Introduction
This WebQuest is designed for 2nd grade students to learn about life cycles in particular the life cycle of a butterfly. This WebQuest is based off the following GPS (Georgia Performance Standards) and CCGPS (Common Core Georgia Performance Standards).
S2L1: Students will investigate the life cycles of different living organisms. Teacher note: Instruct students not to touch wild plants and animals when they observe them. Always wash hands after handling any plants or animals. Caution students not to eat wild plants they find.
a. Determine the sequence of the life cycle of common animals in your area: a mammal such as a cat or dog or classroom pet, a bird such as a chicken, an amphibian such as a frog, and an insect such as a butterfly.
b. Relate seasonal changes to observations of how a tree changes throughout a school year.
c. Investigate the life cycle of a plant by growing a plant from a seed and by recording changes over a period of time.
d. Identify fungi (mushrooms) as living organisms.
ELACC2W2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
ELACC2SL2: Recount or describe key ideas or details from written texts read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
In this WebQuest you will:
1) Determine the sequence of the life cycle of a butterfly.
2) Illustrate and describe various facts about the butterfly such as the stages of its life cycle utilizing the following key words: Life Cycle, Metamorphosis, Pupa, Larva, Caterpillars, and Chrysalis.
3) Present your collected information regarding butterflies the class and the classroom visitors.
Task
Introduction:
Students will watch the following video of Eric Carle reading, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. After the watching the reading of the book via video, students will read the actual copy of the book.
[video:http://youtu.be/vkYmvxP0AJI align:left]
Day 1: Complete the first two portions of the KWL chart on butterflies. (Refer students back to the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.)
Day 2: Complete KWL chart and describe each of the stages of the butterfly life cycle.
Day 3: Complete rough draft of informative/explanatory writing piece.
Day 4: Complete final draft of informative/explanatory writing piece.
Day 5: Present projects to classmates and school faculty (custodial, staff, nutrition staff, media center staff, etc.).
Process
Day 1:
1) Write down what you already know about butterflies under the “K” section of the KWL chart to record what you already know.
2) When you are finished, you may read the text, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
3) After you have finished reading the text, write down some things about butterflies that you would like to learn more about under the “W” section of the KWL chart.
Day 2:
1) Complete the “L” portion of the KWL chart to record what you have learned.
2) Use the flow chart from the following link to define and describe each stage of the butterfly’s life cycle:
http://educators.brainpop.com/printable/flow-chart/
Day 3:
1) Use the KWL chart and the flow chart that you created to write a rough draft of your butterfly report that describes each of the stages of the life cycle of a butterfly. Be sure to include the following terms: Life Cycle, Metamorphosis, Pupa, Larva, Caterpillars, and Chrysalis.
2) Have a partner proofread your rough draft. Work together to find any grammatical mistakes in your paper.
Day 4:
1) Complete the final draft of your butterfly paper.
2) Use the different types of noodles to illustrate the various stages of the life cycle of the butterfly. http://thankgoditsfirstgrade.blogspot.com/2012/05/what
Day 5:
Present your projects to classmates and classroom visitors. Be prepared for guests to ask questions regarding the life cycle of a butterfly. Use your reports and art projects to help answer their questions.
Evaluation
Students will be evaluated on their writing based on the their writing based on the following writing prompt:
Using the KWL chart and the flow chart that you created to write a rough draft of your butterfly report that describes each of the stages of the life cycle of a butterfly. Be sure to include the following terms: Life Cycle, Metamorphosis, Pupa, Larva, Caterpillars, and Chrysalis.
|
Element of the Informational Standard: |
Exceeds the Standard: |
Meets the Standard: |
Approaching the Standard: |
Needs Instruction: |
|
Uses a variety of resources to research and share information on a topic: (We have used the internet and trade books. The students were also taught about the different resources available in the media center.) |
The student has used resources from prior knowledge or additional resources to add facts and interest to their informational writing.
The student’s writing reflects that they have comprehended and learned the new information that they have gathered. |
The student has written factual information in their own words taken from a variety of resources throughout their piece.
The student’s writing reflects a good understanding the information that was gathered in the resources. |
The student has applied some information gathered from the resources but has not included all factual information and their work does not show evidence of comprehending information that was gathered. |
The student shows interest in the resources but does not seem to make the connection that they need to use the resources to gather information for this project.
The writing may not include any factual information that is coherent to read. |
|
Creates (or includes) graphic features as appropriate to the text (The features of the Informational genre:
|
The student has used graphic features from the internet and has used artistic skills to create some graphic features.
The students has included very clear and a well written contents, index and glossary.
The student has an obvious connection and flow to the information that was written to the graphic features that are used. |
The student has included graphic features for each subtopic and all of the features are appropriate to the text.
The student has included an organized table of contents, index and glossary. |
The student added a few graphic features from the internet or the features are hand drawn.
Some of the features may not be appropriate to the text that it was connected to. (The picture or graph does not fit the words.) |
The student may not use any graphic features in their informational piece.
The graphic features that are included may not be appropriate to the text. |
|
Communicates big ideas, insights or theories (We have worked a lot on the supporting details) |
The student goes beyond communicating the big idea with their supporting details.
There may be interesting questions or quotes.
The opening sentences are all interesting and appropriate to the section or purpose. |
The student was able to communicate the big idea in all three supporting details.
There was an opening sentence and factual information for each supporting detail. |
The student may have 1 or 2 appropriate supporting details where they were able to communicate the big idea but was not able to communicate clear ideas for all of the supporting details.
