ALEX Learning Activity

  

Impatient Caterpillars Write the Life Cycle

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  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Leann Bryan
System:Calhoun County
School:Calhoun County Board Of Education
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 3030
Title:
Impatient Caterpillars Write the Life Cycle
Digital Tool/Resource:
Life Cycle Writing Handout
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

Students will demonstrate content knowledge of the life cycle of a butterfly. Students will have gained this knowledge through reading nonfiction texts and hands-on coding experiences. To demonstrate learning, students will explain in writing the unique characteristics of each stage.

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.
  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 3
6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

NAEP Framework
NAEP Statement::
L4.5: Plants and animals have life cycles. Both plants and animals begin life and develop into adults, reproduce, and eventually die. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms.

Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Developing and Using Models
Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns
Disciplinary Core Idea: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Create representations to explain the unique life cycles of organisms other than humans.
  • Create representations to explain the diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans.
  • Identify relevant components (organisms, birth, growth, reproduction, and death) of their representations.
  • Describe relationships between components in their representations.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Create
  • Explain
  • Representations
  • Unique
  • Diverse
  • Commonalities
  • Life cycles
  • Organisms
  • Birth
  • Growth
  • Reproduction
  • Death
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Organisms are born, grow, reproduce and die in a pattern known as a life cycle.
  • Organisms have unique and diverse life cycles.
  • An organism can be classified as either a plant or an animal.
  • There is a causal direction of the cycle (e.g., without birth, there is no growth; without reproduction, there are no births).
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Create representations to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
  • Explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans.
  • Explain commonalities of organisms such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • Patterns of change can be used to make predictions about the unique life cycles of organisms.
AMSTI Resources:
AMSTI Module:
Heredity and Diversity
Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.3.6- Observe and recognize the major stages (birth, growth, reproduction, and death) in the life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies).
Learning Objectives:

Students will create a written representation and illustration of the unique and diverse characteristics of each stage of the life cycle of a butterfly.

  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
After/Explain/Elaborate
Activity:

  1. Review the information from the previous activities:

  2. Teacher will give each student a Life Cycle Writing Handout: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DRGDktyHU3SugbUlTAVTE2sRNOBQRBCD/view?usp=sharing 

  3. Students will recall the information learned from prior activities to complete the handout.

    • At the boxes at the top of the page, students will illustrate each stage of the life cycle. 

    • On the lines at the bottom of the page, students will write about each stage. The stages are listed below:

      • First egg….

      • Next Larva

      • Then pupa that makes a cocoon.

      • Finally butterfly
Assessment Strategies:

Summative Assessment:

Based on the responses from the handout, the teacher can access if students understand the butterfly life cycle and each stage’s unique characteristics.
Advanced Preparation:

Approximate Duration: 15-30 minutes

Materials:

  • Life Cycle Writing Worksheet

  • pencil

  • crayons, colored pencils, or markers

Teacher Preparation: 

Student Preparation: 

  • Students must have prior knowledge of the life cycle of the butterfly.

  • Students need pencils and coloring supplies.
Variation Tips (optional):

Acceleration:

Students can create a presentation of the various stages of the butterfly’s life cycle and explain the unique characteristics of each stage. 

Intervention:

  • The handout could be done in a whole-group setting so that the teacher could reiterate the unique characteristics of each stage of the butterfly’s life cycle.

  • Have students refer back to the Britannica Elementary Article from the "during" activity in order to complete the handout Article. The article is accessible by using the AVL: https://www.avl.lib.al.us/. Click on Elementary, Britannica School, Search "Butterfly and Moth."
Notes or Recommendations (optional):

This task can be used as a stand-alone activity or in conjunction with Impatient Caterpillars (before activity) and Impatient Caterpillars Code the Life Cycle (during activity).
  Keywords and Search Tags  
Keywords and Search Tags: butterfly, caterpillar, larva, life cycle, pupa