Survival Environment – Grade Five
Ohio Standards
Connection:
Life Sciences
Benchmark C
Compare changes in an
organism’s ecosystem /
habitat that affect its
survival
Indicator 4
Summarize that organisms
can survive only in
ecosystems in which their
needs can be met (e.g.,
food, water, shelter, air,
carrying capacity and
waste disposal). The world
has different ecosystems
and distinct ecosystems
support the lives of
different types of
organisms.
Integrated Standard
Social Studies
History
Benchmark B
Describe the cultural
patterns that are evident in
North America today as a
result of exploration,
colonization and conflict.
Indicator 2
Explain how American
Indians settled the
continent and why
different nations of Indians
interacted with their
environment in different
ways.
Lesson Summary:
Students will discover the interaction between American
Indians of different regions and their environments. They
also will identify what resources American Indians used
from their environment to meet their basic needs. The
diversity of ecosystems in each region of the United States
will be explored. Students will create charts, posters,
dioramas and webs to illustrate the interaction between
American Indians and their environment. Students are
encouraged to create a television show, radio talk show or
a role play and create travel brochures or survival guides.
Estimated Duration: Four hours and 30 minutes
Commentary:
This lesson can be presented following separate lessons or
integrated lessons on the basic needs for living organisms
and the lifestyles of American Indians who lived in different
regions of North America. The lesson will provide students
with an opportunity to research American Indians and their
surrounding environments. Students will be able to discover
the relationship between American Indians and the
environmental resources available to meet their basic needs.
If the fifth grade classes in the school building are
departmentalized, it is suggested that the science and social
studies teacher collaborate to implement this lesson.
Pre-Assessment:
The pre-assessment consists of a set of anticipatory guide
statements. Sample anticipatory guide statements:
a. Food, water, shelter, space are basic needs for living
organisms.
b. All humans, animals and plants require the same basic
needs from the ecosystem.
c. All American Indians had the same basic needs.
d. Native Americans all interacted with their environments to
survive in the same way.
e. Humans need to interact with their environments to
survive.
f. Humans, animals and plants are always able to find what
they need in their environments.
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Ohio Standards
Connection:
Related Indicator
Indicator 5
Support how an organism’s
patterns of behavior are
related to the nature of that
organism’s ecosystem,
including the kinds and
numbers of other
organisms present, the
availability of food and
resources, and the
changing physical
characteristics of the
ecosystem.
Instruct students using the following steps:
1. Have students write the numbers one to seven on a
piece of paper.
2. Read each statement to the students.
3. Have students write “agree” or “disagree” in response
to each statement.
4. After reading all statements, collect data to identify the
number of “agree” and “disagree” for each statement.
5. Discuss with students the rationale for their responses.

The Pre-Assessment can also be administered as a
written checklist:
Statement
Agree
Disagree
Scoring Guidelines:
Review each student’s paper to identify his/her response. This will aid in determining the
starting point of instruction. A simple rubric can be used as described below:
Exceeds Expectations
All correct
Meets Expectations
five-six correct
Does Not Meet Expectations
zero-four correct
Post-Assessment:
Administer the post-assessment as a group project. It includes the creation of a survival
guide for a specific group of American Indians or a poster illustrating the environmental
resources needed to survive. Have groups of three to four students select a region of the
United States and a specific American Indian nation. Assure that each group chooses a
different region of the United States.
Instructional Tip:
Regions can include: Eastern Woodland (Great Lakes and Northeast as separate regions),
Far North (Arctic), Northwest, Southwest, Plains (Midwest- north and south with different
ecosystems), Southeast, Mountain, Great Basin and California Coast. Schedule one to two
class periods of work time for students to complete the project.
1. Using books obtained from the local or school library, have students create charts as
described in Attachment A, Instructional Chart, that identify the environmental resources
needed to survive. Each group also will identify the landforms, climate and water
resources of the ecosystem and what the specific group used from its ecological
environment for shelter, food, clothing and other needs.
2. Have students create either posters or survival guides that identify the ways their selected
American Indian nations interacted with the environment to survive by using the
information on the completed chart.
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
3. The posters or survival guides will include colored pictures with written descriptions that
explain the interactions.
4. Have each group present its project to the class.
Scoring Guidelines:
Use the analytic rubric found in Attachment B, Rubric to evaluate the projects. Each section
will be scored on a scale of zero to five.
Instructional Procedures:
Day One
1. Instruct students to divide into small groups. Create enough groups within the class for
each group to select a different region.
2. Draw a web with the words “U.S. Regions” in the center. Have the groups identify the
United States regions.
3. Using their social studies and science books, books from the school or local library, have
students research characteristics of each region and write the characteristics on pieces of
paper, sentence strips or self-adhesive notes. Characteristics will include: landforms,
bodies of water, plant life, animal life and climate.
4. Direct students to place characteristics of their selected regions on the web. The groups
also are to identify which American Indian nations lived in that region. List those groups
on the United States web paper.
5. In their journals or on a piece of paper, have students answer the question: “How did
your group of Native Americans survive in your ecosystem?”
