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Teaching Science with Kidlit: NGSS Performance Expectation 1-LS1-1

This is a very meaty PE, especially if we
want to do justice to the clarification statement. I’m going to focus on uses
for external parts for the next few weeks. Then I’ll bring all my suggestions
together with ideas that are directly relevant to the engineering part of the
PE.

1-LS1-1. Use materials to
design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use
their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs. [Clarification Statement:
Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant or animal
solutions could include designing clothing or equipment to protect bicyclists
by mimicking turtle shells, acorn shells, and animal scales; stabilizing structures
by mimicking animal tails and roots on plants; keeping out intruders by
mimicking thorns on branches and animal quills; and, detecting intruders by
mimicking eyes and ears.]

For
starters, I’m going to share some ideas that can help kids understand how an animal’s
body parts help it live and grow. The obvious book choice here is What Do You Do with a Tail like This? by
Steve Jenkins.

Here are some other book ideas:

Snail’s Spell by Joanne Ryder

No One But You by
Douglas Wood 

My Five Senses by
Aliki

Diary of a Fly by
Doreen Cronin

Dig, Wait,
Listen by April
Pulley Sayre

Mining the Book

Introduce What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by
showing the front cover and asking students what animal they think the tail
belongs to. After they make a few guesses, flip the book over to show the back
cover. Now that they can identify the animal, ask them how they think the
lizard might use its tail. Can they think of any ways the tail might help a
lizard find food or stay safe? Record the class’s guesses on chart paper.

As you read
the book, stop after each of the pages with a question about an animal body
part. Encourage students to guess which animal each part belongs to. Then turn the page and
read how the animals use that external body part. (In some cases, the main text
doesn’t provide all the information first graders will need to understand the
concept, but you can turn to the longer descriptions in the backmatter for
clarification.)

To keep track of how
animals use their external body parts, work with your students to create a
series of data tables like the ones shown below. (In a few cases, the book
lacks critical information. When you see an asterisk (*), ask students if they
have ideas about how to complete the data table based on their prior knowledge.
You may need to fill in details for them.)

Nose
Use
Platypus
To dig in the mud
(for food)
Hyena
To find food

Elephant
To take a bath

Mole
To avoid getting
lost (and find food )

Alligator
To breathe (by
lifting just its nose above the water’s surface)

Ears
Use
Jackrabbit
To keep cool
Bat
To get a picture of
the world (by listening to sounds echoing off nearby objects)
Hippopotamus*
To hear
Cricket
To hear (one
another so they can find mates)
Humpback whale
To hear (other
whales trying to communicate)

Tail
Use
Giraffe
To brush away flies
Skunk
To warn enemies
that they are about to get sprayed
Lizard
To escape from
enemies
Scorpion
To sting (animals
it wants to eat)

Monkey
To hang from tree
branches (so it can reach food)

Eyes
Use
Eagle
To spot animals
(that it can catch and eat)
Chameleon
To look two ways at
once (so it can spot food and enemies)
Four-eyed fish
To look above and
below water (so it can spot food and enemies)
Horned lizard
To squirt blood (at
enemies)
Bush baby
To see (so they can
find food)

Feet
Use
Chimpanzee
To eat food
Blue-footed bobby
To dance (to
attract a mate)
Water strider
To walk on water
(in search of food)
Gecko*
To walk on ceilings
to find food and escape from enemies

Mountain goat
To leap (out of the
way of falling rocks or snow)

Mouth
Use
Pelican
To catch food
Mosquito*
To suck blood (so
it can produce healthy eggs)
Egg-eating snake
To eat food
Anteater
To catch food with
its tongue
Archerfish
To catch food

When
the data tables are complete, divide the class into six groups and assign each
group one of the animal body parts discussed in What
Do You Do With a Tail Like This?. Encourage each group to consider
whether the animals in the book depend on the external body part to live and grow or if it just makes their
lives easier or better. When each group comes to a consensus, one member should
write either an L (live and grow) or
an E (makes life easier) next to each
entry in the data table for their assigned body part.

Review Activity

Create
a worksheet with the following sentence frames:

A
_________________ (animal 1) uses its tail to ________________

(job 1). But a _________________
(animal 2) uses its tail to

________________ (job 2). A
_________________ (animal 1) uses

its _________________ (body part 1) to find
food. But a

_________________
(animal 2) uses its _________________

(body part 2) to find food.

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