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LESSON
#4: The Forest Floor
Focusing Question(s):
What do you observe on the forest floor? What happens to the dead plants
that fall to the forest floor? What is decomposition?
Vermont Standards addressed:
| 4.6 |
Understanding Place: Students demonstrate understanding
of the relationship between their local environment and community
heritage and how each shapes their lives. |
| 7.11 |
Analysis: Students analyze and understand living and
non-living systems (e.g., biological, chemical, electrical, mechanical,
optical) as collections of interrelated parts and interconnected systems. |
| 7.13 |
Organisms, Evolution, and Interdependence: Students
understand the characteristics of organisms, see patterns of similarity
and differences among living organisms, understand the role of evolution,
and recognize the interdependence of all systems that support life.
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| 7.15 |
Theories, Systems, and Forces: Students
demonstrate and understanding of the earth and its environment, the
solar system and the universe in terms of the systems that characterize
them, the forces that affect and shape them overtime, and the theories
that currently explain their evolution. |
Length of time needed to complete:
one hour
Resources/Materials:
trowels, clipboards, pencils, observation worksheets, journal
paper, Forest Foray cards, puppets: Elli Eft, Papa Newt, Dead
Leaf, Wendy Worm, Freddy Fungus, Mildred Millipede, Sammy Shrew
Procedure:
| In the Forest: |
| 1. |
See "Forest Floor," pp. 75-79,
in Hands On Nature. Do the following activities from that
lesson: "Puppet Show," "Lie Down and Look," "Digging
Deeper," and "Forest Foray." When the students do "Digging
Deeper" they can record their observations on a worksheet. |
| 2. |
Magic Spots: Have the students lie on the forest floor. They lie
there quietly for five minutes and then share what they noticed about
the forest floor in a sharing circle. |
| 3. |
Read "Fallen Star's Ears," a Native American
legend, pp. 75-76, in Keepers of Life. Discuss the story
with the students. Discussion questions are on p. 82. |
| In the classroom: |
| 4. |
Discuss with the students what they learned about the
forest floor. Write their observations on the KWL chart. The students
reflect on the focusing question and write and draw what they noticed
about the forest floor in their science journals. |
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