Designed to meet these objectives:
Science
• Students will identify animals from different groups (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds).
• Students will recognize animal habitats.
• Students will understand a simple food chain.
live?). Then, ask them what they want to learn
about animals. Write their responses beneath the
appropriate headings on the KWL chart.
What’s Included
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40 activity cards
40 animal photo cards
6 writing prompts
Wooden stand
8 vocabulary cards
Food chain slider & card
8 animal footprint stamps
Stamp pad
KWL chart
3 plastic worms
Fact chart
2 seed packets
Experiment chart
Craft stick
Tweezers
Spoon
2 observation trays
Reproducibles
Next, display the fact chart and encourage students to refer to it as needed throughout the unit.
Familiarize the class with the materials in the tub
and how to use them before the items are needed
to complete an activity.
Writing Prompts
Inside the tub, you will also find six thoughtprovoking writing prompts and a display stand to
hold them upright. These prompts provide students opportunities to write descriptive, creative,
or informative passages about animals. Each
prompt guides students through the writing
process by asking questions that spark ideas and
giving clear directions on how to develop the passage. Simply display one of the prompts in the
stand and set it on a table in a writing center. Or,
invite students to use the prompts independently
at their desks. Provide students with paper and
pencils and let their imaginations soar!
Before You Begin
Before making the materials in the tub available
to your students, it’s a good idea to familiarize
yourself with them and get comfortable with
their use.
Getting Started
Gather students together and announce that you
are beginning a new science unit on animals! The
KWL chart will help you find out what students
know and what they hope to discover as they
study animals. A few simple questions can help
students share what they already know (e.g.,
Can you name some different animals? How are
animals similar to people? Where do animals
© 2009 Lakeshore
(800) 428-4414
www.lakeshorelearning.com
Vocabulary Cards
Also included in the tub are 8 vocabulary cards
which can be used as a reference throughout your
study of animals. Students can use the information on the cards to create their own dictionary of
animal vocabulary, or the cards can be used as
flash cards for review.
Food Chain Slider
Your food chain slider makes it easy to show students the relationships in a simple food chain. The
slider begins with the grass and ends with the
hawk. Go over terms like “herbivore” and “carnivore” using the vocabulary cards.
FF987
Conforms to ASTM D-4236
Ages 6+
Printed in U.S.A.
Activity Cards
The tub includes a box filled with 40 activity cards
divided into five subject areas: Science, Language,
Math, Social Studies, and Arts & Crafts. Each card
provides clear directions for completing the activity as well as a list of all the materials needed.
(Materials listed in italics are not included in the
tub.) You may find it effective to set up an animals learning center in your classroom, as many of
the activity cards are designed for small groups.
Write & Wipe Charts
Be sure to use only dry-erase markers on the
write & wipe charts.
The KWL chart reflects the class’s growing knowledge about animals. Use it at the beginning of the
unit to record what the students already know
about animals and to determine what they want
to know. As the unit progresses, return to the
chart to write down what they learned. Display
this chart at the front of the room, and let your
students’ own observations and questions guide
their learning!
The experiment chart is a useful companion to all
of your in-class, hands-on experiments. Use a
write & wipe marker to record observations and
information through each step of the experiment.
As part of a learning center in your classroom, the
experiment chart guides students through the scientific process and stimulates their critical thinking
skills!
The fact chart is filled with colorful illustrations
and important information to give students a
strong foundation for learning about animals.
Students will find this chart to be a helpful
resource as they conduct experiments and expand
their knowledge about animals.
Photo Cards
ducibles as you carry out activity card ideas from
the tub. Provide each student or group of students
with a copy of the activity. Then, invite students to
follow the directions to complete the activity.
Meeting Individual Needs
ELL
Pre-teach vocabulary words to students
before starting the science activities. Have students
write the word in their word journals and draw a
picture to reinforce its meaning.
RETEACHING Have students work in pairs to
complete some of the activities. Model the activities
with the necessary materials to make sure students
understand the steps and results.
CHALLENGE Encourage students to create a
poster to raise awareness of endangered animals.
Provide a list of endangered animals, a list of helpful
websites, and 12" x 9" construction paper.
Suggested Books
Read a book about animals aloud to the class as
a great introduction to this unit of study. Or,
invite students to read the book independently
or in small groups at a classroom reading center.
If you would like to add books about animals to
your reading center, consider these popular
titles:
Baker, Keith. Hide and Snake. Harcourt Children’s
Books, 1991.
Chinery, Michael. Predators and Prey (Secrets of
the Rain Forest). Crabtree Pub., 2000.
Heller, Ruth. Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones.
Penguin Group, 1999.
Holden-Boone, Andrea. Night Creatures.
Somerville House, USA, 1998.
Lauber, Patricia. Who Eats What? Food Chains
and Food Webs. HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.
The tub includes a set of 40 colorful photo cards
featuring a diverse range of animals including
mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians.
The back of each card is filled with useful and
interesting facts about the animal. You can use
these cards for many of the activity ideas in the
tub, or simply make them available in a learning
center for students to explore on their own!
Parker, Steve. It’s a Frog’s Life: My Story of Life in
a Pond. Reader’s Digest Children’s Publishing,
1999.
Reproducibles
Taylor, Leighton R. Creeps from the Deep: Life in
the Deep Sea. Chronicle Books, LLC, 1997.
On the next two pages of this guide, you will find
reproducible activities highlighting basic concepts
about animals. You may want to use these repro-
Seidensticker, John (Ed.) and Lumpkin, Susan
(Ed.). Dangerous Animals. Time-Life Books Inc.,
1999.
Tagholm, Sally. The Barn Owl. Kingfisher, 1999.
How Do Birds Eat?
Find out how birds use their beaks to pick up food! Fill the observation trays with the
seeds and plastic worms. Then, try to pick up the food with the different tools. How
well does each tool work? Record your result on the chart below.
Tool
Which items were
easy to pick up?
Which items were
Which kind of bird
difficult to pick up? beak is this tool like?
Tweezers
Craft stick
Spoon
Bird Beaks
Probing Beak
Scooping Beak
Shovel Beak
Animal Tracks
You can tell a lot about an animal by looking at its feet! Use the animal footprint stamps and stamp pad from the tub to complete the chart below. First,
stamp one of the tracks in each of the numbered boxes below. Then, complete
the chart by answering the questions.
Animal
Tracks
1.
2.
3.
4.
What are some
animals whose feet
might look like this?
Where do you think
these animals live?
How do the feet
of this animal
help it move?