Students will view a video of the Monarch Butterfly’s life cycle. This video demonstrates the Monarch Butterfly’s life cycle, which is the following: egg, caterpillar (larvae), chrysalis, and adult (butterfly). Students will view concepts previously presented and learned pertaining to the four stages of the Monarch Butterfly’s life cycle. After the video is over, a class discussion will be held to clarify and reinforce concepts pertaining to the Monarch Butterfly’s life cycle (ie: the four stages). The class discussion will also include students’ observations. After the class discussion, students will draw an illustration of this butterfly’s life cycle along with the appropriate labels.
Type of Task: Student Centered. Students will be provided with opportunities to apply concepts previously learned in an interactive manner. Students will also be encouraged to share their observations during the class discussion. Students’ illustrations will provide opportunities for students to reflect on their experience (watching the video). The only conditions that teachers are controlling are the assessments that will be given to students (illustrations of Monarch Butterfly’s Life Cycle) and showing the video.
Grade 2
Time Required: 35 minutes (15 minutes for the video and class discussion) (20 minutes for students’ diagrams)
Learning Objectives: Students will describe the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly (ie: egg, caterpillar or larvae, chrysalis, and adult butterfly) through illustrations and labels. Students will participate in a class discussion sharing their respective observations, reactions, and thoughts in relation to the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly. Students will apply concepts previously learned throughout the “insect life cycle unit or butterfly life cycle unit” when creating their illustrations and completing the worksheet. Students will reflect on their experience (watching the video) during the class discussion.
Assessment: A class discussion will be utilized as an informal assessment of students’ progress towards the learning objectives. This informal assessment will also be utilized to provide clarification, assistance, feedback, etc. The discussion is designed to obtain students’ reactions, observations, and ideas pertaining to the video. Teachers can utilize the following questions: “What did you see?” “What did the egg stage look like?”, and “What stages of the butterfly cycle did you see?” Thus, teachers can provide clarification, assistance, or feedback to students based on students’ responses to these particular questions. Illustrations containing labels of a Monarch Butterfly’s life cycle will assess students’ progress (formal assessment) toward the learning objectives of this activity. Students’ responses will be used to determine whether they have satisfied the learning objectives of this activity. The worksheet students will use is found in the additional URL section.
Additional URL: http://worksheetplace.com/index.php?function=DisplaySheet&sheet=Life-Cycle-of-a-Butterfly-Worksheet&links=2&id=&link1=241&link2=244
Nancy Tierney (Student)
I liked the videos, however the ending on many of them needs to be better. It seems as if they just stopped. Also, on the wildabeast migration the narrator said something along the lines of this is the first step. I looked at the time bar and realized that the video was 2/3 rds over. We were just on the 1st step?