Introduction to this Lesson Note Nursery 1 First Term Science Week 1
I wrote this Lesson Note Nursery 1 First Term Science Week 1 based on the Nigerian National Early Childhood Education Curriculum. Particularly, I used the Pre-Primary Teaching Schemes that the Education Resource Centre, Abuja developed in 2014 – contact me if you want this scheme. This scheme is the same as those of the other 36 states’ education resource development centre. This is because all the states developed their schemes from the National Curriculum. Nonetheless, I only crosschecked this topic in that of Lagos, Kano and the FCT. Regardless, this lesson note is suitable for use in any Nigerian school that adopts the National Curriculum.
Click here to get the scheme of work that I used and which we also use for other lesson notes.
Guides to Adapting this Lesson Note
I wrote this lesson note in outline of standard lesson plans. However, new teachers must know that this note is too long/detailed for a lesson plan. Hence, you cannot submit this lesson note directly to your head teacher or supervisor. If you intend to use this note for your lesson plan – which many do; I advise you to get my Lesson Plan Template. I wrote the template professionally in a way that makes it easy for teachers to create clean lesson plans by simply filling it. Click here to check the template.
REMARK: If you find the terms lesson plan and lesson notes confusing, Click here to quickly read my article on their differences.
To the Science Teacher
To whoever that will use this lesson note nursery 1 first term basic science week 3, I urge you to focus on quality. Quality/ wholesome education does not only impart knowledge but practical skills and acceptable social character. This is worthy of note especially in this topic. Ordinarily, preschool science teachers are content with the pupils being able to mention and identify the parts of the body – I know this for my experience in the section. But this topic stretches beyond that cognitive objective. Science education – just like others and at a time like now – is an effective tool to build new breeds of society heroes, to change the society.
The shape of the Nigeran society today, is the reflection of the shallow and wrong education that the society gave today’s youth in the yesteryears – in their youngest days. Every topic, every encounter with a learner or a group of learners; is an opportunity to correct contemporary societal malformation due to past educational malpractices.
This topic, two key of such contemporary societal issues – sex education and gender equality. How beautiful will it be that we groom the youngest of today with full awareness of these issues and in such fashion that they we equip them with the informational tool to protect themselves and to defend social justice.
If we do this, then we will have some reliable assurance of a better society for them and generation yet unborn.
Consequently, I stated the objectives covering these separately under the affective domain. I enjoin you to target their attainment as much as you would the cognitive. As you do this in your various classes and homes; the eyes of the society might not be on you to cheer you for your great effort. But the invincible Third Party in every bargain setup by natural laws – that party that Emmerson inferred in his Law of Compensation – will surely pay in folds.
Lesson Note Nursery 1 First Term Science Week 1
Class: Nursery One
Term: First
Week: 1
Subject: Science
Topic: Parts of the body (Self-Awareness)
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson the pupils should have attained the following objectives:
Cognitive:
- Mention some parts of the body
- Identify a given part of the body in picture
- Name the part of their body that is private
- Differentiate between a boy and a girl; a man and a woman
Affective
- Demonstrate secrecy of private parts
- Internalize rudiments of gender equality
Psychomotor
- Point at a part of the body that the teacher may name
- Correctly report injury or pain in a given part of the body
Presentation
The teacher presents the lesson in order of steps as follows:
Introduction:
To introduce the lesson, the teacher does the following:
Video illustration
If the resources are available, play the video of a child who is crying while the mother is bathing him/her. The video should be such that the cry intensifies when the mother touches a particular part of the body – say ankle.
At this point the teacher asks the pupils what they think is wrong with the child. After the ensuing discussion – in his/her narration; the identifies that a particular part of the child’s body hurts.
Then the mother after noticing, asks the child what is wrong with him/her. The video should be that the child is unable to accurately tell the mother what was wrong – because s/he does not know the name of the part of the body which hurts.
The teacher asks the pupils why the child was not able to correctly tell the mother what was wrong. Thence, the teacher reveals that it was because the child does not know the name of the body part that hurts.
The teacher tells the pupils that as a result of the child’s inability to correctly tell the mother what was wrong, the mother will not be able to help the child as fast as possible. And so, the child will not be able to run around, playing with friends; nor go shopping with the mum, school, etc. until the child heals. The teacher asks the pupils if they want to be as the child?
