Have the students paint a box green to represent cell walls. Talk about how plant cell walls are like the boxes with a regular form. Have the students blow up different size balloons to represent animal cells.Talk about how animal cell forms are different and sometimes irregular. Start a discussion on what the students think about the differences. Have them build a cell wall with the boxes and then try to build one with the animal cell balloons. Introduce the difference between the living animal cells and the plant cell walls.
Illustrate both a plant and animal cell on the board. Set up a clear glass fish bowl with clear gel wax that is partly solidified. Talk about the parts of an animal cell and as you do, insert models of animal cell parts into the gel as you explain. Then set the finished cell in an area where students can study it. Set up a clear, small fish tank with clear gel. Talk about the parts of a plant cell and as you do, insert models of a plant cell into partly set up gel wax as you explain. When finished talking about the plant cell, set the finished plant cell model in an easily viewable area.
Set up two microscopes. Show the students how to make a slide of plant cells from a leaf of lettuce. Have the students view the plant cell slide and when done give each student a cotton swab. Have them line up for the second microscope. When a student reaches the microscope, have her wipe the inside of her mouth and prepare a slide. Let that student look at the slide she has made under the second microscope. When all of the students have viewed both the plant and mouth slides, start a discussion about what they observed.
Draw a plant cell and animal cell on a piece of printer paper. Do not label the parts. Make a copy for each student and some extras. Draw the cells on the board with the parts labeled and discuss the parts and what they do. Give each student a copy of the sheet with the plant and animal cell illustrations. Give the students crayons and have them label and color the cells.
Pass out clay of various colors and have the students work in teams of four to make models of the parts of both animal and plant cells. Give the students index cards to write each cell part name and function on one side of the card. On the other side of each index card, have them draw the part using the colors they used for making their clay model. Once the models and cards are done, have the students switch places with other teams. Direct each team to play a flash card game with the other team's cards.
Turn the classroom into a set of cells, one half for an animal cell and one half for a plant cell. Divide the class in half. One half of the class makes decorations representing a plant cell while the other half makes decorations representing an animal cell. Use the ceiling, walls, floor, doors and windows for the cell mock ups. Boxes painted green can represent a plant wall. Use paper mache for other cell parts. Have each side of the class explore the other side and talk about what the similarities and differences are between the two.