T E
A C H E R ’ S
N O T E S
Focus:
Students explore living
things: what they are, how they behave,
their basic needs, and how humans can
affect them.
Learning Goals:
Students will have opportunities to learn
• how to correctly use the terms living thing,
root, seed, seedling, stem, life cycle, senses,
and environment
• how to identify and describe living things
• how animals grow, move, and change
• how plants grow and change
• what plants and animals need to survive
• why senses are important to humans
• how living things depend on one another and
share the environment
Discussion Prompts:
•
•
•
•
•
•
What are living things?
Can you name some living things in your area?
Are you a living thing?
What is your favourite plant?
What is your favourite animal?
How can you help to keep Earth healthy?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Assessment Prompts:
• Do students demonstrate, in their discussions
and answers to questions, understanding of the
science vocabulary used in the cards for this unit?
• Assess students’ responses during discussions.
- Do students understand that plants and
animals—including humans—are living things?
- Do students understand that living things grow,
take in food to create energy, and reproduce?
- Can students list the basic needs of living things
(air, water, food, shelter)? Do they understand
that these needs are met by the environment?
• Can students explain how different animals behave
in different ways?
• Do students treat living things with care and
respect?
Links to PCSP Student Book It’s Alive! :
Card 1: see Lessons 1 and 4
Card 2: see Lessons 1 and 2
Card 3: see Lessons 1 and 3
Card 4: see Lessons 1 and 5
Card 5: see Lessons 6 and 7
Focus:
Students explore living things
and how they move.
Activity Description: Text answers
the Think question in two simple
statements. Three inset photographs and
one background photograph illustrate
these points, showing both plants and
animals.
Learning Goal: Students learn that
living things need food and water.
Ask Students: What do living things
need?
Assessment: Do students’ answers
show that they understand the two basic
needs of living things (food, water )?
Introduce students
to the topic with the
video that shows a
rabbit. Discuss the
video and any
comments or
questions students
may have.
Activity Description:
The text provides the
answer to the Think
question in two short
paragraphs. Students
click the red dots to
make detailed labels
appear on the illustration
of a plant.
Learning Goal:
Students explore how
plants make food.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Activity Description: Text poses two
simple questions before responding to the
Think question in one clear statement.
Students click on the orange icon that leads
to a drag-and-drop activity. Students place
the (five) living things in the circle.
Learning Goal: Students identify living
and non-living things.
Learning Goal: Students learn that
different kinds of animals move in
different ways.
Ask Students: Can you name some
other non-living things?
Ask Students: How do three
different animals move?
Assessment: Do students understand
the difference between living and nonliving things?
Assessment: Do students’ responses
show that they understand that different
animals move in different ways?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
Ask Students: How
do plants make food?
Where do they store the
food?
Activity Description: Students hear
jungle sounds and look at a jungle
scene. They are asked to drag labels
onto the illustration to show the
different forms of movement animals
exhibit (e.g., swim, hop, and so on).
Assessment: Do
students’ responses show
a good understanding of
how plants make their
own food?
2
Activity Description:
Corresponding to page 4 of the
card, this screen includes a twopart matching activity called “Who
Owns These Bones?” This is a
timed activity.
Learning Goals: Students
reinforce their learning about how
animals move in different ways.
Ask Students: What does the
skeleton tell you about how the
animal moves?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Assessment: Do students
understand that different animals
move in different ways?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
3
Focus:
Students explore plant life.
Activity Description: Text answers the
Think question, saying plants change as they
grow. An illustration depicts “The Pumpkin
Life Cycle” with labels.
Learning Goal: Students explore the ways
in which plants change as they grow.
continued next page
Activity Description: A
screen appears, which is titled
“Adventures of an Oak Tree.”
By clicking the sound icon for
this 4-screen comic strip,
students may listen and read
along. continued next page
Introduce students to the
topic with the video of
growing pumpkin plants.
Discuss the video and any
comments or questions
students may have.
Activity Description:
Two simple sentences
provide the answer to this
Think question. A
photograph shows a girl
watering a plant.
Activity Description: After
clicking on this orange icon,
students see a screen called
“Seeds and Seedlings.”
Students drag and drop the
labels into the correct position
on the photograph of two
seedlings.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Learning Goal: Students
learn the basic parts of a plant.
Ask Students: Can you
name the parts of a plant
(using a diagram or live plant)?
Assessment: Have students
correctly identified the main
parts of a plant?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
Activity Description: Text answers the
Think question. A full-screen photograph shows
a gardener with a basket of vegetables.
Learning Goal:
Students enhance their
understanding of what
plants need to survive and
grow: water and sunlight.
continued next page
Learning Goal: Students enhance their
understanding of how plants
help animals, including
Activity Description: Students click on the
people.
photographs to learn how seeds spread.
Ask Students: How do
Learning Goal: Students explore the different
plants help you? Have you
ways that seeds disperse, which enables plants to
eaten any plants today?
reproduce and spread.
