Lesson 4 How Do Organisms Grow?

STUDENT SKILLS: observing, classifying, sorting, inferring, communicating, illustrating, comparing

Lesson 4: How Do Organisms Grow?

Activity 4A:

Life Sequences SUMMARY: Students will work in small groups to study the stages of a selected life cycle.

KIT MATERIALS: Life cycle big book Life cycle book teacher’s guide Life sequence card sets Life cycle video

TEACHER TO PROVIDE: Copies of MySci™ Journal page

ENGAGE Hold up the big book for all the students to see. Ask them if they recognize what is on the cover. Have they seen one before? Do they know where they could find this animal? Does anyone know how they grow? This book is about how the animal is born, how it grows, and how it lives.

NOTE TO TEACHER: The big book teacher’s guide has more great ideas.

EXPLORE Divide the class into groups of five. Give each group a series of cards showing the stages of a particular life cycle: butterfly, frog, chicken, mouse, and apple tree. Each group needs to have a discussion about how to put the pictures in order to show the life cycle of their particular animal or plant. Once the groups have finished, each student in the group is assigned at least one card. Students will explain their cards to the group.

EXPLAIN Each group should then tell the class which animal or plant their cards depict and to which class the animal or plant belongs. The students in the group will line up in order to show the life cycle stages from first to last. Each student will explain his or her card. Tell students from birth to adulthood, animals go through different stages of development. A life cycle is the order of stages in an animal’s growth. Typically animals look like their parents, however, that is not always the case. Introduce the term metamorphosis and explain that it means to change. In a complete metamorphosis, the animal looks completely different as an adult than it did as a baby. Ask the students to think about any animals they know that look completely different as an adult.

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What Is an Animal?

Lesson 4: How Do Organisms Grow?

ELABORATE View the life cycle video. In it children learn that living things grow and change. They will learn to compare animal parents and babies. They see that some animal babies do not look like their parents. From tadpole to frog, egg to chicken, caterpillar to butterfly, and puppy to dog.. Discuss with the students.

EVALUATE Have the students choose one example of a life cycle to draw and label on a MySci™ Journal Drawing Page. Teach the students the songs on this page and the next.

Human Life Cycle Song (to the tune of Old MacDonald): At first we are all newborn babes, And we’re very small. We need our mother’s milk to grow, So we can get tall. With a wah-wah here, And a wah-wah there. Here a wah, there a wah, Everywhere a wah-wah. We need our mother’s milk to grow, So we can get tall.

From children we become adults With each passing day. Our bodies age as we grow old, And our hair turns gray. With an ooo-ah here, And an ooo-ah there. Here an ooo, there an ah, Everywhere an ooo-ah. Our bodies age as we grow old, And our hair turns gray.

As toddlers we all try to walk, But we all fall down. As older kids we climb and swing, And we run around. With a whish-whish here, And a whish-whjsh there. Here a whish, there a whish, Everywhere a whish-whish As older kids we climb and swing, And we run around.

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What Is an Animal?

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The Metamorphosis Song (to the tune of Old MacDonald): We’re in eggs all small and round Met-a-mor-pho-sis We emerge and wiggle around Met-a-mor-pho-sis With a larva here and a larva there, Here a lar, there a va, everywhere a larva We emerge and wiggle around Met-a-mor-pho-sis

As pupae our shape will change Met-a-mor-pho-sis We will never look the same Met-a-mor-pho-sis With a pupa here and a pupa there, Here a pew, there a pa, everywhere a pupa We will never look the same Met-a-mor-pho-sis

As larvae we all grow and eat Met-a-mor-pho-sis We get around on stubby feet Met-a-mor-pho-sis With a larva here and a larva there, Here a lar, there a va, everywhere a larva We get around on stubby feet Met-a-mor-pho-sis

We emerge as butterflies Met-a-mor-pho-sis With our wings, we now can fly Met-a-mor-pho-sis With a monarch here and a monarch there Here a mon, there an ark, everywhere a monarch With our wings, we now can fly Met-a-mor-pho-sis

At a certain size, it’s time to change Met-a-mor-pho-sis Some may call it a cocoon Or a chrys-a-lis With a pupa here and a pupa there, Here a pew, there a pa, everywhere a pupa Some may call it a cocoon Or a chrys-a-lis

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MySci™ Journal Drawing and Writing Page Name

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