materials
• dry erase boards
• markers
• dry erase markers
• chart paper

Motivation
Remind the students that they have been studying dragonflies.
Ask students, "What is the most important fact that you have learned about dragonflies?

Presentation
• Gather students on the floor in front of the easel containing a piece of chart paper. Divide the paper into four quadrants to create a Four Corners graphic organizer (photo enclosed on page 4 of this lesson).
• Give each student a dry erase board and a dry erase marker.
• Tell the students, "We are going to write about dragonflies. Using your marker, write what sounds or letters you hear at the beginning of the word, dragonfly."
• After the students write the letter on their dry erase board, write "Dragonfly" on the top left corner of the Four Corners graphic organizer.
• Say, "Now turn and tell your partner what a dragonfly is". Listen to partners explain their definitions. See if the partners can agree on a common definition.
• Then write "A dragonfly is an. . ." on the top right square of the Four Corners graphic organizer. Next ask the students to write what sounds or letters that they hear in the word "insect". Ask a student who is working on short vowels in word work to come up to the Four Corner graphic organizer and write the beginning of the word. Then ask the students to turn to their buddy and tell him or her how to write the rest of the word. Let a few students answer for the class. Then ask a student to come up to the Four Corners graphic organizer and draw a dragonfly on the box in the top left corner. Ask another student to draw a smaller dragonfly in the bottom left corner. As those students are drawing on the Four Corners graphic organizer the other students can practice drawing a dragonfly on their dry erase boards.
• Read the chart as students read along as a shared reading text.

Practice/Application
• After the students read the chart as a whole group, explain that they will collaborate through writing to complete the Four Corners graphic organizer by labeling the parts of a dragonfly and by writing a sentence that contains important facts about dragonflies.
• Ask the students to turn and tell the student next to them about the parts of a dragonfly. Listen to the students identify the parts of a dragonfly.
• Next explain that they will be labeling the parts of a dragonfly on the Four Corners graphic organizer. Ask, "What should we write?"
• Ask different student to share their ideas with the class and record for the whole class to see. Then call on a few students to label the dragonfly once the class has come to consensus on the different parts that the diagram should include. While those students label the dragonfly on the Four Corners graphic organizer, the other students can write the words on their dry erase boards.
• After the dragonfly is labeled, ask the students, "What is the most important fact that you have you learned about the dragonfly? Turn and tell your partner." Lean in and listen to partners conversing about what they think is most important.
• As a whole group, discuss what the students think is most important and guide the students towards consensus on a sentence. Call up a few students to help write the sentence on the Four Corners graphic organizer. As those students write on the Four Corners graphic organizer the other students can be writing their sentences on their dry erase boards. If some students need assistance consider letting those students work with a buddy.
• After the sentence is written, read it aloud as students read along out loud. Reread it again as a group.

Review & Assessment
• Ask the students, "What have we learned about dragonflies?"
• Tell the students to think their answer in their head. Then, tell them to turn and tell their partner their idea.
• Reread the chart aloud as a whole class and discuss what they have learned and how together they have designed a chart that tells important information about a dragonfly.