This is an inquiry-based animal study for early childhood students centered around a visit to the African Continent of the North Carolina Zoo.
A primary curriculum based around life and environmental science draws on children's natural curiosity to teach reading, math, and more.
For students to be successful in the science curriculum, they must study science through "hands-on" experiences. I use their past experiences as well as present experiences that I help to create to teach the curriculum. Many children today have never climbed a tree, walked in the woods, or waded in a stream, and I think that is sad. When they have the opportunity to see and touch the natural world, they become excited about it, and I use that excitement to teach all areas of the kindergarten curriculum, not just science.
This "Rethinking Reports" series of articles offers alternative research-based assignments on folktales, animal adaptations, and biodiversity.
The students will examine the structural characteristics, behavior, and habitat of the American Black Bear necessary for survival.
This lesson focuses on the adaptations, body structures, and behavior of animals. The students will explore animal growth and adaptations of animals. This lesson is designed to be taught during the reading of "Stone Fox".
By writing a narrative about an animal rather than a traditional report, students can learn about literature, develop writing skills, and still fulfill science and research objectives.
After studying the various animal groups, students write a report about an animal of their choosing using well-formed paragraphs.
This plan introduces students to the different ways animals move.
Children will explore animal body parts in animal pictures using the inquiry method. They will discuss their functions in movement and eating. They will also discuss the idea that classifications of animals have similar body parts.
Students will learn about the different animal coverings using the inquiry method. They will learn about how the covering is used for protection and to control body temperatures.
Students will choose one rainforest animal to research using print and electronic resources. They will work cooperatively with a partner to create a Hyperstudio card with the following information: photograph of the animal, the layer of the rainforest it inhabits, sound the animal makes, and an interesting fact about the animal.
The students will learn that bats are nocturnal and use echolocation.
The students will incorporate computer skills, math, and literature with books such as: "Miss Rumphius" and "The Reason for a Flower".
A visual and oral presentation of an "animal report" can engage students' interest and develop their artistic and visual literacy skills.
Students will make observations of bird pictures to note the similarities and differences in one animal group. They will note especially the beaks, feet, wings and feathers of different types of birds. The life cycle of birds will be explored.
This lesson is part of an interdisciplinary unit on birds which contains math/science and language arts components. In the math/science wing, students will prepare frequency tables and construct a circle graph of the species of birds observed at bird feeders.
Observing and identifying birds can be a gateway to a variety of learning experiences. This primer will get you started birding.
This lesson integrates writing and the study of insects by creating an innovation to the text of the book "How Many Bugs in a Box?" by David A. Carter
Students will understand the life cycle of the butterfly and create various art activities that would model metamorphosis.
Students will construct food chains and food webs in order to recognize the relationships between organisms.
