Developmental Lesson Plan
Teacher Candidate: Tiffany DeFranza Date: Friday, September 24th
Group Size: 28 Allotted Time: 30 Minutes Grade Level: 3rd Grade
Subject or Topic: Oceans, Introduction
Common Core/PA Standard(s):
S.K-2.B.2.1: Understand that all living things are a part of an ecosystem.
S.K-2.B.2.1.1: Identify and describe habitats (e.g., wetland, meadow, forest, lake, river,
ocean, pond).
Learning Targets/Objectives:
The students will be able to describe ocean habitats and identify important, basic features of
them.
Assessment Approaches: Evidence:
1. Riddle 1. Circling the ocean related words in the
2. Exit ticket riddle
2. Identifying the 5 oceans and facts/basic key
parts of the ocean.
Assessment Scale:
Proficient: Student was able to fill out the exit ticket completely and all correctly.
Basic: Student was able to out the exit ticket completely with only 1 2 errors.
Below Basic: Student was not able to fill out the exit ticket completely and had more than 2
errors.
Subject Matter/Content:
Prerequisites:
Previous knowledge on ecosystems.
Key Vocabulary:
Ecosystem: A community of living and non-living components in an environment.
Content/Facts:
70% of the Earth is covered by the ocean.
The ocean floor is the bottom of the ocean.
5 Oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, Southern, Arctic, Indian
Information from the book:
o Many different species of animals that live in the ocean, including the deepest
layers.
o There are different plants in the ocean.
o Ocean waves are so powerful they can even damage the submarine.
Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies:
The teacher will begin with a What Am I? Riddle:
I have a floor but Im not a room
I wave but have no hand
Im wet but Im not a towel
I have currents but no electricity
I contain fish but Im not a tank
I cover a lot of the planet but Im not land
The teacher will give the students time to try to answer. The answer is the ocean.
Development/Teaching Approaches
The teacher will have the riddle already written on the board.
The teacher will ask some students to come up and circle words in the riddle that made
them think of the ocean. Students should circle: floor, wave, wet, currents, fish, planet.
o The teacher will circle what the students may have missed.
Last week we learned about ecosystems, and that some animals live in the forests and
in the trees. But this week, we are going to learn about our next ecosystem: the ocean.
The teacher will then explain that the class is going to learn about all of those
important words from the riddle next week through different activities, books, and two
experiments.
The teacher will read the book A Day Under Water by Deborah Kovaes, stopping
periodically and making sure students see all of the pictures.
o The book talks a lot about the ocean floor, the teacher will point to the word
floor in the riddle, to reiterate.
The teacher will ask, what makes an ocean different from a lake or a river? Lakes and
rivers also have animals in them. A student may respond that the ocean is bigger.
The teacher will explain that the class is going to look at how much bigger the ocean is
on the smartboard.
On the smartboard, the teacher will pull up a map of the world (Map 1). The teacher
will ask one student to come in and color one ocean blue. The teacher will take
volunteers until almost all of the ocean is colored blue.
The teacher will explain that this is where the word planet comes in from our riddle:
the ocean takes up the entire earth. The teacher will explain that the land does not
separate oceans, but that it is really one big ocean, and the land divides it into different
parts or names.
The teacher will mention and write on the board that 70% of the Earth is covered by
the ocean.
The teacher will ask if anybody knows the name of ocean of the oceans. With help
from the teacher as needed, all of the oceans should be mentioned: Atlantic, Pacific,
Indian, Arctic, Southern
The teacher will hand-out the exit ticket.
Closure/Summarizing Strategies:
The teacher will explain that today we went over the basics of the ocean, but tomorrow
we want to dive deeper, and do an actual experiment to learn about the different layers
that are above the ocean floor.
Accommodations/Differentiation:
Teacher may have the map printed much bigger on the back of the exit ticket for
students with poor handwriting.
Materials/Resources:
A Day Under Water by Deborah Kovaes
Map 1:
Exit Ticket
Reflective Response:
Report of Student Learning Target/Objectives Proficiency Levels
Remediation Plan (if applicable)
Personal Reflection Questions
Additional reflection/thoughts
