Maggie’s
Activity Pack
Name __________________________
Date ___________________________
Bridging Understandings About Bats!
Imagine you just finished your homework. Your family is hopping into a boat to enjoy an
evening cruise along a river. Suddenly you see thousands of bats gliding overhead. Is this a
scene from a scary movie? Are you part of a Halloween story? No! This is real life in Austin,
Texas. And it is important!
City planners may not have expected when the Congress Avenue Bridge was built that
it would become an important habitat for bats, but it has. The small mammals spend their days
hanging five to six rows deep beneath the struts of the bridge. Here they escape the heat of
the Texas sun. When nightfall approaches and insects swarm along the river, the bats pour
from their resting place to gobble up these bugs.
This spectacle of nature provides a nightly show for the local people and the tourists
who come to see the largest urban bat colony in North America. But don’t pack your bags for
Austin in January and expect to see a million bats. They won’t be there. That’s because these
bats are Mexican free-tail bats. They don’t hibernate; they migrate.
The body style of this bat is well suited to making the winter journey to Central America
or Mexico. Weighing less than half an ounce, these brownish red bats have a long, thin
wingspan of about a foot. They have a long tail and forward pointing ears. These features give
the bat a sleek look. Perhaps this is why it can fly so fast and is known as the “jet” of the bat
world.
You may think bats are scary troublemakers, but they are very important for our food
supply. They eat their weight in insects everyday. That’s a big bug meal that could have been
nibbling away at our food supply. Bats also help spread seeds. They help plants pollinate. It
has been estimated that bats save of millions of dollars each year because of their good
agricultural work!
Sadly, something is trying to harm bats. It’s a fungus. White Nose Syndrome (WNS)
attacks the wings of bats. The bats’ wings then become fragile, like tissue paper. For bats that
hibernate, they wake up very thirsty and leave their caves too early to look for water. They can
freeze to death or lose their stored body fat. Many bats are dying because of WNS. Scientists
are worried about WNS as it is hurting bat populations.
Another problem for bats is loss of habitat. As people need more and more land, bats
are losing places they once called home. Sometimes, like the Congress Avenue Bat Colony in
Austin, bats find ways to live with people. Perhaps community planners could think about
wildlife spaces when they are planning human spaces.
You can help bats, too. Organizations like Bat Conservation International gives ideas for
building a bat house. You can be the bat boy or bat girl of your neighborhood by putting up bat
homes. Because so many people misunderstand bats, you may need to explain why you are
saving this helpful mammal. You can be the bridge of understanding between people and their
fear of bats!
© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2011. www.missmaggie.org Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.
Text features help us to better understand what we read. Take a look at some of these text
features that might be part of a textbook about bats. Label the features and tell how they can
help you. Use these words: photograph, headings, glossary, and table.
City planners – people who
draw plans or layouts for cities
Strut – a building piece that
helps hold the weight of a
structure
Urban – relating to a city or
large town
A Place For Millions of Bats
Jets of the Bat World
Important Roles, Not Scary Roles
Threats to Bats
A. This is an example of a
B. This is an example of a
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This can help you
This can help you
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Caves Searched for WNS
Name
WNS?
Hailes
YES
Gages
NO
Knox
YES
You can see the forward
pointing ears of this bat.
C. This is an example of a
D. This is an example of a
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This can help you
This can help you
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© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2011. www.missmaggie.org Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.
Dear Colleague,
One of my favorite weekly activities is visiting schools. I love to get into classrooms to
see what you are teaching and how you are accomplishing all that you must do. Lately I have
seen many classrooms, from kindergarten on up discussing text features as part of an
integrated social studies or science lesson. As we discussed bats at Maggie’s Earth
Adventures, thanks to Mason’s recent visit to the Congress Avenue Bridge Bat Colony in
Austin, we thought about how so many of you are successfully integrating all parts of the
curriculum within one lesson. We discussed how bats are an example of how this integration
can happen. Our follow-up activity asks children to use language arts, but it is a language skill
that you often teach in science or social studies. These bats are an example of how urban
communities are welcoming and living in harmony with nature, both social studies and science.
Of course, bats and their key role in agriculture along with dangers to them are related to both
subject areas again. Thank goodness more and more school systems are moving toward
integrated curriculum and helping children see connections!
This week, I may end up repeating what I have discussed in a past Dear Colleague
letter but it is so important that I feel we ALL can benefit from reminders (yours truly,
especially!). Questioning is a big part of any teacher’s life and sometimes it is taken for
granted. But the way we ask questions can mean real thought on the part of our students or it
can result in a chaotic classroom. My rule of thumb is that if you are asking a content related
question, you want the maximum amount of response. For example, I may ask, “How does
White Nose Syndrome hurt hibernating bats?” I will look around, wait, and then ask children to
either whisper thoughts to one another or put their fingers on their nose if they know. Asking
for raised hands gets tedious and boring so I change the signal often. This encourages more
children to consider the answer before I call on someone. Don’t make the mistake of saying a
child’s name and then asking a question. You know what that means: Everyone else gets a
pass and no one except for the child you called on thinks about the answer. On the other hand,
if you are asking a direction-related question, you want the fewest responses. Saying, “Does
everyone understand?” will only get you a chorus of yes. You will not hear the information you
really need: identifying the child who needs help! So, ask instead, ”If you can retell the 3 most
important steps to finishing this activity, hold up three fingers.” That way you have encouraged
thought about the directions. You will also be able to see puzzled looks. Thinking about these
components makes you an artist – in asking questions!
Happy teaching,
Kathy
Answer Key:
A. Glossary - helps you understand the vocabulary in the text.
B. Headings – identifies the main ideas and helps you form questions so you can better comprehend the text
C. Table – gives you details about the topic that help you to better understand the information
D. Photograph – illustrates a detail in the text so you can visualize it
Goals:
Students will read about bats, how they help humans, and dangers they face. A follow-up
activity relates text features to the article. This WAP integrates with three content areas:
language arts, science, and social studies. It is available on the intermediate and primary
levels. A companion emergent reader activity is also available. One of the content areas the
WAP correlates with is the National Social Studies Standard: Culture and People, Places and
Environment.
© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2011. www.missmaggie.org Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.