Consequently, the teacher tells the pupils that they shall learn all the parts of the body during week. This is so that they could correctly report pains to their parents, teachers and other trusted adults.
Following this, the teacher mentions and explains the lesson objectives to the understanding of the pupils. After this, s/he writes/projects the topic on the board/screen and proceeds with the lesson.
NOTE
Teacher’s role here would include creating the video – cartoon animation. This can easily be done with any of the animation software for android, mac or pc.
Picture illustration
If resources for video illustration is not available, the teacher can use picture illustration instead. In this case, he/she narrates the story as I have outlined above while displaying the pictures appropriately.
NOTE:
Teacher’s role here would include creating the pictures – drawing cartoon. S/he can do this easily on a cardboard – that’s a lot of drawing actually; using software on smartphone, mac or pc.
Storytelling
Although video and picture illustrations will be most and more effective respectively, where neither is possible; the teacher can orally tell the story. In this case, the teacher should ensure he or she is a very good narrators and demonstrator.
Step 2: Differences between male and female – boy and girl; man and woman
In continuation of the lesson, the teacher teaches the pupils the differences between male and female. To do this, s/he displays large poster of a boy and a girl – with body parts unlabeled. Then the teacher leads the pupils to identify it. S/he does this by asking the pupils what pictures are in the poster. A child or two should be able to tell a boy and a girl. Thus, the teacher explains the key vocabulary thoroughly:
A Child: one young human being.
Children: two or more (3, 4, 5, etc.) young human being.
The teacher explains these thoroughly – if necessary, emphasizing in local dialect. After that, the teacher leads the pupils on picture reading of child and children. S/he flips through several pictures of a child and (varying number of) children; then s/he asks the pupils whether the picture currently in view is a child or children.
NOTE:
Teacher’s roles here include collecting and creating several photo slides of random child and children. For personalization, the teacher may add pictures of the class pupils in the slideshow. If a screen is not available, the teacher may as well collect pictures and make it into a picture book. Alternatively, the teacher may use the pupils picture reading textbook.
Stage Evaluation
The teacher may give the pupils some exercises to access their understanding of child and children.
Boy and Girl
Succeeding the exercise, the teacher teaches the pupils the differences between a boy and girl; and between man and women. To do this, the teacher displays the pictures of a boy and a man; and that of a girl and a woman. Then, s/he explains thoroughly:
A Boy: is a child that grows to become a man.
A Girl: is a child that grows to become a woman.
The teacher may use different pictures to emphasize – and in local dialect if necessary. S/he may also mention other differences between a boy and girl as observable in locality. Such other differences include their dressing, hair styles and piercing. Note however that these other differences differ from community to community. For example, while haircutting is rare among girls in northern/Muslim communities; it isn’t much so in southern/Christian communities.
Stage Evaluation
The teacher, by means of several pictures lead the pupils through the exercise of differentiating between boys and girls. The teacher may give more of this exercise to the pupils including asking them individually if they are a boy or girl.
Gender Equality
Once the teacher ascertains that the pupils fully understands and are able to differentiate between a boy and a girl, the teacher introduces the concept of gender equality. To do this, the teacher presents the common gender discrimination in (some) African homes in form of narration. See my sample narration below:
In my (the teacher’s) village, there is a family. It is the family of Mr. & Mrs. Ola Musa Chibuzor (use common local names). Mr. & Mrs. Ola has 4 children – two boys and two girls. In this family, there is a law. The law is that cooking (helping in the kitchen), sweeping and washing plates are only for girls; while running errands are only for boys.
After the narration, the teacher asks which of the pupils have similar rules in their homes. Subsequently s/he corrects the notion of inequality. To do this, the teacher explains that we (human beings) are equal but unique in our differences. And as such that what we CAN DO, we ought to do and not avoid due to gender differences. For example, the girls in Mr. & Mrs. Ola’s home uses their hands to do chores; and the boys have the same hands. Hence the boys CAN cook (help in the kitchen), sweep and do dishes just like the girls. So, the boys ought not to avoid chores simply because they are boys. To buttress this, the teacher displays pictures of male and female personnel of different occupation. For example, male and female doctors; male and female engineers; male and female footballers; lawyers; soldiers; superheroes, etc. With the pictures, the teacher explains that girls can aspire and be anything as well as the boys.
