Animals Live in Different Places

Habitats and Biomes

Core Learning Experience + Supplies and Equipment

  • ​On a large sheet of paper, draw a map showing trails that wind through forests, fields, deserts, ponds, and oceans. Display the map on a tabletop or floor. Ask the children to name some animals and insects that live in the different environments. Teacher or children can draw the animals in their areas.
  •  A backyard is an environment where animals can live. Let’s go outside with our magnifiers and see what we can see.

Possible/Expected Discoveries

  • ​Animals live in habitats or environments. Some familiar environments are: under the ground, in trees, on a web, in the desert, in the Arctic.
  • Animals have special characteristics that help them survive and flourish in their environment. Different kinds of animals can live together in the same environment.
  • People can live in different environments, and can adapt to various weather conditions. What are some ways?

Extended Learning and Other Curriculum Areas

  • ​Explore a particular habitat and make a model of it in a box, or on a piece of thick cardboard. Use tempera and modeling clay, and also real items such as twigs, pebbles and sand. Add model animals, or animals that the children have drawn and cut out. Some ideas might be: forest; desert; ocean; rainforest; marsh.
  • Design a big tree habitat by twisting brown grocery bags into a trunk and branches, and taping it to a wall. Add birds, squirrels, termites, spiders, snakes, centipedes, bees etc.
  • Field trips to various habitats: wetland, park, urban area, aquarium etc Take clipboards, pencils and magnifiers.

Activity Packs and Printables

Websites

​http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/nature/habitat/index.htm
http://www.springboardmagazine.com/science/animalhomes.htm

Books

​Who is in the Garden? By Vera Rosenberry
Animals of the Ponds and Streams by Julie Becker
The Magic School Bus Hops Home: A Book About Animal Habitats by Patricia Relf
Animals that Live in Water by Renee
In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming
Desert Babies by John Shaw
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