BACKGROUND:
Students have learned that there are different types
of environments, but mainly under two big divisions land and water.
An environment in which an organism lives can be described by temperature,
wind, and other physical components as well as the biological components. The term environment refers to all the external factors affecting the life
of an individual organism or a population of organisms. All living
(plants and animals) and non-living (air, water and land) things are part
of the environment.
Studying the whole environment at once is an immense task, so
the environment is broken into sections we call ecosystems. An ecosystem
is a group or community of living things interacting with one another and
with their non-living surroundings. However, to understand an ecosystem,
students must learn about the different organisms and in what kind of habitat
they live in. A habitat refers to the place where an organisms
live. Young children need to learn how to describe the different
habits.
PROCEDURE:
- Students have learned about different animals,
in this lab students will try to discover these animals' natural habitat.
A habitat is where an animal lives with his friends and enemies. The habitat
can be on flat lands, mountains, ponds, meadows, or oceans. The focus
of this lab is for students to see different habitats and to determine
where some animals live.
- Go over the organisms on the different cards the students
made during the Pre Lab. It is important to discuss where they live.
- Give groups of students an Inflatable Animal Globe and
call out where the different animals lives. Bear in mind each
group will have to be shown on the globe where the different continents
are. For kindergarten students we would us just the continent and
ocean names
- If you have puppets or plastic animals, you can add or
replace some of the animals. If your class is competitive, you can
see who finds the area first (after a trial run, of course!)
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