Students will describe the differences between real and artificial worms.
Students will measure the worms and compare their lengths.
The adjustment to the whole group lesson is a modification to differentiate for children who are English learners.
EL adjustments
Introduction
(5 minutes)
Introduce the concept of earthworms to your students. Allow them to ask questions about earthworms, such as where they live.
Show your students real worms and artificial, or fake, worms. For this lesson, you can describe real worms as ones that are living or have been alive in the past.
Help them describe the differences between a real and artificial worm. Write their answers on the board, if desired. For example, possible answers include: "Real worms are slimy. Real worms move. Artificial worms do not move."
Using rulers, show your students that they can use this tool to measure, or determine the length of something. Show them the inch numbers on the ruler, explaining that one way to measure is with inches.
Beginning
Introduce earthworms using a read aloud such as, Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Provide additional examples of living vs. non living things.
Intermediate
Provide the sentence frame, "I know that worms ________" for students to use during a think-pair-share.