In the unit Where Animals Live, students learn about animal habitats. Students will be exposed to stories that describe various habitats and animals that live there. The stories help students understand how each habitat has specific features that make it a good home for an animal. Students will complete the 3 activities below throughout the unit. Their goal by the end of the unit will be to create a digital presentation that visually shows their habitat, its features, and animals that live there. It will include three new facts that students will find as they complete each activity. Students will be asking and answering questions while they read and find new information. They will also be learning that the internet and other digital resources can be used as tools to find new information.
Blendspace - Whole Group
Use the digital tool called Blendspace to introduce the unit “Where Animals Live!” and supply a brief summary of what a habitat is. Blendspace is a place where teachers can easily find, add, and share online content (videos, images, PDFs, Google docs). Students can comment or take notes alongside content.
To learn about animal habitats, show students videos about what a habitat is, as well as specific animal habitats. (I.E Desert, Polar, Rainforests, Grasslands) use this collection of videos located on this Blendspace.
Students should then be placed in groups of 4 and each group will choose a habitat they would like to learn more about (or the teacher can assign groups a habitat). The teacher may choose to show entire videos or clips from the videos provided. The teacher may also pull in any texts they have that connect to habitats.
*If you do not have enough iPads for this activity, students can use the strategy Jot Thoughts on sticky notes or paper to collect ideas. Students can add images of their thoughts in rotations to their collage on limited devices.
Habitat Research - Small Group/Workstations
After learning about what a habitat is, and learning about different habitats whole group, students will either be assigned, or get to choose (at teacher’s discretion) a habitat to further research and report on.
PebbleGo is an online book database that is freely available to Horry County teachers. You can access it through through the learning commons on the Horry County website. You can introduce PebbleGo to your students with this short video.
The books listed below from PebbleGo can be used for the appropriate groups (Desert, Rainforest, Arctic). Students can search the titles or you may want to pull up the books ahead of time so students do not have to search.
As the students are researching, provide them with either sticky notes, or this worksheet to take notes on about their habitat.
After researching and discussing the habitat with their group, students will record answers to three questions in the Seesaw app. The questions can be added as an activity in the app, as well as voice recorded by the teacher. See the picture below for an example.
Students will be asked to answer the following questions:
Click here if you want to learn more about Seesaw. Click here to access a printable task card for this activity. Codeable Crafts - Small Group
In this activity, students will create a drawing or digital copy of an animal in the students favorite habitat that they have researched.
Codeable Crafts will be used to create an animal, choose the animal’s habitat, and record answers to various questions about the animal in its habitat. Click on the link to download the Codeable Crafts app. Here is a quick video to show how to create your animal and add it to the perfect habitat!
For additional guidance on how to assist students to complete this task, click here for step-by-step directions and resources.
Here you can also find an example of a finished product. Presentation Students will present their work from Codeable Crafts to the class as a whole using AirServer. AirServer is an app that mirrors your students iPad on the SmartBoard/Computer to project. *Teacher Tip: If you do not have enough iPads or if you feel a student would do better without an iPad here is an unplugged option.
Standards
ELA - 1-I.1.1, 1-RL.5.1, 1.RI.3.2, 1-I.4, 1-RI.3-2 CS - 1-.NI.1.1, 1.DL.1.2 AuthorsShanise Davis
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