A Day In the Life
Objective: Students will be able to describe the habitat needs and behavior of animals or plants.
Description: In the form of a story, students will describe a day in the life of an animal or plant that they learned about at Outdoor Education.
Duration: 15-20 minutes.
Concepts: Adaptation, change, communities/ecosystems, and diversity.
Subject Areas: Language arts and science.
Vocabulary: Adaptation, diurnal, food chain, habitat, niche, and nocturnal.
Background: Humans often observe wildlife when animals are hiding or running away from intruders. Creative writing about the activities of wildlife can provide a new perspective of the natural world we may not have the opportunity to see without the use of our imaginations.
Materials: Writing paper and pencils, or pens.
| Procedure: | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ask students to picture the animals and plants they learned about and observed at Outdoor Education. A descriptive story about forests or other wild areas can add to the visualization. | |
| 2. | Discuss change with students. Ask what changes animals and plants experience during the day. Encourage students to include habitat, niche, food needs, predators, communication, etc. in their story. | |
| 3. | Have students choose one animal or plant they learned about (see Appendix for a list of plants and animals). Ask students to write a story about "a day in the life" of the plant or animal of their choice. | |
| 4. | Allow time for students to share their stories with the class. | |
Extension: A Council of All Beings meeting. Explain to the students that a change – fire, logging, or land development – threatens their land. Organize a meeting of all the students' involved in role-playing and have them represent their plant or animal in a discussion about the threat of change and its potential effects on their plant or animal. A teacher can play the role of a human being interested in using the land for a certain purpose.