Unit Overview: Read more about the unit and find all unit materials here on the Fishtank website

In this unit, students explore different habitats (forest, desert, water, and rainforest) and investigate how different plants and animals survive in each habitat. Rather than just learning facts about the habitats, students examine the connection between parts of each habitat and how those connections are crucial for survival. Over the course of the unit, students are challenged to use the information they learn about different habitats to compare how different plants and animals depend on their surroundings and other living things to meet their needs. Students will also be challenged to compare the differences in the kinds of living things that are found in different areas and why those differences exist. This unit builds on the 1st Grade Amazing Animals unit, in which students learned about different types of animals and their characteristics, and prepares students for the 3rd Grade Understanding the Animal Kingdom unit. 

This unit uses the Bobbie Kalman Introducing Habitats series as mentor texts. Due to the repetitive structure of the texts, the texts allow readers to explore how text features help the reader learn more about a particular idea or topic. Students also learn how to use text features and text structure to think about how details are connected and to determine the main topic of a section of text. Additionally, students use discussion and oral discourse to show their understanding of texts. 

Students continue to build writing fluency by writing daily in response to the Target Task question. Students learn how to write complete sentences, ensuring that they are able to clearly communicate their ideas. Students also use what they have learned about text features to include text features in their own informational writing, writing multiple pages in their own informational books about the different habitats they have studied.