Science Lesson Kit · Teacher Resource
Young Plants & Animals: Like Their Parents — 5E Lesson Plan
Life Science · 38 minutes
Grade 1
5E lesson flow
01
Engage
5 min
Teacher Does
Show one unlabeled animal family and one unlabeled plant family.
Students Do
Point to things that look alike and things that look different.
Ask
- What do you notice?
- What looks the same?
Look For
Visible clues rather than guessing from labels.
02
Explore
10 min
Teacher Does
Give small sets of young and adult animal and plant cards.
Students Do
Match family pairs and point to the clues used.
Ask
- Which adult matches?
- What clue helped you?
Look For
More than one relevant visible clue when possible.
03
Explain
7 min
Teacher Does
Introduce parent, young, trait, and similar with pictures and gestures.
Students Do
Point, repeat, and complete short oral frames.
Ask
- What trait do they share?
Look For
Young living things are similar to, not exact copies of, parents.
04
Elaborate
9 min
Teacher Does
Build an Alike/Different board using animal and plant evidence.
Students Do
Sort clues from both families.
Ask
- Can family members be alike and different?
Look For
Shared traits and visible differences can both be present.
05
Evaluate
7 min
Teacher Does
Show one new animal or plant family image.
Students Do
Choose, point to a clue, and tell one similarity or difference.
Ask
- How do you know?
Look For
A picture-based family match supported by a visible trait.
Student goal
I can match a young plant or animal with its parent and tell one way they are alike and one way they are different.
Learning objectives
- Match a young animal or young plant with a likely parent using visible traits.
- Describe one way a young living thing is like its parent and one way it is different.
- State the pattern that young plants and animals can be like, but not exact copies of, their parents.
Materials
- Young/adult animal and plant picture pairs
- Alike/Different sorting mats
- Paper
- Crayons
Before class
- Choose clear unlabeled animal and plant family pairs.
- Include examples with obvious shared traits and at least one visible difference.
- Avoid requiring students to read names to make a match.
- Open Teach Mode and Read Aloud.
Prior knowledge
- Students can name familiar plants and animals.
- Students can compare two pictures.
Vocabulary
- parent
- A plant or animal from which a young living thing comes.
- young
- A living thing that is still growing.
- trait
- Something we can notice about a living thing.
- similar
- Alike in some ways.
- different
- Not the same in one or more ways.
Differentiation
- Allow pointing and oral answers instead of writing.
- Show only two possible parent pictures at a time.
- Use the frames: Both have ___. The young one is ___.
- For extension, ask students to find two shared traits instead of one.
Assessment
- Check picture matches.
- Listen for one accurate shared trait.
- Check that students understand similar does not mean exactly the same.
Exit ticket
Match one young plant or animal to its parent and point to one clue that helped you.
Extension
Make a two-column class chart: ALIKE / DIFFERENT for another plant or animal family.