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 2 - ANIMAL CHARADES

Background:
An animal is a living creature that breathes, feels, and moves. There are thousands of different kinds of animals that live everywhere on earth. Animals communicate by sending messages to each other. They do this to frighten off strangers, warn of danger, tell others where to find food, or to attract a partner. Each animal has its own way of passing on messages by sounds, smells, or displays. Some have body patterns and colours that warn off or attract other animals. Others move their bodies or faces in a particular way.

Objective:
To observe and describe many types of animals
To identify a wide variety of animals
To identify, by sight or by sound, a wide variety of animals

Vocabulary: hypothesis

Quick Peek:
This activity gives the students the opportunity to express their perceptions and ideas about animals through a game of charades! The students become real scientists when they record information and explain it to others!

Materials: Animal pictures for every student in your class (do not duplicate)

Part Three Materials:
a nonfiction animal story such as The Animals Book by Britannica Discovery Library
clipboard
pencil
blank piece of paper
chart paper
marker

Method:

PART ONE:

1. Give each student a picture of an animal.
2. Have each student act out the behavior or habits of his/her animal so that others may identify it. (Depending on the size and "dramatic abilities" of your class, you may choose to put your students in small groups or pairs.)
*If time permits (or your may choose to teach this lesson on another day) put on a recording of animal sounds and have the children identify which animal they think is making that noise!

*An excellent game to reinforce auditory discrimination of animal sounds is "Listening Lottory" by Educational Insights. (I purchased it at The Learning Works on Broadway!) This bingo style game is excellent to develop vocabulary and oral language skills. You can also use the cassette tape to simply get your students to identify animal sounds, as it has a seven-second pause in between each of 32 animal sounds!

PART TWO:

1. Read and discuss a nonfiction animal book with your students.
2. Share orally what the students learned from the story.
3. Say, “You listened to a story about animals. Then you talked about what you learned from the story. Sharing information with others is one thing scientists do. Scientists must remember what they discover and they must share what they learn with other people. You are going to learn how to record what you discover and then share what you learned with the rest of the class.”
4. Explain that sometimes scientists make lists of what they observe. Give each student a clipboard, pencil and blank piece of white paper.
5. Go for a short walk through the schoolyard and ask the students to listen for animal sounds. They are to draw or list each sound they hear.
6. Back in the classroom, have each student share one or more animal sounds he or she heard.
7. Ask the students to explain how they are acting like scientists. Guide them to conclude that they recorded information in a list and that they shared the list with others.
*Record their responses on a chart entitled “Record and Explain”!

PART THREE:

1. Have your children make a hypothesis as to how many different kinds of animals they would find if they went on a “safari” around the schoolyard or a short walk near the school.
2. Hand out the worksheet and explain to the students that they should check each animal box with an "X" if they see an animal like it. Draw other animals they see in the blank boxes or on the back.
3. When you return to the classroom, have the students fill in their answers to the questions at the bottom of the page.