Parenthood Lesson Plan: Heredity: Inheritance and Variety of Traits

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Parenthood, and supports the standard of understanding how parents help children learn and grow throughout stages of childhood. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • Who are your role models? Why are they role models?
  • What is an important lesson you learned from your parents or caregivers?


Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read aloud the description on the Parenthood topic page. 
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the following articles: “Real Life” or “Way Back When”. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign Parenthood Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: EXTEND and DEEPEN

Students express what they learned about parenthood while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.  

  • Make-a-Movie: Create a video message of gratitude for an adult you look up to that explains how your role model helped you grow and learn. 
  • Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying the stages of childhood, explaining how a parent supports their child’s development in each stage.
  • Creative Coding: Code a learning game challenging players to sort parenting responsibilities into self-selected categories.

More to Explore

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of different life stages with these topics: Infancy, Adolescence, and Adulthood.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, 9-12, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3