Instructional Tip:
This activity may take longer than one class period depending upon the number of students in
the classroom and the number of resources available.
Day Two
6. Instruct groups to find pictures of their American Indian group. It can be a picture of one
person or a picture illustrating their way of life. Have a variety of books on American
Indians available in the classroom.
7. Direct students to make a two-column chart. On the chart, have students list what the
group used from the ecosystem and how it was used.
EXAMPLE:
A Plains Indian wore clothing made from the buffalo.
WHAT WAS USED:
Buffalo skins
HOW WAS IT USED?
Woman’s dress
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Instructional Tip:
Social studies textbooks, library books or coloring books are good sources for pictures of
daily life. Instead of charts, the students could label pictures to indicate that the Indian
woman made her dress from the buffalo.
8. Divide the class into four to five groups. Have members of each group share their
pictures and charts. After sharing with their small groups, have groups choose leaders
who will be reporters for the groups.
9. With each group’s information, create a class list of all the ways American Indians met
their needs within their own ecosystems. This is created from the information gathered in
each of the smaller groups. The group leader will share the group findings.
10. Have students compare how American Indian nations settled in different regions and why
they interacted with their environments in different ways.
Day Three
11. Distribute cards that have different ecosystems, which correspond to ecosystems of the
American Indian nations living in North America. (i.e. desert, coastal, plains, savannah,
mountain, tundra, forest, everglades) The card could have either pictures of the
ecosystem or the word “ecosystem” written on the card.
a. Have students list plants or animals that live in that specific ecosystem.
b. After making their initial lists, have students look on the Internet, in library books or
the textbook to find more examples.
c. Have the students choose three to four examples of both plants and animals from the
lists.
d. Instruct students to create charts that have the basic needs at the top.
e. List each animal or plant and write how it meets its needs from the ecosystem in
which it lives. This can be done in pairs or small groups.
Instructional Tip:
The students also may draw ecosystems and label plants and animals that live in them.
Coloring book pictures could be used.
EXAMPLE:
Animal/Plant Food
Bear
Berries,
fish, small
animals
Name of Ecosystem: Forest
Water
Shelter
Space
Rivers,
streams
Caves,
rocks
Large area
to roam and
hunt
Other Needs
Large area to
hibernate in
during winter
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Day Four
12. Divide the class into five to six groups. Each group should choose a specific American
Indian nation. The same groups from days two and three can be used or new ones can be
formed.
13. Create a web that has “Basic Needs” in the center.
14. Each group will identify how its group met its need for food, shelter, water, clothing and
space within its region/ecosystem. With this information, group members will create a
television documentary or television or radio talk show that tells how to survive in this
area.
Day Five
15. Create scenarios on cards. Each child should choose a card. The students will identify
how the American Indian nations and animals adapted in its new ecosystem. Will it
survive or not? They will need to provide reasons. This is described through written, oral
or illustrated form.
SAMPLE SCENARIOS:
a. How/why would Inuits have to change their way of life if they were moved to the Plains
region?
b. Why don’t polar bears live in grassland?
c. When the Cherokee were made to walk the Trail of Tears from Georgia to Oklahoma,
how did their ability to meet their basic needs change when they were put on the
reservation to live?
d. The Southwest American Indians live in pueblos and hogans. Why would they have
difficulty building their homes if they had to live in the Eastern Woodland region?
e. How would a walrus survive in the warm waters near Africa since it has so much
fat/blubber?
Differentiated Instructional Support:
Instruction is differentiated according to learner needs to help all learners either meet the
intent of the specified indicator(s) or, if the indicator is already met, to advance beyond the
specified indicator(s).
 Allow students to work in large groups, small groups and individually.
 Give students the option to draw or write about their regions.
 Partners help those who have difficulty with written language when writing or looking
for written information.
 Have tactile-kinesthetic students role play and draw.
 Create charts, posters and pictures for visual students.
 Create television or radio talk shows to increase interpersonal interaction.
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Extensions:
 Design a travel brochure about a specific region that includes plants, animals, natural
resources, landforms and American Indian inhabitants.
 Compare two American Indian nations and how they meet their basic needs from the
ecosystems in which they live.
 Invite a member of an American Indian group living in the community, to speak to
students about his/her traditional ways of life and how his/her group used resources
available in the environment.
 Visit a zoo and identify the different ecosystems present. Observe the animals and plants
that live within the ecosystem and how their basic needs are met.
Homework Options and Home Connections:
 Have students look in their backyards and identify plants and animals living there. Make
a list of how their basic needs are met.
 Take a family field trip to a park and identify the plants and animals that are there and
how they adapt.
 Make a diorama of a specific American Indian nation that includes examples of the
plants, animals, natural resources and landforms of its region.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Social Studies
 Geography
Benchmark C: Identify and explain ways people have affected the physical
environment of North America and analyze the positive and negative consequences
Indicator 8: Explain how the characteristics of different physical environments affect
human activities in North America.
