Animal Homes

 A Standards-Based Unit of Study

By Doris Overtoom, Julie Jones, Cherylene Burruss, and Linda Lindroth
Russell Cave Elementary School


Audience:  K-2  

Organizer:

How does an animal’s relationship to its habitat affect its survival? 

 

Academic Expectations and Demonstrators:

1.16     Students use computers and other kinds of technology to collect, organize, and communicate information and ideas.

·            Use a variety of technologies in various ways.

·            Express information and ideas using technology.

2.3     Students identify and analyze systems and the ways their components work together or affect each other.

·            Recognize things that work together.

·            Analyze how the properties of the components of a system affect their function within the system.

2.5     Students understand that under certain conditions nature tends to remain the same or move toward a balance.

·            Investigate and describe steady state systems and components of a system that work together to achieve constancy.

·            Investigate factors which may disrupt constancy and describe their effects in a steady state system.

 

5.1      Students use critical thinking skills such as analyzing, prioritizing, categorizing, evaluating, and comparing to solve a variety of problems in real-life situations.

·                Examine cause-and-effect relationships.

 

Essential Questions:

1. What is a habitat?

2. What does an animal need in its habitat to survive?

3. Why do only certain animals live in certain habitats?

4. What is an animal’s relationship to its habitat? (Food chain, life cycle, community, balance of nature)

5. What happens to an animal when its habitat changes?

 

Culminating Performance:

     At the end of our study of animals and their habitats, each student will create a PowerPoint slide which reflects his/her understanding of an animal’s relationship to its habitat.

      Each class will have six groups, each group representing a different habitat.  Every child in each group will create a slide about an animal from his/her assigned habitat.  Each slide will include the following:

·                animal

·                characteristics of the animal which make it well suited to its habitat

·                basic needs for the animal to survive in the habitat

·                text or audio explanation of animal’s relationship to its habitat

·                prediction of what would happen if the habitat were changed

  All the group slides will be combined by the teacher into a PowerPoint presentation.     

 

Student Content/Knowledge Needed:

·                Food chain/Food web

·                Types/characteristics of habitats

·                Basic needs for survival (food, water, and shelter)

·                Balance of nature

 

Student Skills/Processes Needed:

·                Obtain and use resources for research

·                Collect, organize, and display data

·                Use basic writing skills

·                Use science skills: observe, identify variables, predict

·                Understand cause and effect

 

Critical Resources Needed:

·                Reference materials

·                Picture books

·                Internet access

·                Software

·                Field trip

·                Graphics/pictures

 

Lesson Sequence

Ongoing Activities:

* Habitat Bulletin Board – World Habitats

     Color-coded posters of the six habitats

     World map, color coded to match posters

     Animal-of-the-Day to be added to posters

* Take home books/book list for parents

* Reserve book section in library

* Possible portfolio piece – transactive

* Field trip – Frankfort 

 

Week One    

·        What Is A Habitat?

·        Characteristics of Desert, Rain Forest, Mountain, Tundra, Ocean, and Grasslands

 

Activities:

1. Animal-of-the-Day – each child will have a map of the habitats and as the Animal-of-the-Day is studied, will place an animal sticker in the correct habitat

2. Habitat-of-the-Day – books, video,   websites, pictures/posters

3. Who Am I? – guess an animal by clues

4. Matching/Memory Game

 

Week Two

·        Basic Survival Needs

·        Food Chains

Activities:

1. Animal-of-the-Day

2. Food chain canopy (See Julie’s website list – possible art/science activity)

3. Food, shelter, water game (Possible gym activity)

4. Velcro food chain board

5. Fish food chain activity (See Doris’s website list.)

6. Website/computer activities

 

 

Week Three

·        Animal Research

·        Balance of Nature

 

Activities:

1. Animal-of-the-Day

      2. Shareware game – Survival simulation game

3. Big Systems (MECC)

4. Model/practice if-then statements

5. Deer game  (Possible PE activity)

6. Project Wild

 

Week Four

·        Culminating Project

 

1. Learning PowerPoint

2. Creating projects

3. Possible portfolio piece – transactive writing

Animal Homes

 

http://www.mattwolf.com/zoolobby.htm   Virtual Zoo

 

http://www.pbs.org/zoboo/  Zoboomofoo

 

http://kidport.com   Shockwave Games

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