Didactic unit about Lions and Lionesses

1. Why not CLIL?
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CLIL UNIT PLAN
NAME: Alba Bosch Serrano
SUBJECT: Science –in pre-primary education it’s called Discovering of the environment
TITLE: Our class’ name: Lions and Lionesses.
YEAR: 2016 – 2017 (Age: P3 and P4 –children from 3 to 5 years)
Step 1: The driving question.
 Let’s write down your driving question and why you think this is important.
To decide the driving question we did a brain storming about what we want to know
about lions and lionesses. Some of the points we wrote down are: where they live?
What they eat? Who is stronger: the lion or the lioness? How they live: alone or with
their family? Are they similar to us? ...
From my point of view, using this methodology to decide the contents of our didactic
unit is more vivential than teacher deciding all contents without knowing the opinion
of the students: you can share opinions, points of view and discover what really
children are expecting to learn about the topic. However, as a teacher you could
introduce some aspects if you consider they are going to enrich the unit and the
learning process –for example, the difference between our footprints and lions’ tracks
or nails and claws, etc.
Step 2: The preview of the whole unit
 Preview the whole unit. Take a look at the title, headings, and captions to
obtain 15-20 basic vocabulary that must be internalized by my pupils at the end
of the unit.
1. Body parts: tail, pawn,
claw, fang, udder, mane
5. Place they live: Savannah, Africa, Continent (we can
introduce the topic and localize Europe, for example)
2. Footprint vs. track
6. How they survive: pride, hunt (we can introduce
who hunts –lioness), offspring
3. Nail vs. claw
7. Colours, sizes, kind of animal: brown, black,
orange... big/bigger than; small/smaller than... feline
4. Food: omnivore, meat, vegetables, zebra, deer, buffalo...

2. Why not CLIL?
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Step 3: The easiest and hardest section of your unit.
Easiest: Maybe the easiest section is contents related with lions and lionesses’ physical
appearance –like body parts, colours, etc. Because is more visual than other aspects
and there are lots of materials –in the school and in the Internet– that we can search
to learn it.
Hardest: From my experience, I find the hardest section localising where lions live and
why they eat other animals. Children are used to go to the supermarket and buy meat
or fish, but they don’t know how these food ‘goes’ to the supermarket. In addition,
they are also used to live in a village/city full of services and houses, so they often find
strange how people live in Africa and how near of lions they are.
Step 4: Law aspects.
The LOMCE defines 7 competences: (let’s define some aspects of each competence)
 Linguistic competence: the student must be a producer and not only receiver
of messages, for which it is necessary the use of active methodologies
 Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology:
mathematical competence implies the ability to apply mathematical reasoning
and its tools to describe, interpret and predict different phenomena in context.
In addition, the scientific and technological competence provides an approach
to the physical world and to the responsible interaction with it. It also
contributes to develop the scientific thinking.
 Digital competence: it involves the creative, critical and secure use of ICT. It
requires a new set of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to be
competent in a digital environment: specific language, software, search,
selection and analysis of information...
 Learning to learn: develop a reflective process that allows thinking before
acting, analyzing the course of the process, and adjust and evaluate it. The
values associated with this competition will be motivation and trust.
 Social and civic competences: social competence is the ability to use
knowledge and attitudes about society, to interpret social phenomena and
problems in different contexts. Civic competence is based on critical knowledge
of the concepts of democracy, justice, equality, citizenship, human rights and
civil rights.
 Initiative and entrepreneurship: it involves the ability to transform ideas into
action –become aware of the situation to resolve, choose, plan and manage the
knowledge, skills or abilities own criteria to achieve the objectives.
 Cultural awareness and expression: you are supposed to know, understand,
appreciate and evaluate critically, with an open and respectful attitude,

3. Why not CLIL?
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different cultural and artistic events.
I will include these LOMCE standards in my unit plan: (try to find it into your
Autonomous Community curriculum)
In the pre-primary curriculum in Catalonia we don’t have competences or standards;
we have abilities, specifically 9. In my unit plan, I will include the 5th
, 6th
and 9th of
these abilities:
- 5th
: Advance in communication and expression adjusted to different contexts
and situations of usual communication through different languages.
- 6th
: Observing and exploring the immediate natural and physical environment,
with an attitude of curiosity and respect; to participate gradually in social and
cultural activities.
- 9th
: Behave according to the guidelines of coexistence that leads to personal
autonomy, to the collaboration with the group and towards social integration.
Step 5: Content
 Which interdisciplinary subjects could be connected to in this unit? Why and
how?
Communication and languages: here we will include mathematic, ICT and
Catalan/Spanish languages to express ideas and contents. The main contents in this
area are: see, listen and experiment; talk, express and communicate; and interpret,
represent and create. We could take advantage of these contents to develop our
didactic unit: students could go inside the Savannah and see the lions, listen the
sounds of this place, experiment with different materials which remembers us the skin
of this felines; talk, express and communicate their feelings and knowledge they had
before and after the unit; and interpret, represent and create a summary using mind-
maps, posters or videos/ICT resources.
Discovery of oneself and others: the main contents in this area are self knowledge and
emotions management; play and movement; affective and communicative
relationships; and personal and relational autonomy. We could take advantage of
these contents to develop our didactic unit too: how students’ feelings are in front of
lions’ diet or the way lions and lionesses take care of their offspring; how students
respect speaking turns during the discussion; how they acquire more autonomy to
decide ways of working –draw, write, search things on the Internet using their tablet,
etc.

4. Why not CLIL?
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Steps 6: Soft Skills.
 I will include these soft skills in my unit plan:
 Confidence and self-reliance
 Be responsible of the tasks
 Expression of emotions, feelings and needs
 Positive attitude and interest in learning
 Pay attention and have an active listening
 Metacognition