There may be opinions or extraneous details present. |
The student may have been able to create a heading for their sections but was not able to write about the supporting detail in their own writing.
The sections of their informative piece were either pieced together with a few unrelated details or copied straight from a book. |
|
Notes:
Has an obvious organizational structure: (Opening, Middle (3 supporting details), Closing)
*The student also needs to include headings for at least the 3 supporting details.
|
The student has an opening that introduces their topic and 2-3 interesting facts about their topic.
The student has obvious headings for each part.
The student was able to communicate several facts in their own voice about each supporting detail.
The student has a conclusion that ties the piece together to sum up the main idea of their informational piece.
|
The student has all five parts of the informative piece.
The student has an opening that introduces the topic.
The student has three obvious supporting details that are focused and descriptive.
The student has written a closing that is summative and does not include extraneous details.
|
The student may have all five parts of the informative piece with headings but was not able to communicate information with some of the parts.
The sections may have been copied or the information was very scattered and did not flow together.
The opening and closing may not be summative and lacks interest and flow.
|
The student is missing a part or multiple parts of the structure.
The student was able to draw pictures of some supporting details but were not able to write about the details.
The opening and closing may lack interest or focus.
|
|
Conventions: Capital letters Punctuation Spelling of Vocabulary specific to the topic Complete sentences |
The student has gone through the writing process to revise and edit their work.
Their work has capital letters at the beginning of each sentence and at the beginning of all proper nouns.
Their work has correct punctuation throughout their entire piece. Including quotation marks and other sophisticated sentence structures that could be included in an informative piece of writing. (Use of quotes)
The student has used resource from around the room to correct all spelling of vocabulary that are specific to the topics.
All of the sentences are complete thoughts. |
The student has capital letters at the beginning of sentences.
The student has correct punctuation at the end of each sentence.
The student has used resources around the room to correct their spelling mistakes.
The students has complete sentences throughout their piece. |
The student has gone back to revise the work but placed periods and other punctuation in areas that are not correct.
The student capitalized most letters at the beginning of sentences but left some incorrect.
The proper nouns may not be capitalized.
Some of the vocabulary and sight words were spelled correctly but many may have not been revised.
There were some incomplete sentences that did not communicate a whole thought.
|
The student did not use the writing process to revise and edit their work.
The piece may not have:
Capital letters at the beginning of most sentences.
Most sentences were not complete and did not end with punctuation.
The student did not have correct spelling of common sight words or vocabulary words that have been taught throughout this project. |
Conclusion
This science lesson integrates literacy into the following contents:
• Reading:
o Students will read the text The Very Hungry Caterpillar to provide background knowledge for the content.
• Writing:
o Students will write an informative/explanatory piece involving various pieces of information regarding butterflies.
• Speaking/Listening:
o Students will present their collected information to classmates and/or classroom visitors.
Credits
Inpiration for this lesson came from the following WebQuest by J.I Hammitte.
http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=288342
The rubric for evaluating the students writing piece came from: https://www.georgiastandards.org/_.../GeorgiaStan
The audio/video of Eric Carle's reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar was found on the following website https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYmvxP0AJI
Teacher Page
This WebQuest is based off the following standards.
S2L1: Students will investigate the life cycles of different living organisms. Teacher note: Instruct students not to touch wild plants and animals when they observe them. Always wash hands after handling any plants or animals. Caution students not to eat wild plants they find.
a. Determine the sequence of the life cycle of common animals in your area: a mammal such as a cat or dog or classroom pet, a bird such as a chicken, an amphibian such as a frog, and an insect such as a butterfly.
b. Relate seasonal changes to observations of how a tree changes throughout a school year.
c. Investigate the life cycle of a plant by growing a plant from a seed and by recording changes over a period of time.
d. Identify fungi (mushrooms) as living organisms.
ELACC2W2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
ELACC2SL2: Recount or describe key ideas or details from written texts read aloud or information presented orally or through other media
Differentiation suggestions for this lesson:
• Students with Special Needs (SPED):
o Day 1:
-View the video of Eric Carl reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to accommodate for those students who struggle with reading the text (to avoid a breakdown in comprehension).
-Also, view the following video to help pre-teach vocabulary needed for this unit: http://www.natgeotv.com/ca/great-migrations/videos/growing-up-butterfly
o Day 2-3: Use the following graphic organizer to help students organize their writing instead of the provided flow chart:
-http://zunal.com/zunal_uploads/files/20150610103443puLeR.pdf. This graphic organizer is more detailed and prompts students to organize their information.
• English Language Learners (ELLs):
o Day 1:
-View the video of Eric Carl reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to accommodate for those students who struggle with reading the text (to avoid a breakdown in comprehension).
-Also, view the following video to help pre-teach vocabulary needed for this unit: http://www.natgeotv.com/ca/great-migrations/videos/growing-up-butterfly
o Day 2-3: Use the following graphic organizer to help students organize their writing instead of the provided flow chart:
http://zunal.com/zunal_uploads/files/20150610103443puLeR.pdf. This graphic organizer is more detailed and prompts students to organize their information.
• Gifted & Talented:
o Day 2-3: Students will visit the following website to collect information regarding general facts about butterflies as well as specific types of butterflies. TSW write their informative/explanatory life cycle report utilizing the additional facts that they have collected.
http://www.kidsbutterfly.org/faq