Activity 01
Whole Class: Seasonal Prep Timeline
Draw a large seasonal calendar on chart paper. As a class, add sticky notes for human and animal preparations by month, using pictures and words. Discuss and sequence events based on local weather patterns. End with students sharing one prediction for next season.
Analyze how humans prepare their homes for winter weather.
Facilitation TipDuring Seasonal Prep Timeline, provide sentence starters on the board to scaffold sequencing for students who need support, such as 'First, we... because...'.
What to look forProvide students with a picture of a squirrel burying nuts. Ask them to write two sentences explaining why the squirrel is doing this and what might happen if it did not store food.
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Activity 02
Small Groups: Animal Food Storage Challenge
Provide craft materials like boxes and pom-poms as food. Groups design and build a storage plan for a chosen animal, like a chipmunk. Test the model by shaking it gently, then present why it works for winter survival.
Design a plan for an animal to gather and store food for the colder months.
Facilitation TipFor Animal Food Storage Challenge, circulate with a checklist to observe whether each group tests their storage method and records results, not just builds it.
What to look forShow students images of different winter preparations (e.g., a person wearing a scarf, a bear in a den, a bird flying south). Ask students to verbally identify the preparation and the animal or human involved, and explain the purpose of the preparation.
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Activity 03
Pairs: Winter Home Model
Pairs use recyclables to build a model house and add winter prep features, such as shutters or snow barriers. Label each feature and explain its purpose. Share models in a gallery walk, voting on most creative solutions.
Justify why planning ahead for seasonal changes is important for survival.
Facilitation TipWhile pairs work on Winter Home Model, ask guiding questions like 'What keeps heat in your house at home?' to connect prior knowledge to the task.
What to look forPose the question: 'Imagine you are a Grade 1 student living in Ontario. What are three things you and your family should do to get ready for winter?' Encourage students to share their ideas and justify why each action is important for staying safe and comfortable.
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Generate Complete Lesson→A few notes on teaching this unit
Teachers should ground this topic in students’ lived experiences by starting with familiar examples of cold weather preparations, then expanding to less familiar animal behaviors. Avoid overwhelming students with too many strategies at once. Instead, focus on depth by having students explore one animal or preparation method in detail before comparing across cases. Research on elementary science learning shows that concrete, manipulative activities paired with discussion lead to stronger retention of adaptation concepts.
Successful learning looks like students explaining why animals store food or migrate, and identifying multiple ways humans prepare for winter. They should sequence seasonal events logically, justify their choices in models or journals, and transfer knowledge to new scenarios like Ontario’s lake-effect snow. Listen for students using evidence from the activities to support their ideas.
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
During Seasonal Prep Timeline, watch for students who skip steps or place events out of order. Redirect them to use the sentence starters on the board to justify each placement, such as 'We put 'gather firewood' before 'first snow' because we need wood before it snows.'
During Winter Home Model, watch for statements like 'We don’t need to prepare because our house is already warm.' Redirect by asking students to consider power outages or storms. Have them add emergency supplies like blankets or a thermos to their model and explain why these are critical even in modern homes.
Methods used in this brief