TITLE: ANIMALS
AUTHOR: Sandra J. Rost, Lewis-Arriola Elementary School
Cortez, CO
GRADE LEVEL: Primary (K-3)
OVERVIEW: Students report finding the study of science "boring
and difficult", They do not seem to have a working knowledge of
how to go about discovering answers to questions about the
scientific world around them.
PURPOSE: This lesson will help students become familiar with the
need for categorizing scientific information, in this case, animals.
OBJECTIVES: Students will categorize the 5 groups of animals.
(Mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, & amphibians).
RESOURCES AND MATERIALS:
1. Films, filmstrips, or slides about animals. (Must include all
5 categories of animals.)
2. Live or mounted animals from each category. ( State Division
of Wildlife Agency and public zoos may be able to help you find these.)
3. Magazines: 2 per child ( Make sure the magazines have plenty
of animal pictures in them.)
4. Scissors
ACTIVITIES: Discuss with students the process of separating animals
into groups or categories so that they are more easily studied and
discussed by scientists and others. Explain that the following
activity will help students learn about the categories of animals.
* Do not give any clues at this time as to how animals are to be
categorized. Students will come up with their own unique system of
grouping.
Divide students into small groups of 3-5. Give each child 1-2
magazines which have a lot of animal pictures in them. ( National
Geographic, Outdoors, Field and Stream, etc.) Students in each group
look through the magazines and cut out any pictures of animals that
they find. Have students keep a common stack for their group.
After all pictures have been put into a pile, each group divides
their pile of pictures into 5-7 smaller categories. This is done
through small group discussion and consensus.
After each group has categorized their pictures, bring the entire
class back together and let have one person from each group explain
why they grouped their pictures as they did. (They will come up with
groupings by color, size, shape, extinct or not, eating habits,
living habits, size of ears and tails, etc. They will come up with
categories you and I would never dream of!
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: Show a film to the class about the actual
categories that scientists have divided animals into. Discuss these
groups and why it helps scientists to have animals broken down into
smaller groups.
Show students live or mounted animals. (Mounted samples are often
available through state wildlife agencies.) Have students bring in
pets that fit the various categories and discuss them.
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