Topic: In the forest

Target group

4th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

General aim of education

The student acquires knowledge and skills about the topics discussed in the classes

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• recognize common species of trees and shrubs growing in Polish forests;

• distinguish the forest floors and describe the conditions prevailing in them;

• distinguish selected types of Polish forests.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• sheets of paper;

• crayons;

• scissors;

• stapler;

• leaves collected by students.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students perform „Task 1”.

Introduction

• The teacher asks students to name the organisms that occur in the forest.

• The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

Realization

• The teacher collects students' homework.

• Students will get acquainted with the fragment „What conditions are present in the forest?”.

• The teacher gives two pieces of paper to the students. Students draw four parallel lines on them. On one of the pages, they depict the illustration of „Forest layers”. After drawing, they cut it along the crossed lines, receiving on each part of the paper a different layer of forest (successively: ground cover, tree litter, understorey and canopy). The second sheet of paper also cuts into four parts and describes each other on the other floor of the forest (showing the conditions prevailing in them, occurring organisms, etc.). Then, using a stapler, they connect the corresponding parts of both sheets (drawings of individual layers with their descriptions). During the students' work, the teacher assesses their homeworks: checks whether they have correctly marked trees and shrubs based on the leaves collected in the vicinity.

• Selected students present their drawings and read the descriptions of the forest floors. The teacher corrects possible mistakes.

• The teacher comments on the correctness of homework and displays an interactive illustration. Students analyze the construction of leaves of selected trees and shrubs.

• The teacher asks pupils to exchange other species of trees known to them, including conifers.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

Homework

• Students, using abstracts, draw up a diagram showing the diversity of forests.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

In the forest

Forests are plant communities in which trees dominate. They are also created by bushes and herbaceous plants. Forests also consist of animals and other organisms which live in them. The presence of sprawling tree canopies influences the conditions below. This is why four main layers can be distinguished in a forest.

The canopy is the highest layer of the forest. It absorbs most of the light from the sun, but is exposed to the effects of the higest air temperature in summer, and the lowest in winter. Additionally, the winds are the stongest in this part of the forest. Certain forest birds make their nests in the canopy, especially birds of prey (for example, white‑tailed eagles and buzzards). Certain forest arboreal mammals also live there (for example, squirrels and martens) and bats and insects feed there.

Lower, to a height of a few–a dozen or so metres above the ground, is the understory. Young trees and shrubs grow there. The canopies of the trees block a large part of the light, so less of it reaches the understory. At the same time, the wind can barely be felt, and temperature fluctuations are smaller. Numerous forest birds live in the understory (for example, warblers, robins and blackbirds), sometimes amphibians also live there (tree frogs) as well as numerous insects and spiders.

Plants in the undergrowth reach a few, to a few dozen centimetres. At this height, there is very little light, and in summer it is cool and humid. Here, mosses and ferns dominate, along with prostrate shrubs, or shrubs which are very small in size, for example heather and blueberries. Fungus are also a part of the undergrowth. Here, mammals search for food (boars, roe‑deer, foxes and hares), as well as reptiles (lizards and snakes), amphibians (frogs and toads) and insects.

The lowest level of the forest is plant litter, which lies directly on the forest floor. It is composed of fallen leaves, needles and plant and animal remains. Decomposers live here (bacteria, fungi and soil organisms), which decompose the remains and create humus.

There are currently several dozen species of trees growing in Poland. Among the coniferous trees occuring in our forests are pine, spruce, fir and larch. Forests composed of coniferous trees are called boreal forests. They usually grow in poor soils.

In Poland, there are several types of deciduous forests. If trees such as oaks, lindens, hornbeam and maples grow in a forest, then it is a broad‑leaf forest. This type of forest requires a more fertile soil. In semi‑fertile soil, especially in the mountians, beech forests grow, which is a forest made up of beech trees. If the soil is damp, such as by the banks of rivers, alluvial forests develop, which is a forest made up of ash, willows and alders. In wetlands and swamps, alder forests grow– forests made up of black alders, a tree which is resistant to flooding.

The shrubs which most commonly occur in Polish forests are: elderberry, juniper, hazel, sorb and raspberry and blackberry. It is possible to recognise the species of trees and shrubs by differentiating betweeen the shape of their canopies, examining their leaves or needles, bark and flowers, fruit, seeds or cones.

• There are different types of forest, depending on the species of trees which grow in them.

• In temperate climate conditions, forests most commonly have four layers: plant litter, undergrowth, the understory and the canopy.

• Pine boreal forests are the dominant type of forest in Poland.