English Language Arts
 Research
Benchmark B: Locate and summarize important information from multiple sources
Indicator 2: Locate sources and gather relevant information from multiple sources (e.g.,
school library catalogs, online databases, electronic resources and Internet-based
resources).
Benchmark C: Organize information in a systemic way.
Indicator 3: Identify important information found in sources and paraphrase the findings
in a systematic way (e.g., notes, outlines, charts, tables, or graphic organizers).
Benchmark E: Communicate findings orally, visually and in writing or through
multimedia.
Indicator 6: Use variety of communication techniques, including oral, visual, written or
multimedia reports, to present information gathered.
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Materials and Resources:
The inclusion of a specific resource in any lesson formulated by the Ohio Department of
Education should not be interpreted as an endorsement of that particular resource, or any of
its contents, by the Ohio Department of Education. The Ohio Department of Education does
not endorse any particular resource. The Web addresses listed are for a given site’s main
page, therefore, it may be necessary to search within that site to find the specific information
required for a given lesson. Please note that information published on the Internet changes
over time, therefore the links provided may no longer contain the specific information related
to a given lesson. Teachers are advised to preview all sites before using them with students.
For the teacher:
Library books on American Indians and different regions of the United
States, maps of the United States.
For the students:
Poster boards, markers, crayons, colored pencils, large paper for webs,
paper to create a booklet, sentence strips, self-adhesive notes, index
cards.
Vocabulary:
 Arctic
 basic needs
 climate
 clothing
 Eastern Woodland
 ecosystem
 environment
 food
 Great Basin
 Great Lakes
 landforms
 mountain
 natural resources
 plains
 region
 shelter
 survival
Technology Connections:
 Use the Internet to locate information about the different regions and American Indian
nations of the United States/North America.
 Create a database of the regions, their plants, animals, landforms, natural resources and
American Indians groups that lived there.
 Use the computer to create survival guides or travel brochures.
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Survival Environment – Grade Five




Use graphic organizer software, if available, or a word processing program with a
drawing feature to create the webs.
Use a projector to display the web to the class during the brainstorming session
Keep an electronic journal.
Use a video camera to create the television documentary. If the school district has a highschool media class, enlist its assistance. Completed programs can be broadcast on the
school-wide cable channel, if available, or could be broadcast on the local cable
television station.
Research Connections:
Barkman, Robert. Science through Multiple Intelligences Patterns that Inspire Inquiry.
Arizona: Zephyr Press, 1999.
As mentioned in the research connection, the use of various multiple intelligences and
learning styles help increase the number of students that feel success in learning.
This series of lessons includes a variety of intelligences: visual, tactile/kinesthetic,
verbal, interpersonal and logical.
Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York:
Harper and Row, 1983.
The pre-assessment is a quick way for the teacher to find out what background
knowledge the students have about regions, Native Americans, ecosystems, and basic
needs. The post-assessment is a choice for students to either create posters or
survival guides about regions and the Native American groups that live in those
regions. It can be adapted for those with special-learning needs or can be challenging
to those who need enrichment. Both assessments are an integration of science and
social studies.
General Tips:
 This series of lessons is best implemented after students have studied various American
Indian nations. It could be done when instructing the life sciences indicators on
ecosystems or when teaching the indicators for history. The students should be aware of
how these groups interacted with their ecosystems to meet their basic needs. The
students should also have access to library resource books or textbooks to research more
information. Help students understand that American Indians today maintain some of
their traditions while living modern lifestyles.
 Definitions include: ecosystem - the complex of a community of organisms and its
environment functioning as an ecological unit; environment - the complex of physical,
chemical and biotic factors that act upon an organism or an ecological community and
ultimately determine its form and survival.
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Attachments:
Attachment A, Instructional Chart
Attachment B, Rubric
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Attachment A
Instructional Chart
American Indian
Nation
Landforms
plains, badlands, grasslands, some forests in the north
Climate
cold winters, hot summers
Organisms
buffalo, grasses, bushes, rabbits
Water Resources
various rivers, sweetwater, platte, bighorn, Missouri
Shelter
tip is from buffalo skins, long poles from trees; easy
to move in order to follow the buffalo, buffalo chips
for fire,
Food
buffalo, berries, small animals, corn grown in the
summer, dried meat
Clothing
buffalo skins, other animal skins
Other
used all parts
of the buffalo; plants for medicine,
stone for arrowheads
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Survival Environment – Grade Five
Attachment B
Post-Assessment Sample Rubric
Names: _______________________
_________________________
_______________________
_________________________
U. S. Region: ______________________
Ecosystem: _______________
American Indian Nation: ________________________________________
1. Ecosystem/region landforms described.
Points
______
2. Ecosystem/region climate described.
______
3. Ecosystem/region organisms described (plant and animal).
______
4. Ecosystem/region water resources described.
______
5. American Indian shelter needs described.
______
6. American Indian clothing needs described.
______
7. American Indian food needs described.
______
8. Evidence of interaction between American Indian and ecosystem.
______
9. Evidence of all living organisms (human, plant, animal) basic needs met.
______
10. Used facts that were accurate.
______
Total:
______
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