Unit of Study Title: All About Animals
Topic Area: Science
Grade Level: 3-5
Time Frame: 6 weeks
Key Words: animals, habitat, environment, adaptations, vertebrate, invertebrate, kingdoms, science, elementary

Unit Designer: Greg Schmitz (GS046)
Unit Designer E-mail: Greg.Schmitz@k12.sd.us
School District: Sioux Falls Public
Date Added: 6/17/2002 5:13:05 PM
Date Last Revised: 6/17/2002 5:13:05 PM

Peer Reviewer: Barbara Dowling
Peer Reviewer E-mail: Barbara.Dowling@k12.sd.us

SD Content Standard Goals (SD Content Standards):

SD Content Standard Indicators:
Indicator 1: Understand the fundamental structures, functions, and mechanisms found in living things.
Indicator 2: Analyze various patterns and products of natural and induced biological change.
Indicator 3: Analyze how organisms are linked to one another and the environment.

SD Content Standard Benchmarks:
a. identify relationships between structures and functions within an organism.
b. identify ways that living things are organized and classified.
c. describe the relationships between parents and offspring in organisms.
d. identify factors that can cause change in a population.
e. identify relationships and interactions of living things.

Other Content Standards:
Fourth Grade Writing Standards:

THE STUDENT WILL:

1. Apply various stages of the writing process. (example: brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, polishing)
2. Organize and write about information according to category, sources, or topic
3. Write using correct grammar. (example: verb forms, possessives)
4. Write reports which address key questions, issues, or situations.
5. Edit final copies for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. (example:abbreviations, nouns of address, apostrophes)
6. Use technology for revising and editing (example: spell /grammar check)
7. Revise selected drafts by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging sentences.
8. Use technology to share writing with others and to receive feedback.
9. Confer with others to revise writing coherence and logic.

Brief Summary of Unit:
Travel the planet through the World Wide Web to learn about all varieties of animals, their habitats, adaptations and classifications. Write articles, stories, and poetry to share your knowledge with others.

Students will Understand:
The students will understand that animals have specific adaptations for survival and are classified according to physical and behavioral characteristics.
The students will understand the writing process.
The student will understand how to use data input skills appropriate to the task.
The students will understand how to use various software programs and online features.

Essential Questions to Guide this Unit and Focus Teaching and Learning:
What basic needs do animals share?
How do body parts help animals meet their needs?
How do behaviors help animals meet their needs?
How can living things be classified?
How do vertebrates differ?
How do the groups of invertebrates differ?

Key Knowledge and Skills Students will Acquire:
Students will identify what basic needs animals share.
Students will identify the animal body parts that help them meet their needs.
Students identify behaviors that help animals meet their needs.
Students know how living things are classified.
Students know how vertebrates differ.
Students know how the groups of invertebrates differ.

Assessment Plan:
The students will complete an end of project booklet. This booklet will contain various projects completed throughout the unit. The projects will be an animal report paper, an acrostic poem, an animal cartoon, a wham wheel, a cinquain poem, an alliteration sentence, an add-a-word poem, a word search, a picture of the adopted pet from virtualzoo.com, a virtual pet crazy poem, a hot links sheet, and a picture of a switchzoo animal.

Learning Activities:
1. The teacher will demonstrate how to navigate to the various web sites such as zoos.com, sandiegozoo.com, and virtualzoo.com. Then the teacher will demonstrate how to adopt a pet from virtualzoo.com. Finally, the teacher will discuss various animal adaptations and environments.
2. The teacher will introduce the animal report assignment. The students will have various probes to guide them through the process of writing the report. The final project will be typed using Microsoft Word.

3. The teacher will demonstrate switchzoo.edu to the students. Then each student will make a switchzoo animal. They will print the switchzoo animal for the final booklet.
4. The students will make a cartoon strip that includes two animals and at least two basic needs. The cartoon strip will be a short story using animals that talk. The cartoon strip can be scanned into a PowerPoint presentation for the students to observe.

5. The students will make a word search using an on-line link called puzzlemaker.com. The word search will contain words that describe the basic needs of animals, adaptations, physical, and behavior characteristics of animals.

6. The students will make a wham wheel. This wheel will contain the five kingdoms to which animals belong. Complete instructions can be found on our web sites, http://www.pe005.k12.sd.us and http://www.gs046.k12.sd.us.

7. The students will write a cinquain poem. The poem will describe the animal in detail. There is a PowerPoint presentation found on our web sites, http://www.pe005.k12.sd.us and http://www.gs046.k12.sd.us., that models how a cinquain is written.

8. The students will write an acrostic poem. Start by writing the animal’s name vertically along the left edge of the paper. Then use each letter as the beginning letter of a word describing the animal. The words should reflect the objectives of the unit. A PowerPoint presentation found on our web sites, http://www.pe005.k12.sd.us and http://www.gs046.k12.sd.us.,models how to write an acrostic poem.
9. The students will write an add-a-word poem. Instructions for this poem can be found on our web sites, http://www.pe005.k12.sd.us and http://www.gs046.k12.sd.us.

10. Alliteration: The teacher will read Animalia by Graeme Base. After reading the book the students will write their own animal alliteration.

11. The students will put together a booklet that contains all of the projects from this unit. The projects in the booklet will be a report paper, a list of hot links, a wham wheel, a Switchzoo animal, an acrostic poem, a cinquain poem, a word search, an animal cartoon, an alliteration sentence, and an add-a-word Poem,

12. The students will browse through seaworld.org, discovery.com, animal planet.com, ripleysaquariumofthesmokies.com, and zoos.com. A discussion will take place regarding the various animals, their adaptations, behavior, and physical chacteristics.

Notes:
The various writing ideas in this unit can be used during a writing block of the school day.
To vary the ending project, each student could make a PowerPoint presentation containing their various projects made throughout the unit.

Internet Resource Link:
http://www.gs046.k12.sd.us.

Peer Reviewer Comments:
Peer Reviewer Comments This unit uses the World Wide Web to its advantage to give students access to a wealth of information and activities about animals. It incorporates the use of technology in meaningful ways.

 

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