Lesson: The Lorax ideas
Unit: The Lorax project
Materials: paper, markers, The Lorax book by Dr. Seuss
Age Level: 3rd-6th grade
Space Requirements: open area where class can stand in a large circle.
Time: one hour
Objectives:
· Students will discuss forms of pollution
· Students will recognize local pollution problems
· Students will learn about habitat loss through deer and resources
· Students will learn about pollution in a river
· Students will be hear the story of The Lorax
Goals: to discuss pollution and human's affect on the environment. To
introduce students to the project, and to excite them about the project.
Plan: 20 minutes: River Pollution
(Preparation- before class draw a river that flows over the amount of
paper that there are students in your class. For example, 24 papers
if you have 24 students. Number the back so you know what order they
go in. You should be able to put them in order again and see one long
river.)
Hand out a piece of paper to each student, but don’t tell them
that they all
connect. Tell them that this is their plot of land. They each live on
a river, so
have a river on their property. They can build anything they want on
their land. Some examples are houses, mansions, zoos, amusement park,
farm, etc. Give the students time to draw their pictures. Make sure
to tell them not to color in the river. They can draw a fish or a boat
in the river, but don’t color the river blue for example. After
they have finished, gather the pictures and put them in order. Have
the class sit on one side so they can see the whole river. Start at
one end and ask the students to briefly describe their land. Then ask
the class what on the picture might cause pollution to the river. Things
include human sewage, animal waste, oil from boats, oil from a car or
road near the river, pesticides from a farm, litter from people, etc.
Color part of the river brown to symbolize the pollution, then move
on to the next picture. Make sure to add the amount from the picture
before to the new pollution added, but don’t say anything. At the
end ask the students why the end one has so much pollution when they
didn’t create that much. This exercise should show students that
our actions affect everyone, not just ourselves.
20 minutes: Deer and Resources
First teach the motions for the resources. The motion for food is hands
on
stomach. The motion for water is hands on throat. The motion for shelter
is
hands in an upside-down 'v' shape above head. Split the group in half,
and
make one half the deer and the other the resources. Tell students to
pay
attention to both directions, because they will most likely play both
roles. Tell
the students that your will have them turn their backs to each other
and decide.
The deer will decide which resource they need, and the resources will
decide
which they are. Tell them when you yell "decide" they need
to put their hands
for the motion they are, and that they aren't allowed to turn around
until you
yell "go." When you yell" go the deer have to run to
the resource they need.
Only one deer to each resource. The resources that get used by a deer
go back
with the deer and become more deer. Tell the students that this is because
when the deer get what they need they can reproduce and their population
grows. Tell the students that the deer who don't get what they need
die and
become a resource. Have the students stand in parallel lines about twenty
feet
apart, with their backs to the other group. Yell "decide"
then "go." After you
have played a couple of rounds there should be a pattern developing.
Ask the
students what time of competition this is, interspecific or intraspecific.
It's
interspecific. Ask the students if they noticed a pattern. They should
say that
the population size of each group alternated each round. One round there
would be a lot of deer and less resources, so a lot of deer would die.
This
resulted in the next round there being a lot of resources, so every
deer got what
they needed. Tell the students that each round represents a year. Have
the
students play again, and this time secretly go to the resources and
tell them
they can't be water because there was a draught. After two rounds of
this, tell
them that they can't be food because the drought before wiped out the
food.
After a couple rounds of this bring everyone back for discussion. Ask
the deer
what happened when they wanted water and there wasn't any. Discuss how
sometimes the environment can make a resource very scarce, which increases
competition. If there is less of a certain resource, it will be harder
for each
deer to get because they are competing with each other.
Questions: [what did it feel like to be a deer and die because human's
put up a shopping mall? What did you learn? How did you contribute?]
15 minutes: read The Lorax and discuss the weekly journal assignments
5 minutes- pollution discussion
Ask students what forms of pollution they know. Share some articles
about
pollution in our area. Questions: what is pollution? What are ways that
humans hurt the environment?
What teachers lead during the week:
Monday: Journal- Pick a character from the book (Truffula Tree, Swomee-Swan,
Brown
Bar-ba-loot, or Humming-Fish) if they could speak for themselves what
would
they say to the Once-ler? [They can do more than one if they want to]
Tuesday: Journal- If you were the Once-ler what would you say to sell
a thneed?
Wednesday: Journal- As the Once-ler, write a letter to your relatives
to get them to come
help you make and sell thneeds. Then, as one of the Once-ler's relatives,
write a
letter in response to the Once-ler.
Thursday: Journal- what happens when the boy gets the seed? Continue
the end of the
book to make a new ending.
