Topic: Five kingdoms

Author: Elżbieta Szedzianis

Target group

5th grade student of elementary school.

Core curriculum

II. Diversity of life.

1. Classification of organisms. Student:

1) justifies the need to classify organisms and presents the principles of the biological classification system,

2) presents the characteristic features of organisms that allow them to be assigned to one of the appropriate kingdoms.

Lesson objectives

Students characterize the kingdoms of organisms.

The criteria for success

• you will name five kingdoms of organisms;

• you will discuss the features of the organisms assigned to each kingdom.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• mathematical competence and basis competences in science and technology; 

• digital competence;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Methods/forms of work

Working with text, peer learning, educational game.

Individual activity, activity in pairs and activity in groups.

Teaching aids

• abstract;

• interactive whiteboard or traditional blackboard;

• tablets/computers;

• “Five kingdoms” gameboard;

• pawns and dice.

Lesson plan overview

Introduction

1. The teacher specifies the subject and the objective of the lesson as well as the criteria for success.

2. Volunteers read out their homework.

3. The teacher asks the students:

• If a lamp was a living being, what could be its specific name?

• If other objects were living beings, which of them would you assign
  to the same genus as the lamp?

Realization

1. The teacher asks the students to read the abstract “Criteria for the division of organisms” and to try to remember its content. The teacher points out that the information contained in it will be useful in the game they will play later.

2. Working in pairs, the students ask each other questions about the information found in the abstract.

3. The teacher presents the gameboard and explains rules of the game (Appendix no. 1).

4. The students form groups of four. Each group receives a gameboard, pawns and a dice.
   The teacher gives a signal to start the game.

5. After the game is over, the winners answer the questions placed on
   the gameboard to the whole class.

Summary

1. Students do interactive exercise no. 1.

2. The teacher displays the criteria for success and asks the students to assess their skills acquired during the classes.

Appendix no. 1

Rules of the game

1. The board fields (both the playing fields and the answer fields) are sealed with stickers (e.g. price labels). The playing field is only exposed when there is a pawn in it, the answer field - after the player has answered the question.

2. Players throw the dice one by one. The player who throws the lowest number of pips starts the game.
   When several players throw the same number of pips and their score is the lowest in the group, they throw the dice again.

3. The pawns move around the board according to the number of pips thrown.

4. Players answer questions placed in the playing fields. Points are awarded for every correct answer. If the player does not know the answer or if his/her answer is incorrect, he/she moves back the number of fields equal to the number of pips he/she threw.

5. The winner is the player who scores the highest number of points.

“Five kingdoms” gameboard