Sharing the Planet- Living Things

Planning the inquiry
And refer to thi
1. What is our purpose/ overall goal? ( UbD Stage 1)
To inquire into the following:
transdisciplinary theme: How the World Works: An inquiry into the natural world and
its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human
societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of
scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.
central idea: . Living things have certain requirements in order to grow and stay healthy.
Summative assessment task(s): (UbD Stage 2)
What should the students eventually be able to do as a result of this unit? What are the
possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central idea? What evidence,
including student-initiated actions, will we look for? How will students REFLECT and
SELF-ASSESS their learning? Consider performance tasks and other evidence.
The summative assessment will include children drawing pictures to illustrate their
understanding of what animals need to stay healthy. Question will be posed: What does
this animal need to live? This may involve interviews with the students to enable them to
explain what is in their pictures.
Assessment tool: a checklist. Was the student able to identify 2-3 things that a living
thing needs to survive?
into
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Class/grade: ECE, MI, MIS Age group: 4-5 , MI/MIS (Various ages)
School: Sabin World Elementary School code:7515
Title: Living Things
Teacher(s): Parker, Pulido, Kalahar, Fitzpatrick
Date:5/2011
PYP planner
Proposed duration: number of hours 50-60 over number of weeks 6 (in a half day
class)
2. What do we want to learn? What are our extablished goals? (UbDStage 1)
Consider what you want your desired results to be. What
KNOWLEDGE/UNDERSTANDINGS do you want students to walk away with? Content
standards to be addressed? (See complete list in box 9)
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Key concepts:
Function, causation, responsibility
Related concepts: biodiversity, animals, classification
What language functions will support student learning in the scope of the inquiry into the
central idea? Classify, compare, identify
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea? (Students
will understand that…)
• Animals can be classified by many characteristics
• Animals live in many types of shelters
• Animals require certain things to survive
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries? (What essential questions
can we ask to spark meaningful connections, provoke deep thought and inquiry,
encourager transfer of knowledge by our students?)
What kinds of living things are there?
Where do animals live?
What do living things need?
What characteristics do living things have?
Provocation: Littleton Historic Museum, discuss living things they observed, how they
live on a farm, how they get the things they need to survive. In conjunction with an
illustrated KWL chart: Prior to the field trip, students draw what they think a farm looks
like. After the field trip, they check their understanding and edit their drawing.

Planning the inquiry
3. How might we know what we have learned? (UbD Stage 2)
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?”
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? What
evidence will we look for?
Questioning around manipulatives and photos in the classroom. What do _________
need to survive?
Evidence to look for: students able to identify basic necessities living things need to stay
alive, and that different living things require different necessities.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of
inquiry? What evidence will we look for? (We will know students understand/know are
able to do …. by…)
Picture sorting for where animals live: sorting animals into their appropriate habitats.
Venn Diagram: sorting farm animals & non farm animals and their requirements to grow
and stay healthy.
Sorting around different classifications of animals.
5. What resources need to be gathered? (UbD Stage 3)
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer
software, etc, will be available?
Video: On the Farm; book list from the tub; animal toys and manipulatives; classification
of animal books: vertebrate, invertebrate; mammals, insects, etc
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to
facilitate the inquiry?
Zoo and farm field trips; learning/inquiry centres: classification and sorting; Littleton
Historical Museum
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
4. How best might we learn? (UbD Stage 3- Performance Tasks)
What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to
encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?
(Consider the WHERETO prompting listed in box 10.)
• Books and literature: read aloud connections to the central idea can you be more specific
here? Add books to resources that you typically use.
• Webbing Project: Big book read review (Polar Bear, Polar Bear: tie to zookeeper), picture
walk through a book, modeling “I’m wondering” followed by webbing questions (teacher
modeled; learning the words to ask questions; followed by student questions); students
draw pictures based on the question they are interested in. Tie questions to visit to the
zoo, “What will you want to ask the zoo keeper?”
• Field trips: Littleton Historic Museum, discuss living things they observed, how they live on
a farm, how they get the things they need to survive.
• Toys and manipulatives: barn, plastic animals, puzzles. Observe how students interact
with material. Students given the opportunity to play with manipulatives and describe what
they are doing.
• Movie, artifacts What do you do with these?
• Class chart of needs, classifying & sorting activities- explain
• Drawings and illustrations, discussions, dramatic play
• Classifying animals: vertebrate/invertebrate; mammal, amphibian, reptile, bird, etc.
• Zoo trip?
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile? What key SKILLS will students
acquire as a result of this unit?
Transdisciplinary Skills
Thinking Skills :
• Application: discussions around how to keep living things (pets, wild animals, domestic
animals) safe and healthy
• Analysis – classifying & sorting
• Comprehension/Acquisition of knowledge: literature and movies: these are used to build
background knowledge, generate questions and build vocabulary around central idea.
Teachers use books and movies to assess student’s background knowledge as well.
Research Skills:
• Formulating questions, observing, collecting data, record data with drawings; interpreting
w/ Venn Diagram; present research when talk about what they do
Learner Profile
Communicators: reading, speaking; viewing’ listening; drawing/writing
Inquirers: as they pose questions and wonder; knowledgeable/research
Thinkers: sorting, comparing/contrasting
Attitudes:
• Empathy- for how animals feel if they are treated well, or mistreated
• Respect: for animals
• Curiosity: to learn about individual animals (this comes pretty naturally throughout
the unit!)

Reflecting on the inquiry
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
Refer back to Box 1 to answer these questions.
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ understanding of the
central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and teaching of the
inquiry should be included.
Children were able to classify where animals live (i.e. zoo, farm, ocean)- able to identify
various shelters and able to identify the needs of an animal.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.
This worked well. We want to keep it the same for next year.
What opportunities were there for student self-assessment/reflection?
- Participating in animal guessing games after being given 3 clues
- Drawings and “storytelling”
- Role-playing and acting out; costumes- we could see the students working
through the ideas and knowledge from class.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the
transdisciplinary theme?
• Using a KWL chart throughout the unit and updating as new information is
learned.
• Verbal understandings
• More detailed illustrations
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
• develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to learn?”
• demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
• develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
• Responsibility: Understanding the needs and requirements of animals to survive-
through field trips to the zoo and farm, role playing in the classroom “barn” and “zoo”,
using the puppet theater to explore these ideas and apply them to play.
• Relatization that animals and people have similar needs: shelter, food, water, hygiene
• Curiosity: examining a variety of books, cideos and websites, the students
demonstrated a natural curiosity to learn more about animals.
In each case, explain your selection.

Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any that were
incorporated into the teaching and learning.
Do all animals live at the farm/zoo?
Do they eat the same thing?
Do they sleep laying down?
Do they like the cold?
Do they like ice cream?
At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn?” and highlight the
teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the inquiries.
What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?
Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability to reflect,
to choose and to act. How did the students show their transfer of understanding?
• Drawings
• Role playing
• “story-telling”
• Acting out
• Animal guessing game- who am I?
• Puppet theater
9. Teacher notes (To do list before teaching this unit again):
Order Zoo admission wrist bands ahead of time! (Went extremely well this year)j.
Ask DPS to unlock certain websites.
Content standards addressed through this inquiry:

10. How will the language functions needed to
understand this unit be developed?
Language function:
Sentence frames:
Grammar/Syntax:
Phrasing:
Vocabulary:
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Language function:
Sentence frames:
Grammar/Syntax:
Phrasing:
Vocabulary:
Language function:
Sentence frames:
Grammar/Syntax:
Phrasing:
Vocabulary: