#1 - Animal Move
The
player who is 'it,' stands at the front of the room and calls out the name of a
mammal, bird, fish, or reptile, and a movement. For instance, the leader might
call out, 'Horses fly. Birds crawl. Salmon swim.' When the leader states the
correct relationship, the class must move accordingly. In the latter case, they
would make a swimming movement. When an incorrect relationship is given, the
children should not move. Those who move at the wrong time can sit down and
wait until a new leader is selected. Games should be kept short, so all
children have a chance to lead and no one has to sit out too long.
Overview:
Grade 4 (easily adapted for both younger and
older students)
Group Size 15-45 students
Activity time: 20 minutes
Skills: Discussion, generalization, kinesthetic concept development, small
group work
Key Vocabulary: habitat, food, water, shelter, space
Students physically form an interconnected
circle to demonstrate components of habitat.
Purpose (Objective):
Students will (1) identify the components of
habitat; (2) recognize how humans and other animals depend upon habitat, (3)
interpret the significance of loss or change in habitat in terms of people and
wildlife, (4) adaptations increase survival of members of a species, (5) identify
characteristics that allow members of a species to survive and reproduce, (6) identify
and describe roles of organisms in living systems and parts in nonliving
objects
Materials:
None needed
Getting Ready (Background Information):
People and other animals/insects share some
basic needs. Every animal needs a place to live. The environment in which an animal
lives is called a habitat. An animal's habitat includes food, water, shelter,
and space in an arrangement appropriate to the animal's needs. If any of these
components of habitat is missing or is affected significantly so that the
arrangement for the individual animal or population of animals is no longer
suitable, there will be an impact. The impact will not necessarily be
catastrophic, but can be. There are a great many additional limiting factors
beyond those of suitable food, water, shelter, and space. For example, disease,
predation, pollution, accidents and climatic conditions are among other factors
which can have impact. All things are interrelated. When we look at a
biological community, we find interrelationships and interdependencies between
plants and plants, plants and animals, as well as animals and animals. These
interrelationships and interdependencies are important. The major purpose of
this activity is for students to become familiar with the components of
habitat, and to recognize that it is not sufficient for there to be food,
water, shelter and space in order for animals to survive-those components of
habitat must be in a suitable arrangement.
Motivation:
Have dominoes set up on a table ready to be
pushed over to show chain reaction.
Activity:
1. This activity takes very little time, but
has a lot of impact. Ask the students to number off from one to four. All the
ones go to one corner of the room, the two to another, etc.
2. As the students move to their corners,
clear a space in the enter of the room. Better still, go outside to a
clear,grassy area.
3. Assign each group a concept as follows:
ones=food twos=water threes=shelter
fours=space
4. Now, it's time to form a circle. This is
done by building the circle in chains of food, water, shelter, and space. A
student from each of the four groups walks toward the cleared area. the four
students stand next to each other, facing in toward what will be the center of
the circle. Four more students join the circle. Keep adding to the circle in
sets of four until all the students are in the circle.
5. All students should now be standing
shoulder to shoulder, facing the center of the circle.
6. Ask the students to turn to their right
at the same time taking one step toward the center of the circle. They should
be standing close together, with each student looking at the back of the head
of the student in front of him or her.
7. Don't panic-this will work. Ask everyone
to listen carefully. Students should place their hands on the shoulders of the
person in front of them. Students slowly sit down as you count to three. At the
point of three, you want the students to sit down-on the knees of the person
behind them, keeping their own knees together to support the person in front of
them. You then say, Food water, shelter, and space in the proper arrangement
(represented by the students' intact ) are what is needed to have a suitable.
8. The students at this point may either
fall or sit down. When their laughter has subsided, talk with them about the
necessary components of suitable habitat for people and animals.
9. After the students understand the major
point- that food, water, shelter and space are necessary for any animal's
survival, and in their appropriate arrangement comprise a suitable habitat-let
the students try the circle activity again . This time ask them to hold their
lap sit posture. As the students lap sit still representing food, water,
shelter, and space in their appropriate arrangement-identify a student that
represents water. Then say it is a drought year. The water supply is reduced by
the drought conditions. At this point, have the student who was identified as
water remove himself or herself from the lap sit circle-watch the circle
collapse, or at least suffer from the disruption. You could try this in several
ways-removing one or more students from the circle. Conditions could vary;
pollution of water, urban sprawl limiting availability of all components, soil
erosion impacting food and water, etc. Since animals' habitat needs depend upon
food, water , shelter, and space removal of any will have an impact.
10. Ask the students to talk about what this
activity means to them. Ask the students to summarize the main ideas they have
learned. They could include a) food, water, shelter, and space, in their
appropriate arrangement can be called a habitat (b) humans and other animals
depend upon the habitat (c) loss of any of these elements of habitat will have
impact on the animals living there and (d)the components of habitat must be in
an arrangement suitable to the needs of the individual animals or populations
of animals in order for the animals to survive.
Safety Tips:
Make sure the yard is clear for the circle
to be formed in. You may want to ask students to remove their jewelry.
Extension:
Do the Habitat Lap Sit with an aquatic
perspective.
A variation of the activity above is to have
students form a circle, holding hands. Walk around the circle, first naming one
student as an animal/insect of a particular ecosystem. Name the next four
students in the circle as food, water, shelter, and space for that animal.
Repeat the process until all the students are involved. Any extras can be
identified as elements of habitat resulting from a particularly good year for
habitat needs for the last animal named. When all of the students have been
designated as an animal or as components of an animal's habitat, comment on the
fact that they are still holding hands. This represents the idea all things in
an ecosystem are interrelated. Briefly discuss the idea of interrelationships.
Then move the students into position to the lap sit described earlier. Remind
the students that they noticed all the elements of the ecosystem were
interrelated when they were holding hands. Now they are going to find out that
they all are dependent upon one another as well. Do the lap sit. Discuss
interrelationships and interdependencies in ecological systems.
Closure:
Summarize the activity or ask questions to
check for student understanding of the basic concepts addressed.
Assessment:
1. What are the five essential components of
habitat?
2. Explain how the arrangement of food,
water, shelter, and space is important to humans and other animals/insects.
Connections:
Look at cases in history in which there has
been a disturbance in a habitat and the effects it had.
Purpose: At the end of this activity the student will have a
new understanding of how insects/organisms are impacted by factors that are
essential to an organism's survival in a particular habitat. The students will
understand how lacking just one element of a habitat (food, water, shelter, and
space) can affect an organism's chance for survival. This activity will take
20-30 minutes to complete.
Knowledge:
- identify and describe roles of organisms
in living systems and parts in nonliving objects.
- predict and draw conclusions when part of a system
is removed
Materials:
Motivate! : The teacher will begin the class by asking students
what would happen to them if they did not have enough water to drink? What
would happen if they did not have a space in which to live? Would these factors
make life easy or hard? What would you have to do to survive in these
conditions? The students will then learn that a habitat consists of factors
such as food, water, space, and shelter.
Activity:
Safety Tips:
Concept Discovery: After the class has played several rounds of the
game, the class will come together for discussion. What have the students
learned? Did any of the children not meet the needs for survival? If the
students were real insects and they did not meet their needs, what would
happen? How is habitat important? What is happening to insects that are living
in a forest that is being torn down? Do they die from loss of habitat, or do
they survive and adapt to their changing environment?
Going Further: The students can analyze their own habitat based on
what they have learned in the activity. Students can go home after the activity
and think about what their own habitat is? How are the student's needs within
their own habitat met? What happens if a need is not met? Students can then
return to class prepared to share what they have learned about their own
survival.
Closure: This activity will close with having the children
think about different types of insects. Do different insects have different
needs? Are some insect's needs harder to meet than other insect's needs?
Through this activity the students have learned the importance of habitat, and
how if one element of habitat were missing, an organism would need to struggle in
order to survive.
Assessment: The teacher will assess the students through informal
assessment. As the rounds of the game occur the teacher can ask "What
if?" questions causing students to think about how an insect will respond
to its habitat when something happens.
Connections:
- Displaying and Interpreting Data
- Interpret bar graphs.