Wild horse habitat

This video was created by a group of 3 girls. They chose to complete their project on Wild Horses.

Wild horse habitat

shark habitat

This video was created by a group of 3 boys.  They chose to do their project on sharks.

shark habitat

Animal Habitat Project

This year I have been trying to utilize the science kit that the county has put in place.  This year I chose to do an integrated unit on animal habitats.  A fellow co-worker, Christina Smith, and I took the science kit and science text book along with other resources and created a three week unit about animal habitats.  The unit ended with each class making their own project based on animals and their habitat.

My classroom used Discovery Education to complete their animal habitat.  Working in groups of two or three, they were to research an animal and their habitat in order to complete an Animoto video giving information about the animals habitat.


This is a sample of the three week unit that was created:

Day 4: Build African Dwarf Frog Habitat from Science Kit Lesson 3. Afterwards have kids observe habitats while teacher uses ADF PPT to illustrate key points about these animals. HW: None OBJ: 1.03 EQ: How does an animal adapt to its environment for survival?

Day5: Science Textbook Open Book Quiz with Page Numbers after each question. Afterwards show digital video “AMPHIBIANS” which is 26 minutes OBJ: 1.05 EQ: Why is studying animals beneficial to humans?

Day 6: This lesson will integrate reading, writing, and science OBJ: 1.03 and 1.04 EQ: How does an animal adapt to its environment for survival?

Shared Reading   -  Science Textbook Lesson 1 Pg. A32-A37. HW: Pg. A37 #1-5 Review Questions. Use textbook graphic organizer to emphasize vocabulary words.

Students will use animal unit spelling words for this week.

Science – Science Kit (Observe Frogs) Fill out graphic organizer “Hanging on the Line” with the steps that were taken to build the frog habitat.

Writing – Journal write about picture of habitat comic. This is a smart lesson that has a prompt and can be found on the share drive.

Day 7: This lesson will integrate reading, writing, and science

Shared Reading – Fiddler Crabs reading passage and assessment. This is to be done independently by students for grading purposes.

Science- Frog Draw Sheet – SMART Lesson. Draw, label, and explain how the frog uses these body parts for survival. Have frog habitats on desk as visual aid. HW: None

Writing- Show picture of crocodile and pass out sentence starters. Write a great beginning and elaborative detail segment of “You are fishing one day and notice a crocodile swimming towards your boat….” This is also a SMART lesson that can be found on the share drive.

Discovery Education Link

Some of the completed projects are posted as blog posts.  Please enjoy watching them.

Lerner Centered:

As I stated before, this unit was created by myself and a fellow teacher that is trying to integrate technology more into her classroom.  The student's this year were not able to provide a lot if input for the unit but student's  from previous years have told us what they like and did not like about the animal unit and it was taken into consideration as the unit was written.

21st Century Skills:

This unit was based around the Animal Habitat science kit.  I chose to use technology as a way to culminate the unit and let the student's showcase all they have learned.  Within the unit there were also many other ways technology was utilized, the SMART Board being one of those ways.

Relation to Core Content:

This unit was created by using the Science Text book, Animal Science Kit, as well as other resources.  As we created this unit we used the NCSCS as a guide to make sure we were incorporating all needed information. 

Reflection:

I really enjoyed teaching this unit.  In the past years, I have only used to Science Kit to build the three animal habitats and move on.  This year I really looked at the information the kits give the students and the opportunities it provides them.  I think that by creating a unit that I can not only use this year but in the years to come, I have not only made things easier for me but more educational for the student's I am and will be teaching.  I was able to not only teach about animals and their habitat but show them what they look like and why certain things are so important to the animals survival.  The student's really enjoyed working together to create their final project and have truly learned about animal habitats.