ALEX Lesson Plan Resources

ALEX Lesson Plans  
Subject: English Language Arts (K), or Science (K)
Title: Animal Habitats
Description: In this lesson, students will research a variety of animals, plants, and habitats from Alabama. After researching animals, plants, and habitats from Alabama, small groups of students will be assigned a habitat to create.  After creating the habitat in small groups, the small groups of students will share their habitat with their classmates. This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Subject: English Language Arts (K), or Science (K)
Title: Exploring and Constructing Forest Habitats
Description: In this lesson, students will explore and construct forest habitats of plants and animals native to Alabama. In the beginning, students will activate their prior knowledge by reviewing the definition of a habitat and discussing what they know about forests to create a KWL chart. Next, the book A Forest Habitat by Bobbie Kalman is used to further the students learning of the components that comprise a forest habitat and how those components interact with one another. The students will demonstrate their learning through animal sorts, habitat construction, and informational writing using the conventions of Standard English such as capitalization and punctuation. For the conclusion, the students will peer edit their writing using the provided writing anchor chart before presenting their learning to others. This lesson was created as part of the ALEX Gap Project.

Subject: English Language Arts (K), or Science (K)
Title: The Needs of Living Things: Constructing a Model Habitat
Description: Students will begin by brainstorming a list of needs that must be met for an animal to survive in its habitat. Next, the students will observe an ant farm, created by the teacher prior to the lesson, and determine how the ants' needs are being met through their environment. Then, students will create a list of needs that must be met for a plant to survive in its habitat and compare this list to animals' survival needs. Lastly, the teacher will assist students in developing a plan to build a natural habitat conducive to meeting the needs of a plant. At the conclusion of the lesson, the students will construct a plant terrarium.  This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.