Students should be able to think scientifically by making observations, forming a hypothesis, and drawing conclusions. Students should understand that Science is not an isolated subject, but spans all content areas. Students will learn how animals live and grow. Students will learn how various animals have adapted to their environment to meet their basic needs. With the time constraints imposed, lessons that cover basic material are taught through direct instruction.
Science lends itself to an inquiry based instruction, many of the lessons use deductive reasoning.
Because of the inclusive nature of the classroom, I try to enrich my lessons through the use of learning centers, heterogeneous based cooperative learning groups, peer tutoring and one on one instruction. Many adaptations to my lesson plans were made to reach the needs of all the students such as, highlighting important information, using visuals where possible and allowing some students to circle information instead of writing it. In the beginning of the unit we start with a general concept that there are two living organisms on this Earth, plants and animals. From this very basic division we slowly introduce characteristics that cause the animals to be further broken down into more specific groups. I am trying to sequence my lessons to match what is being taught in the other content areas.