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 13 – ANIMAL ADAPTATIONS

Background:
How does an animal know what kind of home is right for it? No one knows for sure, but most experts agree that animals are born with this knowledge. When winter arrives in the animal kingdom, warmth and food become hard to find. Many animals migrate, returning home in the spring. The metabolisms of animals that hibernate slow down; heart rates and body temperatures fall. Those animals that do not migrate or hibernate must remain active and their fur thickens.

Objective:
Explain how animals are adapted to their environment. Explore ways that animals adapt to their environment.

Vocabulary: hibernate, migrate

Quick Peek: The children investigate the meaning of hibernation and migration and make a bird feeder.

Materials:
animal pictures (cut and put into a box)
milk cartons (enough for every student in your class)
scissors
yarn
twigs
bird seed

Method:
1. Explore what the children already know. Ask: “In cold weather, do we see robins?” “Where do you think robins go in cold weather?” “What do other animals do in winter?”
2. Put the animal pictures into a box and ask a student to come up and pick one out.
3. How does this animal survive the cold weather? Does this animal fly south to a warmer place? Or, does this animal fall asleep?
*Do this for each animal.
4. Discuss that flying to a warmer place means to migrate and that falling asleep during the winter means to hibernate.
5. Discuss hibernation: Ask the children if they need to eat while they sleep? Do animals? Explain that some animals – frogs, turtles, bears, some snakes and raccoons sleep in winter. They may go under the mud, into caves, or underground. Describe how hibernating animals eat a lot in the late fall to store enough fat for the winter.
6. Now explain that not all animals hibernate. How do animals that do not hibernate survive the cold? (migrate to warmer places, store food for winter, grow thicker fur, eat lots to get an extra layer of fat)
7. Point out that some birds visit feeders, such as the Blue Jay. Feeding birds can help them through the winter, when food is hard to find.
8. Tell the children that they are going to make bird feeders which they can hang at home. (If you have a window in your classroom, hang one feeder outside.) *Note: be sure the milk containers are clean before you begin.
9. Have the children cut a window in the container big enough for a bird to enter.
10. Then have the children cut two holes in the middle of the container and add a twig to create a perch.
11. Finally, have the children cut two more holes at the top of the container and thread the yarn through them to hang the feeder.
12. Fill the feeders with seeds. Give each student a ziploc bag filled with seeds for the children to refill the feeder when it becomes empty.
13. Ask the students to regularly observe the birds at the school and home feeders. Encourage them to draw and write down their observations. The children should be noting what kinds of birds visit the feeder, how they eat, and when and how much they eat. Ask the children whether any baby birds visited the feeders. If not, ask why.

*Excellent book to read with this lesson:
Keep Looking! by Millicent Selsam and Joyce Hunt (finding animals in winter!!)
Animals In Winter by Henrietta Bancroft and Richard G. Vangelder
Animals that Sleep in Winter by Gwynne Vevers – Filmstrip
Learning About Animals – Animals And The Seasons (rbm) 591.5/Lea (Caswell Library)