Unit Plan Template1
UNIT: _Seven Habitats___ TIME FRAME: _Eight days______ TEACHER: ____Miss Lee_______
Unit Summary and Rationale: (Outlines the components of the unit and the reasoning for
their inclusion):
Throughout this unit, students will be learning about the seven different habitats around the world,
which include, artic tundra, desert, savanna, temperate deciduous forest, tropical rainforest,
freshwater and saltwater. Students have already been exposed to these habitats as during this unit
they will be exposed to the location, and the adaptation, food, and shelter needed in each habitat to
survive as an animal, plant and person. The students will not only see visual aides but will also
create their own informational visual aide as an assessment at the end of this unit.
Unit Standards: Teachers should list the standards to be addressed within the unit.
Social Studies
1.5c Symbols are used to represent physical features and man-made structures on maps and globes.
1.6a People and communities depend on physical environments for natural resources.
1.6b Roads, dams, bridges, farms and dwelling are all examples of how people modify the physical
environment to be needs and wants.
1.6c People interact with their physical environment in ways that may have a positive or negative
effect.
1.9a Scarcity means that people’s wants exceed their limited resources.
1.9b Families and communities must make choices due to unlimited needs and wants, and scarce
resources; these choices involve costs.
1.10a Goods are consumable, tangible products; services are actions performed by a person or a
group of people with a certain skill.
ELA
RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about the key details in a text.
RI.1.2 Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
RI.1.4 ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a
text.
RI.1.6 Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information
provided by the words in a text.
RI.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.
RI.1.9 Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic.
W.1.1 Write opinion pieces, in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing
about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provided some sense of closure.
W.1.2 Write informative/ explanatory texts, in which they name a topic, supply, some facts about the
1
Unit Plan Template of the North Tonawanda School District (http://www.ntschools.org/Page/2038), with minor revisions.
2
topic, and provide some sense of closure.
SL.1.1a Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion.
SL.1.1b Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through
multiple exchanges.
SL.1.2 ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented
orally or through other media.
SL.1.3 Ask or answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information
or clarify something that is not understood.
SL.1.4 Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and
feelings clearly.
SL.1.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas,
thoughts, and feelings.
SL.1.6 Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.
Unit Connection College and Career Ready Descriptions: Teachers will select at least
one of the following lenses to act as the overlay for the unit. These are the descriptors that must be
included to ensure the unit is fully aligned to the CCLS and relevant to the college and career ready
student.
 Students will demonstrate independence.
 Students will value evidence.
 Students will build strong content knowledge.
 Students will respond to the varying demands of audience, task, and discipline.
 Students will critique as well as comprehend.
 Students will use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
 Students will develop an understanding of other perspectives and cultures.
Essential Questions: Essential questions
Big Ideas: These are what students will discover
center around major issues, problems, concerns,
interests, or themes relevant to the classroom.
Essential questions should lead students to
discover the big ideas. They need to go beyond
who, what and where. They need to lead to the
how and why.
How is the climate in the tundra different from the
climate in the desert?
Animals that eat meat are called_______.
Omnivores eat what?
Grass covers the ground in which habitat?
What is the difference between the saltwater and
freshwater habitat?
What does deciduous mean?
What is an example of how people destroy the
deciduous forest?
How to animals become endangered and extinct?
as a result of instruction and learning activities.
They are the main ideas of the learning, the
conclusions, or the generalizations. Big Ideas
should be open-ended and apply to more than one
area of study.
Students should be able to differentiate between
the seven different habitats. They should also
know some of the adaptations that the animals and
plants have in each habitat. The students should
know the climate in each habitat. Students should
be able to retell what the vocabulary words mean.
3
Learning Tasks: Teachers list the various tasks Skills: These are what the students need to be
students will engage in throughout the unit.
(Content) – Should be separated by Reading
Tasks, Writing Tasks, Discussion Tasks, and
Language/Vocabulary Tasks.
Reading/writing:
Complete the fill in the blank sheets
Read the word bank to complete their poster.
Write complete sentence using the word bank to
write characteristics about their habitat.
Discussion:
Students will be asked a variety of questions
throughout each lesson that the student will be able
to answer.
Student will be asked to collaborate with their
group members as the put the poster together.
Language:
Vocab will be taught and reviewed before, and
during and after every lesson.
able to do in relation to the tasks. These skills are
translated statements from the standards and
represent measurable verbs, instructional targets,
and descriptors for the sake of consistency across
teachers in the same content area and grade level.
Students need to be able to work well with others,
as the assessment at the end is a group project.
Students need to be able to quietly sit a rug and not
distract other so they can learn about the materials.
Students need to be able to differentiate between
the animals and plants in each habitat are pertinent
when it comes to the group project.
Vocabulary/Academic Language
shelter, prey, predator, adaptation, burrow, dam, exposed, tundra, savanna, rainforest, temperate,
deciduous, desert, dry, humid, camouflage, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, nocturnal, scavenger,
hibernate, dormant, canopy, destroy, shallow, regeneration, plankton, exposed, climate,
4
Assessments: List types of assessments that will be used throughout the course of the unit.
*If you do not have assessments for this unit, they should be created before moving on to the lesson
design* (Label Assessments as Diagnostic, Formative, or Summative)
Diagnostic:
Before learning about another habitat, the students will be asked about the habitat(s) that they have learned
about prior to this one.
Formative:
Students will be asked to answer questions about the current lesson, which may require them to recall
vocabulary and information learned in prior lessons and earlier in this lesson.
Summative:
Students will be broken up into 7 groups. They will be given a habitat, where they have to pick out which
animals and plants live in that habitat. From there they need to cut it out and glue it on the tri-fold paper.
From there, they will use the word bank to create sentences that will describe their habitat.
Learning Activities: Any agreed upon
Resources / Text Selections: (generated by both
activities/lesson plans can be listed here.
teacher and student?) Teachers will list the
titles/genres for study:
Fill in the blank worksheet (for all)
http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/index.html
PowerPoint (for all)
Poster for each Habitat (3 students per group, 7
groups)
http://resources.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/homework/habitats.html
http://www.aitc.sk.ca/saskschools/arctic/Awildlife.html
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org
http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1951-biomes-of-theworld-aquatic
http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/ocean.htm
Microsoft word
PowerPoint
Additional Notes: