Description
This lesson requires students to observe and name the elements of an animal's habitat. It will allow students to detail what they think a specific animal needs to survive and thrive. Students will write a fictional (or perhaps true) story about finding and caring for a wild animal; stories must use details and facts the students discover about their animals through research.
Ask your students to "Imagine that you find and bring home an animal. How will you provide for it? It will need food, water, a bed, and more. Think it through and tell just how you could make your animal survive and thrive."
Website(s)
The Northern Nevada Writing Project: WritingFix
The Northern Nevada Writing Project: ScienceFix
Writing skills (traits) to stress while teaching this lesson
- Idea Development (putting learned information and research into one's own words)
- Organization (creating a short essay, complete with introduction, conclusion, and supporting details)
- Conventions (using correct spelling, especially of scientific vocabulary words from their research)
Author
This writing across the curriculum lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Terry Stelle.
Materials
- Anne Mazer's The Salamander Room
- Student story planners for each student
- A variety of pictures of wild animals in their habitats
- Fact sheets about animal environments and/ or books about different kinds of animals for students to use while doing research
- Lesson plan
Background Information
Terry tells her students the following story to grab their attention:
One
summer day when I was your age, I went out walking at the beach and I
came across a fascinating creature, "A star fish-how cool. I'm keeping
him," was the first thought that came to mind. However, once I got "him" home, I had to improvise in order to create a suitable home. I
didn't have salt water, and fresh water didn't work. My starfish did
not survive after a few days. When he was stiff I put him in my dresser
drawer and he really stunk it up. I guess he had died. I wish I had
been able to make him a better home.
Imagine
if you found a fascinating creature. How could you make changes in your
room in order to meet his needs for food, shelter, safety, water,
recreation, exercise, and companionship?
Step-by-Step Procedure
Step 1. Read aloud: The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer. Discuss the list of the salamander's needs in order that they appear in the story. Create a class list:
- Where will he sleep?
- When he wakes up, where will he play?
- Will he miss his friends?
- How will you feed and water him (or them)?
- How will you control the population of the thing you are planning to feed him?
- Where will the things that feed him live? How will those things have their needs met?
- How will the plants grow and get sunlight?
- Where will you sleep?
Step 2.
Tell students they will be writing a fictional (or perhaps true) story
about finding an animal and planning for its care. Students will need
to research the animal they will be caring for in their stories, and
they must share real facts about the animal they learn in the story. To
help students understand the story being assigned, share with them a
teacher-made story about this topic; Terry has included the story she
tells below.
Step 3. Allow students to choose a wild animal and research it. Have them refer to the class list from The Salamander Room to keep them focused on facts they are looking for to be able to write a story.
Step 4. Have students fill out the story-planning sheet.
This sheet gives them some framed sentences to get their ideas flowing,
but the students should be encouraged to try not using the framed
sentences from the planning sheet when creating a rough draft; it might
be helpful to have them fill out the sheet, to then orally tell the
story they are planning to write aloud to several other students, then
write their rough drafts without copying from the planning sheet.
Terry's Teacher-Made Example:
A Home for a Starling
a mostly true story written by Mrs. Stelle
One
day when I came out of my house in Washoe Valley my collie, Buddy, was
sniffing at something in the bushes along the path to the front door.
"What is it, boy? " I asked. (I had seen a lot of episodes of Lassie
in my day.) I looked down and saw a bright orange triangle framing a
dark hole. When I looked closer, I realized I was looking down the
throat of a hungry baby starling that I later named W. U. B., which
stood for World's Ugliest Baby. We called him Wub. Wub had
fallen from his nest in the tile roof just above the cypress bushes
that were holding him and hiding him. He was hungry. He opened wide and
threw his head back to let passers by know he was accepting
contributions.
The whole world and I have a soft spot in our hearts for babies, so I
cradled him in one hand to warm him up and gave Buddy a pat on the head
with the other and thanked him for not eating Wub, then took him
inside.
One
of the reasons he was ugly was because he not only had a huge mouth, he
was also practically bald. I put Wub in a cage since he couldn't fly
yet and went to get an old shoe to fill with soft grasses for a nest.
The shoe fit. Next I had to feed this little guy so I went on line to
find out whether starlings were herbivores or carnivores. Not that I
was going to serve him chicken or anything, but I did think I could
find some worms if it was required. It was. One order of mashed worms,
coming up, and going down.
One good thing about Wub was that he was as easy to feed as a thirsty
fish. After a fine meal, it was bed time but I couldn't risk him
freezing to death and I didn't want to let him cuddle up to Buddy,
though my dog's eyes said he would be glad to birdy sit for
me. I got out a heating pad, turned it on low, covered it with paper so
I'd be able to clean it easily and tucked my little buddy in. Then we
climbed a tree and found a good place to sleep where we could see the
stars. I was too big to lay on top of him like his mother would have
done, but I did make sure the shoe was out of the wind.
The next morning we went back to my house and had coffee and more
worms; that is, I had coffee and Wub had worms. I couldn't leave him
home alone all day so I cut down a tree and put it in my car's trunk. I
put him in a little box with his hot water bottle for traveling, and
the heating pad for later, strapped a seatbelt on his cage, and we
drove to school together, singing birdy songs.
The kids in my class loved Wub. They took turns feeding him and reading
to him so he'd be smart. We stuck the tree in the corner of the room
and I told the boys not to all climb it at once.
The days passed and Wub began to grow feathers. Summer came, and it was
time to teach him to fly. He was fluttering in his cage as he grew, and
I could see he had been inspired by all the stories of far away places,
so I promised him we'd give him flying lessons. He already came out of
his cage to sit on my finger and my shoulder sometimes. I felt like
Cinderella with a little brown bird that flew around my head, perched
on my shoulder, and sang to me.
I took him outside and he flew back and forth between me and my son,
Jeff. I think he had imprinted that we were his family because he came
right to us. The bird did, too.
My family was going on vacation that summer and couldn't keep Wub. Of
course every student in my class wanted him. I chose Mike. I thought
he'd be honored to be selected so I gave him the bird, the tree, the
cage and all the stuff that went with Wub. We had been to the vet's and
bought some food especially made for wild birds, so I didn't have to
get any more worms.
Mike finished teaching Wub to fly. He fed him and cared for him and
worked with him all summer on those flying lessons. Then one day he let
him go. He watched for him and may have spotted him a time or two. We
like to think he lived happily ever after. Mike still sleeps in his
tree house waiting for a visit from a beautiful blue-black bird who no
longer needs a name.
Content Provider
The Northern Nevada Writing Project: WritingFix