In conclusion, the teacher explicitly informs the pupils that rules such as in the home of Mr. & Mrs. Ola Musa Chibuzor is not a very good law. And also, that both boys and girls can do chores – help in the kitchen, sweep, wash plates, run errands, etc.
Stage Evaluation
Succeeding the last explanation, the teacher evaluates the pupils’ understanding of the concept. S/he does this by asking questions such as follows:
1. Is it good for boys to help in the kitchen?
(a) Yes
(b) No
- In a home, who is supposed to do the sweeping?
(a) only boys
(b) only girls
(c) boys and girls
- Who run errands for mummy and daddy at home?
(a) boys and girls
(b) boys
(c) girls
- Can a girl be a soldier? (explain the meaning of a soldier)
(a) yes
(b) no
- Can a boy be a chef (cook)?
(a) yes
(b) no
Step 3: Parts of the body
Following the section above, the teacher teaches the pupils the parts of the body. To do this, s/he first of all reminds the pupils the story of the mother and child at the introductory level. Then s/he reminds the pupils of the meaning and difference between boys/men and girls/women.
Succeeding this, the teacher displays the pictures of a boy & a man versus that of a girl and woman side by side on the board.
The starting from head to toes, the teacher names each part of the body, shows the pupils in the pictures on the board – by pointing at it, demonstrates and finally makes the pupils to touch theirs – except of course for the private parts.
The teacher should divide and spread the entire the entire list into the days. In most schools and based on the national curriculum, Science as well as Mathematics and English are daily subjects in preschools. Hence, I assume that Science occurs at least four times in the week. This implies that the teacher should treat a maximum of only five parts of the body per day.
- Head
- Eyes
- Nose
- Mouth
- Teeth
- Tongue
- Neck
- Shoulder
- Hands
- Fingers
- Stomach
- Back
- Leg
- Knee
- Ankles
- Toes
Private parts
Once the teacher has adequately treated the parts of the body I outline above, s/he lays the foundation of sex education by helping the pupils to identify the private parts of the body. While this may be awkward for an adult, it is important to remember that the pupils are innocent kids who will likely not attach extra meaning to the names of these parts. Sex education experts believe that the ignorance of the victims is the major weapon of perpetrators of sexual abuse. Hence, there is concordance that knowing the names of private parts is a good and recommended starting point.
In this lesson, the objective is simply for the pupils to be able to say the name/identify the private parts. The pupils should also know that these parts are “private” – and hence, that they should not allow anybody to see or touch them. The teacher clarifies that mom, dad or caregivers/their teacher can help wash their body, a dentist will look in their mouth at an office visit and a doctor or nurse may look at genitals with a parent present.
With the aid the picture, the teacher shows the pupils to identify the following and then explains accordingly.
- Mouth
- Breast
- Buttocks
- Penis
- Vagina
For each, the teacher identifies it on the post for the boy and man and correspondingly for the girl and woman.
EVALUATION
Prior to concluding the lesson, the teacher assesses the pupils understanding of the lesson through series of exercises – both as classwork and if necessary, homework.
SUMMARY
To conclude the lesson, the teacher revises the lesson and sing the body part rhymes with the pupils several times. Note that the teacher may begin the rhymes after the first-five body parts.
CONCLUSION
The teacher concludes the lesson by recording pupils’ performance and if necessary, providing feedback to the parents for needed home assistance including suggesting/giving them the video clips for their children. With reference to the discussion on private parts, the teacher should give parents heads-up – of likely questions from their children. Depending on school environment, the teacher may prepare a list of likely questions and answers to guide parents. Alternatively, the teacher may recommend articles and books to the parents.
For this reason, I found the articles below useful:
Schiedel, B., 2018. This is how you talk to kids about their private parts. [Online]
Available at: https://www.todaysparent.com/kids/school-age/this-is-how-you-talk-to-kids-about-their-private-parts/
[Accessed 5 October 2020].
Schmidt, C., 2018. How and why to talk to your kids about their private parts. [Online]
Available at: https://www.arnoldpalmerhospital.com/content-hub/how-and-why-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-their-private-parts
[Accessed 5 October 2020].
[qsm quiz=3]