Assessment: Do students
Ask Students: How can seeds spread? (by
understand how plants help
animals, wind, water )
animals?
Assessment: Have students identified at least
two different ways in which seeds can be spread?
4
continued from page 4
Ask Students: Choose a plant.
How does it change as it grows?
Assessment: Check that
students are able to explain how
plants change as they grow.
Activity Description:
Corresponding to page 4
of the card, this screen
includes the same
activity.
Learning Goal:
Students learn that seeds
are living things that will
sprout and grow.
Ask Students: What
did you give the seeds to
help them grow? (water,
warm place ) Would the
seeds grow without
water?
Assessment: Do
students understand that
seeds are living things?
Do they know that water
is a basic need of the
seeds?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
continued from page 4 Ask Students: What two
things do plants need to survive and grow?
Assessment: Do students identify “water” and “sunlight”
as the two main things plants need to survive and grow?
Some students
include other things in their response, such
continued
nextmay
page
as air and shelter or space.
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
continued from page 4
Learning Goal: Students learn how trees
help many animals.
Ask Students: What did you learn from
this story? Why was the tree important?
Assessment: Can students explain why
trees are important to other living things?
Activity Description: After
clicking on the orange icon,
students will see the screen
called “How Plants Grow.”
Students then drag and drop
photographs into the correct
position in a sequencing
activity. On completion,
students will see six
information “cards” on the
screen, which they can read.
Learning Goals: Students
do the following: 1) reinforce
their learning about the needs
of plants; 2) review ways in
which people and animals use
plants; and 3) explore how
people can help plants.
Ask Students: What do
plants need? (water ) How
can people help plants grow?
(water them ) Why do people like trees and plants? (for
shade, to climb; to eat )
Assessment: Have students create their own
picture card with one sentence about a plant. Do
students’ cards include a sentence about what plants
need (water, light ) or how it grows, or what it can be
used for? Do students show an understanding of the
topic?
5
Focus:
Students explore animal life.
Activity Description: Students see a
photograph of a leopard with her cubs.
Text answers the Think question. When
students click on the second Think
question within this screen (“How do
some animals keep their babies safe?”),
they can click on pictures of different
animals to answer this question. For
each animal baby, students can “Click to
look inside” to find out more about
how the babies keep safe.
Learning Goals: Students
reinforce their knowledge that baby
animals need food. They also learn
that baby animals need to be warm
and safe.
continued next page
Activity Description: Students click the orange icon and
go to a screen titled “Desert Animals.” They drag and drop
the labels to the animals pictured.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Learning Goal: Students explore some of the different
animals that live in one environment—the desert.
Ask Students: What are these animals doing? How does
the environment help these animals?
Assessment: Do students understand that the environment
helps animals hide, find shelter, food, and drink?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
Introduce students
to the topic with
the video of
dolphins searching
for food. Discuss
the video and
any comments or
questions students
may have.
Activity Description: This screen is titled
“The Life Cycle of a Bird.” Illustrations
accompanied by descriptions show the growth
of a bird from an egg to an adult bird. When
students click the orange arrow button, another
screen appears. The life cycle is now missing the
pictures of the birds in different stages of
development. Students drag the correct pictures
into the diagram to complete the life cycle.
continued next page
6
continued from page 6
Ask Students: What things do baby
animals need?
Assessment: Can students explain that
baby animals need food to live? Do they
also know that baby animals need to be
warm and safe?
Activity Description: Corresponding to
page 4 of the card, this screen includes the
same word find, but with a slightly different
layout. Students must click and drag the
cursor over the letters they want to highlight.
Then a green check mark will automatically
appear beside the picture of the animal they
found. This is a timed activity.
Learning Goal: Students reinforce their
knowledge of the names of some common
animals.
Ask Students: Which of these animals do
you see in your community? Can you
describe the environment they live in?
Assessment: Are students able to read
and recognize the names of seven common
animals?
continued from page 6
Learning Goal: Students discover
how living things change as they grow.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Ask Students: Can you draw a
picture to show the life cycle of a bird?
Assessment: Do students’ drawings
include 1) an egg; 2) a baby bird; 3) a
young bird; 4) an adult bird?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
7
Focus:
Students explore the importance of senses
and how animals use their senses to survive.
Activity Description: This screen,
called “Senses in Action,” includes a
series of photographs, the first of
which is a girl smelling a daisy.
Students may complete a drag-anddrop activity to label each of the
photographs with the correct sense.
Learning Goal: Students identify
the senses human use.
Ask Students: What are the five
senses?
Assessment: Can students respond
to the above question accurately?
Introduce students to
the topic with the video
that shows a herd of
giraffes. Discuss the
video and any
comments or questions
students may have.
Activity Description: By
clicking the four blue plus signs,
students will see a new screen
with an enlarged photograph of
the young animals pictured,
accompanied by text describing
what the animal is learning.
