Lesson Plan: Animal Groups

Subject:  Science

Grade: 3

Lesson Objective: To understand why some animals live in groups

Next Gen Science Standard:  3-LS2-1. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.

Starter:

Say:

• What animals can you think of that live in groups?  (Allow the students to answer.)

Main:

Say:

• There are many different animals that live in groups.  Some of those animals are deer, elephants, zebra, lions, mice, wolves, monkeys, whales, dolphins, ants, bees, bats, giraffe, otters and penguins.
• Why do you think that some animals live in groups?  (Allow the students to answer.)
• There are different reasons that animals live in groups and you thought of some of them.
• Some of the reasons that animals live in groups are to get food and to defend themselves.
• How do you think that living in groups helps animals to get food?  (Allow the students to answer.)
• Animals work together to make sure that they all have food.  Some of the animals are able to hunt or find food while the other animals do other things.
• Some of the other things that the animals like lions do are take care of the young animals and defend themselves.
• Other animals, like ants and bees, work on keeping their home clean and take care of young.
• How do you think animals work together to defend themselves?  (Allow the students to answer.)
• Some animals, like elephants or whales defend themselves by making a circle with the bigger stronger animals on the outside and the young or weak on the inside.
• Other animals, like wolves and lions, work together to attack animals that might be trying to attack them.
• Now that you have learned about some of the reasons that animals live together, you are going to write about which reason you think is the most important and why.
• Does anyone have any questions?

Feedback:

Say:

• Who would like to share what you wrote?  (Allow the students to share.)

Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer

Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.

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