Grade Students Understand Life Cycles

The human life cycle is the various points along an individual’s life when their growth and development on both physical and emotional levels change as they mature in age. There are five stages of the life cycle these are,

Within my school literacy lesson will be planed by the teachers, the teacher will go over the

For the first half an hour, I could see that the students in the back had a difficult time sitting still in the crisscross position on the rug. One student would frequently stand up on his knees, lie down on the rug, or spin himself in a circle. During this time I noticed that most of the students who also sat in the back row on the rug was talking to their peers, while one student stayed quiet and entertained himself with hyperactivity movements, sucking on his thumb, or playing with his shoelaces. When the teacher finishes her explanation of the butterfly life cycle, a student quietly raised his hand and asks her if he would be able to create a human life cycle instead.

Children are very interested in the world around them, and when they explore science, it allows them to gain an understanding and make sense of the world around them. Early years children are curious and eager to find the answers to many different topics. Children will play, observe, participate in conversations, and ask many different questions. This is known as ‘everyday science’ (Campbell, Jobling & Howitt, 2015, p.8). Early childhood children learn best when playing. When an educator provides structured play, children can develop and build on their science knowledge (Walker, 2007, p.19). Early childhood children will also complete a series of trial and error exercises. The Science subjects within the Australian Curriculum [ACARA] provide a broad understanding of how things work together in the world in which we live. Giving children hands-on experiences allows them to observe different patterns of growth and change in living things, which allows them to start making predictions. A child’s science inquiry skills will begin to develop when exposed to different experiences such as how do plants grow, how is water used and how electricity work (Worth, 2010, para. 6). The experience in this report was aimed at an early childhood student by allowing him to conduct a hands-on science experiment. He was able to explore what happens when different products were added to refrigerated water. By predicting, observing and then explaining his results, the student was

Just as the needs of students vary teachers methods of instruction should vary. Meeting the literacy needs of students should be done through a wide variety of instructional strategies that meet the needs of students and meet the requirements of a balanced literacy program. The following information shares 12 instructional procedures to be used in a third grade classroom. The procedures are from the Tompkins’ Compendium shared in the text Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach (6th ed.).

The cycle of life is a mysterious, interesting, and complicated thing. Our bodies are constantly changing and our mind constantly growing. The first few years of our life, we see some of the most crucial years as far as development goes. That being said, we continue to follow our people and their situations.

In my time at school, I have always had an interest in the subjects of science and literacy. I have spent many an hour reading books, books about fantastic stories and astounding feats of science, and many an hour watching science television programs and movie adaptations of my my favorite novels. One of my my favorite novels, The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean, is a good example of the subjects that fascinate me, for it combines both science and literature perfectly together. At a young age, I often read many books about several factual subjects: rocks and minerals, animals, or ancient history, and many more. Later in life, I developed a taste for science fiction and fantasy, inspiring me to write similar wild and fantastic stories.

The next life cycle is birds. In this life cycle we will teach students that

2 - What is a life cycle? Referring to the appropriate reading, list three common misconceptions elementary children may hold about life cycles. What will you do in your classroom to confront these misconceptions?

In my schooling, I studied subjects that include science along with mathematics which helped me to develop awareness in the above courses.

Science is easily integrated into reading. The Vardell text mentioned information storybooks “utilizing a story line to carry information in a lively fashion” (241). I feel that this is important because students learn a love for exploring science when it is presented in a story that relates to real life situations. This is how the book Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! by April Pulley Sayre presents the life cycle of a sea turtle. Throughout the story it follows a sea turtle from an egg in the sand

The National Curriculum for Science (2013), anticipates to advance all pupils’ scientific knowledge and conceptualise understanding through the segmented scientific approaches; biology, chemistry and physics. In addition, pupils should have an awareness of the nature, processes and approaches used within science, through the various scientific enquires that enable pupils to answer questions related to the world and life. Finally, the aims of the science curriculum also consider that children must have the resources to fund the knowledge that is necessary to use science in the, present and future tense states the Department of Education (2013).

In Te Whariki (Ministry of Education [MOE], 1996), it is reported that science creates opportunities for children to learn strategies for active investigation, thinking and reasoning (p 98). Children are naturally scientists” is one we hear often. There curiosity and need to make the world a more predictable place certainly drives them to explore and draw conclusions and theories from their experiences. Kilmer & Hofman (1995, p 44), cited in Eliason & Jenkins (1999, p 263), stated the benefits of science for young children include the promotion of intellectual growth, greater potential for success in school, and opportunities for development. Science in early childhood education for young children should be encouraged to develop them as they participate in science. Therefore, children need guidance and structure to turn their natural curiosity and activity into something more scienctific. They need to practice science – to engage in rich scientific inquiry. Scientific inquiry provides the opportunity for children to develop a range of skills, for example; explore objects, materials, and events, describe (including shape, size, number), identify patterns, share and discuss ideas and listen to new perspectives.

Life cycle of an animal is as a unit of biological time concept, showing and describing the developments that occur in an animal. All living things ever exist on the Earth will undergo this cycle to ensure the sustainability of the offspring. Uniquely, every single animal has different life cycle that is sometimes totally not identical to each other at all. So does a butterfly, it also goes through four stages in its life in order to complete the cycle before it can become a beautiful flying organism (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix). Besides, each four stages also serve different purposes, and usually the process may up to almost weeks to month.

Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing