KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Teacher Candidate:
Cooperating Teacher:
Group Size:

21

Victoria DeLuca
N/A
Allotted Time 40 Minutes

Date: October 7, 2014

Coop. Initials
Grade Level 3rd Grade

Subject or Topic: Science: A Sense of Touch-Lesson Three Section

010

STANDARD:
Science Inquiry 3.1.3.C4:
Distinguish between scientific fact and opinion.
Ask questions about objects, organisms, and events.
Understand that all scientific investigations involve asking and answering questions and
comparing the answer with what is already known.
Plan and conduct a simple investigation and understand that different questions require
different kinds of investigations.
Use simple equipment (tools and other technologies) to gather data and understand that
this allows scientists to collect more information than relying only on their senses to
gather information.
Use data/evidence to construct explanations and understand that scientists develop
explanations based on their evidence and compare them with their current scientific
knowledge.
Communicate procedures and explanations giving priority to evidence and
understanding that scientists make their results public, describe their investigations so
they can be reproduced, and review and ask questions about the work of other scientists.
Evolution 3.1.3.C2.:
Describe animal characteristics that are necessary for survival.
I. Performance Objectives (Learning Outcomes):
A. 3rd grade students will be able to
1. reflect on how they use their own sense of touch by writing a brief
reflection about their experience with the game Getting Around
2. describe animal characteristics pertaining to their adaptations
through the sense of touch by summarizing these details in the form
of a poster

II. Instructional Materials

A. Power Point of animal images
B. Ice packs
C. Heated blanket
D. Sandpaper squares
E. slime
F. Faux fur strips
G. Velcro strips
H. Three bowls of water
I. Chalk board
J. Chalk
K. Earplugs/earmuffs
L. Computers/laptops
M. Poster board
N. Markers/writing utensils
O. Paper
P. blindfold
III. Subject Matter/Content (prerequisite skills, key vocabulary, big idea, outline of
additional content)
A. Prerequisite skills
1. Gross motor skills
B. Key Vocabulary
1. Touch receptors- The structures that respond to touch stimuli and
causes a nerve impulse to be generated.
C. Big Idea
1. To experience the power of the sense of touch and its importance in
animal adaptation.
D. Additional content
1. Make inferences and predictions in an inquiry research activity.
IV. Implementation
A. Introduction
1. For this lesson the teacher will have to set up her classroom prior to
the lesson. This can be done the day before or while the children are
at recess or lunch. The teacher will use the students desks to create
paths in a maze formation with different touch sensory objects
throughout it.
2. As the students arrive explain that the classroom is set up this way
specifically for todays science lesson, but dont give away any
spoilers. The teacher should exclaim to the students that they are
going to start todays science lesson off with a fun game called
Getting Around.
3. The students will put on noise blocking earplugs or earmuffs and a
blindfold. This will cause them to rely only on their sense of touch to
make it through the maze.

4. The teacher will monitor the students as they make their way through
the maze and come across different touch sensitive things such as
slime, cold ice packs, a heated blanket, sandpaper squares, faux fur
strips, and Velcro strips.
B. Development
1. After each child has gone through the maze, get them to reflect and
share their experience and record their responses in their science
journals.
2. Ask them think about some things they did to find their way through
the maze. Did they feel around the floor or sides of the desk? How
did it feel to not be able to use you other senses?
3. Relate this back to the prior lesson on sight and sound. Remind the
students that some of the animals that we learned about have to live
like this every day, finding food and protecting themselves from
danger.
4. The teacher should ask the students to think back on what kinds of
animals were talked about in the prior lesson that might be getting
around like this. Responses could be the blind animals or the animals
that use vibrations to detect sound.
5. Ask, What kind of animals can you think of that would need to rely
on their sense of touch and what do you think these animals use to
get around?
6. After some responses are shared, open the PowerPoint with images
to introduce the list of animals that use the sense of touch in their
adaptations.
7. Some of these animals are cockroaches, ants, crickets, bees,
grasshoppers snake, iguana, crayfish, drum fish, crabs, platypus, and
star-nosed moles.
8. Introduce the new term touch receptors and explain that these can be
anything from feelers kind of like our fingers, tentacles, antenna,
hairs, whiskers, and extremities. Use the pictures in the Power Point
to point them out.
9. As you talk about this the students can add this new term to their
wordbook.
10. Teach about the adaptations pertaining to the sense of touch in these
animals and more using the following websites: Neuroscience for
Kids website, Largest Fastest Smartest- Animals with the best sense
of touch in the world, Climate Change Matters- Animal Senses, and
Science Photo Library- Animal Super Senses.
11. The teacher should use the strategy Think, Pair, Share and have the
students use the class laptops to research additional information and
websites on these animals.
12. The students will then use their finding to create a poster for one of
these animals with a fun slogan that captures that particular animals

type of touch receptors and uses the name of the animal and other
key vocabulary. (See attached rubric)
C. Closure
1. Next, show the BuzzFeed video 4 Crazy Ways to Trick Your Sense
of Touch.
2. Preform these simple exercises with your students while reflecting
on this lesson.
3. The teacher will inform the students that the next lesson will focus
on the final senses, scent and taste in animal adaptations.
D. Accommodations/Differentiation
1. To make accommodations for K.D., a 3rd grader with dyslexia, I
would pair her with a student who was a strong reader in the Think,
Pair, Share activity so she could have information from the websites
narrated to her by the other student. This way she could gain the
benefits of peer tutoring and still help pull important information to
be used in their poster project.
E. Assessment/Evaluation Plan
1. Formative
a. The formative assessment for this lesson would be their Getting Around
reflection and the accuracy of information used in their sense of touch posters.
2. Summative
a. The summative assessment will take place at the end of this unit.
V. Reflective Response
A. Report of Student Performance in Terms of Stated Objectives (Reflection on
student performance written after lesson is taught, includes remediation for
students who fail to meet acceptable level of achievement)

Remediation Plan

B. Personal Reflection (Questions written before lesson is taught. Reflective

answers to question recorded after lesson is taught)
1. How could the introduction activity good more smoothly?

2. Were the students able to find good research material for the project?

3. Was there enough time allotted for the poster project?

VI. Resources
Animal Senses. (n.d.). Retrieved from Climate Change Matters:
http://www.climatechangematters.net.au/LOTS/Bio/sub/animsense/animsense.ht
m
Animals with the Best Sense of Touch in thr World. (2012, March 30). Retrieved from
Largest Faster Smarter: http://largestfastestsmartest.co.uk/animals-with-the-bestsense-of-touch-in-the-world/
BuzzFeed (Media Source). (2014). 4 Crazy Ways To Trick Your Sense Of Touch [video].
Science Photo Library. (n.d.). Retrieved from Animal Super Senses:
https://www.sciencephoto.com/static/features/1180-Supersenses.pdf