Lesson 1: How do Animals Move? (picture graph) (available Fall through early Winter)
Engage:
· Students will learn the four ways that animals in the nature center move around in their environment. Students will practice Hopping, Crawling, Flying, and Swimming in place for fun.
Explore/Explain:
· Mr. Gary takes the students on a tour of the nature center where observations of the movement of each animal is emphasized. Student choices will be limited to HOP, CRAWL, FLY, and SWIM.
(note: some animals will do more than one movement)
· Discussion will be encouraged as to how the movement is used in the environment
o Example: tortoise is slow, but does not have to chase its food (plants). Shell gives it protection instead of quickly escaping predators.
Evaluate
· Students will take a seat on the floor (on cushions) and we will review by creating a picture graph using pictures of the animals placed on a smart board. The pictures will be placed/stacked on top of each other creating a picture graph. This will introduce/reinforce graphing skills.
Elaborate
· Lesson can be continued with the reading (by Mr. Gary at the Nature Center or the classroom teacher in their room) of a book titled ‘Move’. The book can be borrowed as needed.
Lesson 2: What Do Animals Eat? (Venn diagram) (available Fall through early Winter)
Engage:
· Students take a seat on the floor (on cushions) and learn how to use a Venn diagram. The circles will represent the food types of the animals (plant food, animal food, or both). We will practice using wolf, bear, deer, and raccoon as examples.
Explore/Explain:
· Students will be given a sign with an image of an animal and plant to raise as we tour the animals in the room. Students will raise the plant sign, animal sign, or both to indicate what food type(s) the Nature Center animals eat as we visit and learn about each one.
Elaborate/Evaluate:
· Students will sit back on the floor cushions and we will review each Nature Center animal we visited and slide their picture in the proper place on the Venn diagram as a review.
Spring lessons (see below!)
Lesson: Where do Animals Live? (sorting) (available late Winter/ early Spring)
Engage:
Students will gather on floor cushions to identify four different places (habitats/ environments) where the Nature Center animals live. These include 1) Desert 2) Rainforest 3) Wetland 4) Grassland. We will look at pictures of each of these environments and look for ‘Clues’ as to how we can identify them when observing Nature Center exhibits. Pictures of wild animals will be shown, and with student questioning, Mr. Gary will slide the animals to the picture where they belong to sort them.
Explore/Explain:
Mr. Gary takes the students on a tour of the Nature Center where observations will lead students to identifying clues as to which of the four environments the animals live.
Elaborate/Evaluate:
Students will gather back on the floor cushions where we will slide/sort the animals on the touch screen to the environment where we learned it belongs from the animal tour.
Lesson: Why are Animals Colorful? (picture graph/ sorting/ pattern recognition) (available late Winter/ early Spring)
Engage:
· Students will gather on floor cushions to identify the three reasons animals at the Nature Center have their color. These include 1) to hide (camouflage) 2) to warn others that they are dangerous, and 3) to show off how pretty they are so they can mate and make babies. We will look at pictures of animals and discuss as a class why they might have their specific coloration.
Explore/Explain:
Mr. Gary takes the students on a tour of the Nature Center where observations will lead students to identifying why the animals are so colorful.
Elaborate:
Students will gather back on the floor cushions where we will slide/sort the animals on the touch screen to the picture symbol representing why they are colorful. Students will help Mr. Gary to slide pictures on the touch screen to the category where they belong on the picture graph (camouflage pattern - hiding, a heart - mating, a stop sign with skull and crossbones - dangerous).
A picture of a deadly coral snake will be shown on the screen along with a model of one. We will rehearse the color pattern of red/ yellow and black colors. Mr. Gary will bring out a snake that looks like a coral snake only to find out it is actually a harmless milk snake species that has a slightly different color pattern using the same colors. We will rehearse the different color pattern to distinguish the difference and discuss the idea of how animals sometimes mimic others that are dangerous to avoid predators.
Available All Year! (see below)
Lesson: Pterodactyl or Terrible-dactyl? (crafting lesson/ experiment - flying paper Pterodactyls with and without wings in a flight lab device) (available all year, however students are expected to cut using children’s scissors)
Engage:
· Students will gather on floor cushions as we discuss differences in populations such as the ways each student is different from another. These differences occur in other animals too, for example, there were differences in PTERODACTYLS!
A real fish fossil in rock will be passed around to show students how we know what pterodactyls looked like. Some individuals had more skin underneath their arms which allowed them to…FLY!
Mr. Gary will show them how having more skin can help with flight by shooting students with an air cannon, then using it to knock down a stack of cups. Wings push the air to fly just like the air cannon can push the air!
Explore/Explain:
Let’s make pterodactyls! Students will color pre-cut paper pterodactyls (remember - no two are exactly alike in nature). We will take turns flying them in a flight lab and observe how they fly without wings.
Next we will add the wings by gluing thin colorful tissue paper to the arms and cutting out the pterodactyls (students should have some ability with using scissors). Back to the flight lab to observe how they fly with the addition of wings.
Elaborate/Evaluate:
Students will then re-take their seats as we discuss what happened to both the pterodactyls and the large dinosaur species (meteor strike changed environment). It became too difficult for large animals like them to find food, so they became extinct but who survived?!...SMALL FEATHERED DINOSAURS who lived on and evolved to become BIRDS! Mr. Gary will end the lesson by having students pet a live bird, nature’s only living relative of true dinosaurs today.