Learning Goal: Students
learn that different living things
behave in different ways.
Activity Description: Students go to
“Senses in Action,” which includes a
photograph of a lion in front of a herd of
water buffalo. The text includes the answer to
the Think question.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Learning Goal: Students learn how
animals use their senses to help them survive.
Ask Students: What is the lion doing?
(hunting ) Why is the lion doing this? (it needs
to eat to survive )
Assessment: Do students understand that
senses help animals survive?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
Activity Description: Again
called “Senses in Action” this screen
includes red dots for students to
click. Labels appear showing which
body parts are used for each of the
senses.
Ask Students: How do
these behaviours help these
young animals survive? (eating
grass provides food, which
helps the geese survive;
continued next page
Learning Goal: Students explore
which body parts correspond to each of
the senses.
Ask Students: Which body parts do
you use for each of the senses?
Assessment: Can students connect
each of the senses to a body part?
8
Activity
Description:
Corresponding to page
4 of the card, this screen
includes the same
activity, but with a
slightly different layout.
Learning Goal:
Students investigate the
five sense organs as they
experience a short walk.
Ask Students: Did you
use all five senses? Was
there one sense you used
the most? If so, which
one?
Assessment: Did
students comment on
three or more senses
during their walks? Did
they label their picture
correctly?
Activity Description: After
clicking the orange icon, a new
screen called “What’s the Sense?”
appears. Students play a drag-anddrop activity labelling the five items
pictured with the labels at the top of
the page.
Learning Goal: Students reinforce the apple; “Touch” the rose )
their understanding of the sense
Assessment: Are students able
organs and what they are used for.
to name the most important sense
Ask Students: Can you think of a for each item?
second sense you could use for each
item? ( “See” the teddy bear; “Smell”
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
continued from page 8
avoiding dangers helps to keep the lion safe
from injury; running away from danger
keeps the horse safe from enemies; playing
with the ball teaches the kitten some
hunting skills) What is the same in the
photograph of the lion and the kitten? What
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
is different about what the lion and kitten
are doing?
Assessment: Do students know that
different living things behave in different
ways? Can students make the connection
between the animals’ behaviours and their
safety, well being, and/or survival?
9
Focus:
Students explore living environments and
how plants and animals interact within them.
Activity Description: Students click on the orange icons, which
take them to two spreads: “A Seashore” and “A Forest.” As students
click on the living things they find, labels appear, and a scoreboard
tracks the number up to ten and twelve, respectively. Students may
play again if they like.
Learning Goal: Students discover that many different living things
live in different environments.
continued next page
Introduce students
to the topic with the
video that shows
seagulls by the
ocean. Discuss the
video and any
comments or
questions students
may have.
Activity Description: An enlarged view of the main illustration
appears and students click the orange dots to make both a larger
illustration and a written description of five animals appear.
Learning Goal: Students explore animal characteristics,
behaviours, diets, and environments.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Ask Students: What do bats eat? What do snakes eat? What
do geese eat? What do some animals use the long grass for?
(wolves are hard to see in it, so it helps them hunt; geese make
their nests in it, so that their eggs and young are hidden )
Assessment: Can students state two facts about one of the
animals pictured?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
10
continued from page 10
Ask Students: Why do the living things in the
seashore environment live there? Why do the living
things in the forest environment live there? (they get
what they need from that environment )
Assessment: Do students understand that different
living things live in different environments? Do they grasp
the concept that different living things prefer different
environments (fish prefer water; moose prefer forests )?
Activity Description:
Corresponding to page 4 of the
card, this screen includes the page
4 photograph and text. When
students click the orange icon, a
new screen appears: “Helping
Earth’s Environments.” This screen
contains several photographs of
items made with recycled plastic
(shoes, bags, and so on). Clicking
on the blue plus signs, gives
students an enlarged view of each
item and text explaining which
parts of the items are made from
recycled plastic (e.g., the fuzz on
tennis balls).
Learning Goal: Students gain an
understanding of the many uses for
recycled plastic.
Ask Students: Why is it good to
recycle plastic? (plastic harms our
environment ) How do you use
plastic containers again?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Assessment: Do students show
care and concern for the
environment? Do students have an
understanding of the benefits of
recycling plastic?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
11
It’s Alive
(Understanding Life Systems)
Overall Rubric
You can use this rubric to assess students’ understanding
of the unit as a whole, after they have completed the five
cards for It’s Alive. To help you assess communication or
presentation skills students may have used during the
activity, use the Science and Technology Communication
and Science and Technology Presentation rubrics in the
Program and Assessment Guide.
The student
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Relating Science
and Technology to
Society and the
Environment
(Application of
Concepts and Skills)
Scientific
Investigation and
Technological
Problem Solving
(Inquiry and Design)
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Understanding
Basic Concepts
(Knowledge)
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
12