Whatever the Weather

Seasonal change and its effects on plants and animals

Focus area and stand: Natural Environment

Alexandra
Condezo
42255392

Stage: foundation

Over arching unit objective: The objective of these two lessons are for the children to devlop an
understanding of the affect that seasons play on the life of the animal and how the animals cope
through out the four season. Children will gain understanding of the terms migrate, adapt and
hibernate and be able to indentify animals for each category. By the end of the lessons they will
be able to describe charecteristics of what certain animals do in Winter.
Science Sylabus

Ste-7NE: Observes, using their senses, how daily and seasonal changes in the enivronment
affect them and other living things. (BoS,2012)
Indentify how plants and animals respond to changes in the environment
(BoS,2012).

Ste-4WS: Explores their immediate surrounds by questioning, observing using their senses
and communicating to share their observations and ideas (BoS, 2012)
Sharing what they already know relating to the natural environment (BoS,
2012)
Engaging in discussions about observations and using drawings to represent
ideas (BoS, 2012).
Other KLA
English
Outcome:
ENe-2A: composes simple texts to convey an idea or message
Indicators
Create short texts to explore, record and report ideas and events using familiar words and
beginning writing knowledge (ACELY1651)
PDHPE
Outcome:
GSES1.8: Demonstrates fundamental movement skills while playing with and sharing
equipment.
Indicators:
Participates in games where cooperation is important for success.
Visual Arts
Outcome:
Makes simple pictures and other kinds of artworks about things and experiences.
Indicators
Explores characteristics of pets and other living things.

Prior learning
To be able to structure and write small sentences
Have a basic concept of the four seasons
A simple understanding of the layout of a book
Understanding the weather in each season
KSK

PLOK

Hibernate: Is a period of dormancy in the Hibernate: is when the animals have a long
winter where the animal stops its activity
sleep throughout the wintertime, they
and stays in a sleep like state (Stockley,
wake up when the temperature is good for
2006).
them.
Adapt: is when the animals acclimates its Adapt: Is when the animals settle in the
self to the new temperature or
new environment, and is happy to stay
environment.
through out the cold season in that
environment.
Migration: When animals travel seasonally
from one area to another, this is due to the Migration: is when the animals travel to
lack of food the new season brings (Stockley,
another placing where they can find a new
2006).
home till the cold weather passes.
Shedding: shedding is due to seasonal Shedding: When there is plenty of daylight
cycles. The cycle of shedding is due to the
it affects the animal, and causes them to
change in daylight in winter and summer.
shed and be ready to produce more hair,
Hair growth and shedding are regulated by
feathers etc.
fluctuations in the amount of melatonin,
which brings on shedding in animals
(Stockley, 2006).
Experience 2
Time: 30 minutes
Migrate, Adapt or Hibernate!
Resources and equipment
Animal puppets
Cardboard cut outs of the words: migrate, adapt and hibernate.
The book: Animals in winter by Bernadette.
Laptops
Wall dived into 3 sections
Power point presentation
Laminated images of animals that migrate, adapt and hibernate

Description of activity
Introduction: The lesson will begin by reading the book Animals in The Winter, the book
introduces the terms hibernate, migrate and adapt in a simple way that makes it easy to
understand. A PDF version of the book will be available on the I-pad for the children to follow
along and look at the imagery in the book.
Body: To further develop the childrens understanding of this terminology the teacher will use a
few puppets and in the puppets dialogue the puppets will explain which animals are hibernating,

which animals migrate and which animals adapt. The puppet show allows for the children to see
how the animals are grouped in three categories and why they hibernate or adapt in winter. The
children will then hop on the lap tops and open the power point animals preparing for Winter
the children will watch the videos and read the small texts or listen to definitions of certain
terminology. The children will go through all the resources on the power point to further
consolidate their understanding of the affect of seasons on animals.
Conclusion: to conclude the lesson the children will use the images of the animals that hibernate
and group them in one section on the wall, and will do the same for animals that adapt and
migrate, the animals that will be used will only be animals that were mentioned in the power
point presentation.

Support
Extend
To support children with different learning To foster and build the childs learning the
abilities the teacher can pick and choose what teacher can encourage the child to give further
activity would be relevant for the child, in the description of the animals when they are
power point presentation the child can choose grouping the animals. Allowing the child to
to listen to the audio if they are not a confident verbally describe and recall information they
reader.
learnt from the power point.
Experience four
Time: 30 minutes
How the weather affects the animals
Resources and equipment
Cardboard cut out of the words: migrate, adapt and hibernate
Binder
Animals in the Fall: Preparing for Winter by Martha Rustad
Markers
Paint
Laptop
Power point presentation

Description of activity
Introduction: The lesson will begin with a game to refresh the children memory of the term
migrate, adept and hibernate. The teacher will place three cards on the ground in different places
with words written on them, and then the teacher will call out an animal and the children are to
run to the correct card. Once the children have gone through the whole list of animals the
teacher will then
Body: To further build the childs understanding, the children will choose one animal that they
have been discussing in class, that either migrates, adapts or hibernates, once they have chosen
an animal they will proceed to paint the animal on the cardboard and underneath their painting
will write a sentence about the animal and what it does to prepare for winter. The children will
have access to the power point to recall certain information and to remember what animals
hibernate or migrate or adapt. Once they have finished their painting in small groups they will
discuss what animal they have chosen and discuss what that animal does through out winter.

Conclusion: to conclude the lesson the children by reading the book Animals in the Fall:
Preparing for winter By Marth Rustad. Before the teacher reads the book it is essential the
teacher clarifies the term fall, and that in Australia we say Autumn, the book is a recap of what
animals do before winter starts. The children after woods have a class discussion about what
other living things in our environment can be affected by the weather.
Support
Providing them audio text what is being written
will support Child with different learning
capabilities, if children are not confident
enough to write a whole sentence encourage
the child to write keywords to describe what
the animal does in winter.

Extend
To support and children who excel at the given
activities the teacher can provide more text
about animals and their cycles through out the
season such as the long necked turtles, and the
child can start to learn other things that occur
to animals through out the seasons such as
when they lay eggs.