GR. 1 SCIENCE UNIT

Lessons

1: Animals
2: Animal Charades
3: Animals Shapes
4: Animal Coats
5: Lunch Time
6: Animal Friends
7: Animal Sort
8: Off to Petland
9: Basic Needs for Pets
10: The Pet Vet
11: Staying Alive
12: Animal Habitats
13: Animal Adaptations
14: Animal Homes
15: Staying Alive
16: Animal Life Cycles
17: Animal Babies
18: Birds and Reptiles

LESSON 1: ANIMALS

Background:
We have all lived all of our lives surrounded by animals. An animal is a living thing. There are two major divisions in the animal kingdom: animals with backbones and animals without. Animals with backbones or vertebrae are called vertebrates. They include amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles. All have skeletons that support their bodies and help them move around. Animals without backbones or vertebrae are called invertebrates. They include arthropods (such as insects, lobsters, and spiders), corals, jellyfish, mollusks (such as clams and snails), sea urchins, starfish, sponges, and worms. Of all the millions of animals that exist in the world today, the majority are invertebrates.Objective: To recognize characteristics that can be used to identify and describe animals.

Quick Peek:
The students learn to cooperate and make decisions while recognizing that there are many ways to characterize animals while identifying and describing them at the same time. Students sort animals using pictures and "Venn hoops".

Materials:
20 animal pictures (photocopy one sheet for each group) hula hoops

Method:

PART ONE

1. Arrange your class into groups of approximately 4 or 5 students.
2. Hand out 2 hula hoops to each group.
3. Have the children position themselves around the hoops forming a circle.
4. Have the children cooperate by cutting out the animal picture cards (perhaps have each group member cut out 4 pictures).
5. Get the children to place all the cards face up around the outside of the hoops for all to see.
6. Ask each group to sort their picture cards according to following criteria that the teacher will dictate when all groups are ready to begin.
Some examples:
- put all the animals that live in water in one hula hoop and all the animals that live on land in the other
- sort according to the number of legs
- sort by whether or not the animal would make a good pet
- sort by outside coverings: skin or hair? fur or feathers?
- sort by whether the animals live on a farm or in a zoo
(*Be sure to tell the children that they do not need to use all of their cards for every question that the teacher poses, if they think it does not fit into either category.)

YOU MAY EXTEND THIS ACTVITY BY OVERLAPPING THE HOOPS TO CREATE A THIRD SPACE AND BY ASKING THE CHILDREN TO SORT ACCORDING TO SOME CRITERIA THAT WOULD ALLOW FOR A CROSSOVER. For example, a turtle can live in the water and on land.

7. Then ask the group to collaborate and sort all the cards according to some rule that they create together.
8. When each group has finished sorting by their "rule", have the children rotate so
that each group gets to visit each group’s sorted display. Have the groups decide on their own how they think that the group chose to sort the animals.
9. Conclude the lesson by having each group stand up and explain how they chose to
sort their animal pictures and each group can check to see how they did!

Filmstrip:

• "Learning About Living Things - Learning To Classify", (rbm) 574 Lea (Caswell Library)
  *kit includes excellent reproducibles which have the children putting animals into two groups - those with backbones and those without, matching animal groups with their definition.
  ie. Mammals - warm blooded animals that have hair and feed milk to their babies, etc.
• Excellent website for animal photos:
  Animal Photos at the National Zoo
  http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/PhotoGallery/
• Videos to use throughout unit:
  Science Essentials: Learning About Animals
  (3 titles) 1. Looking For Animals
  2. How Are Animals Alike & Different
  3. How Do Animals Grow?
  (2 good worksheets included)
  *Caswell Library - 5 gl/Sci 0000437424
• Good Websites to use throughout unit:
  The Virtual Zoo à http://library.thinkquest.org/11922/
  National Wildlife Federation For Kids à http://www.nwf.org/kids
  San Diego Zoo http://www.sandiegozoo.org/