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HOW
IN THE DESERT?
MASTER TEACHER
Lynnette Clements
Grade
Level: 1
Time
Allotment: 2 weeks at least
Overview:
Children will learn about the desert, the plants, and
animals of the desert and how they can live there.
Subject
Matter:
Science (Habitat of a desert)
Math (Graphing, Thermometer
reading, Counting)
Language Arts (Research, Reading,
real/fantasy, Writing)
Learning
Objectives:
The student will:
·
depict through pictures and words reality
from fantasy.
·
create an information page about a desert
animal or plant.
·
match the picture to the word of various
desert life.
·
create a Gila monster with beads.
·
assist with setting up and implementing a
class science experiment
·
research their animal using various
reference materials- books, encyclopedias, and websites.
·
use the computer to access information about
their desert animal.
·
chart and graph temperatures.
·
read a thermometer.
·
create a diorama to show their understanding
of the desert life.
Standards:
(www.tea.state.tx.us/teks)
Science 1.2 Scientific process: develop
abilities necessary to do inquiry.
Science 1.6 Know that systems have parts and
are composed of organisms, and objects.
Science 1.7B Identify and test ways that
heat may cause change.
Science 1.9B Compare and give examples of
the ways living organisms depend on each other for their basic needs.
Language 1.1 Speak to an audience for a
different purpose, and occasion
Language 1.3 D Present dramatic
interpretation of experiences, stories, poems, and plays
Language 1.4 Communicate clearly by putting
thoughts into spoken words.
Language 1.10 Read for different purposes in
a varied sources.
Languages 1.11 Develop vocabulary by
discussing the meanings of words.
Language 1.11B Develop vocabulary by
listening and discussing both familiar and conceptually challenging selections
read aloud.
Language 1.12 Make and explain inferences
from texts, and similarities and differences.
Language 1.14 C Distinguish fiction from
nonfiction, including fact and fantasy
Language 1.15 B Use pictures, prints, and
people to gather information
Language 1.15 E Recognize and use parts of a
book to locate information
Language 1.18 Write for a variety of
purposes.
Social Studies 1.4 Geography: understand the
relative location of places.
Social Studies 1.5 Geography: Understand the
purpose of a map and globe.
Social Studies 1.6A Identify and describe
the physical characteristics of places
Math 1.3A Model and create addition and
subtraction problems
Math 1.8 A Recognize and record temperatures
Math 1.10 Draw conclusions and answer
questions using information organized in real-object graphs, pictographs, and
bar-type graphs.
Media
Components:
Videos:
-American Deserts:
What is a Desert? #101
Life in the Desert #10
Websites:
Sonoran Desert Naturalist
http://members.aol.com/Melasoma
Wonderful pictures and information about the Sonoran
desert
There are several links off of this site about this desert
Merrian-Webster OnLine
www.m-w.com
Children can look up words on the net.
Desert USA
http://www.desertusa.com
Wonderful site for lots of information on desert, such as the people,
animals, plants, etc.
Student Research Resources
http://www.geocities.com
Great site for students in which to research. It has maps,
resources, and games.
Arizona Guide
http://www.arizonaguide.com
Has a neat site just for KIDS. Has coloring pages of the various animals,
and plants of the desert.
Materials:
VCR/TV
Desert Animal and Plant pictures (I cut mine out of old magazines and laminated
them)
A Terrarium
Rocks, Dirt, Pebbles, Sand
Cactus / variety of plants that need water to survive.
Heat lamp/Thermometer
Coffee Filter/Water
Blow dryer
Straw
Construction paper strips (one for each child-cut to about 1” thickness)
Tape
Beads to make Gila monster
Beans or something to count with
Create little books out of construction paper, and newsprint paper.
These should have at least 6 pages in them. There should be space at the
top
for them to draw their pictures.
Books about the desert from your school library.
One copy of the Gila monster picture/student
One science board (stiff poster board) /student
Water soluble markers
Prep
for Teachers:
Step 1.
Pre-view Video. Cue the tape and prepare yourself for the lesson.
Step 2.
Create a learning board about the desert using the animals/ plants that
you chose to learn about.
Step 3.
Gather your materials that you need for your terrarium.
Introductory
Activity:
Step 1.
The teacher brings in a cactus, and “brainstorms” with the children asking them “ What do
you know about a cactus? Where they might find a cactus? What does a desert look
like? What grows in the desert? Are there any other things can live in the
desert?” Remind children about the definition of living, verses non-living.
Now, the teacher has the children draw a picture of a desert, reminding them
about what they had just discussed. When the children have finished drawing, the
teacher collects the pictures, and focuses the children on a video.
Step 2.
Focus for Media Interaction:
“In this desert video, you are to look closely and see what kinds of things
can grow or live in the desert. We are going to watch the video the first time,
all the way through.”
Step 3.
*Teacher runs the video, and stops the video at key times, which are
depicted below.
VIDEO:
American Desert- What is a Desert?
Step 1 First “brainstorm” about what
they think a desert is?
Next start the video at the beginning ask them to be ready to answer questions.
Pause after they tell of some differences of the desert.
Step 2 Name a few words that they said
the desert was. (Cold, mountainous, full of life, beautiful) See if you had
these words written down during your brainstorm
Start the video again. Stop on the snow.
What do you see in the desert?
Continue video until it talks about
Step 3 What happens when it rains in the
desert? It pours.
Continue video and stop the video after it asks, “What makes a desert a
desert? (It’s dryness.)
Step 4 “Can you
name a dry place? Listen and see if you can tell where in the United States it
is the driest?” Continue video, and stop after it says, ”Death Valley,
CA.”
Step 5 Tell your
students that there are 4 major deserts in the United States.
Let’s see if we can catch the names of them.
Play video.
(Chihuahuan, Sonoran, Mohave, and Great Basin)
Step 6 Rewind the
video and let’s see if we can see what are some things that are unique to that
desert. Play video, and stop after every segment that talks about that
particular desert.
Chihuahuan- is a high desert
and grows creasote bush, and soaptree Yucca
Then freeze
on each picture that follows that deserts’ segment and see if the class can
name that animal.
Sonoran-More plants and
animals than any other desert, and grows saguaro, Palo verde, and ocotillo.
Freeze on
the animal pictures that follow and names them.
Mojave- Driest desert- Joshua
trees and in some places nothing. Name the driest place ,(Death Valley, CA.) It
is located in this desert.
Freeze on
the animals, and try to name them.
Great Basin- Coldest desert,
and has low shrubs, and grasses and no trees. What provides the water for this
desert? Snow.
Freeze on
the animals again. Freeze and ask question.
Step 7 Listen and
tell what is the most precious thing in the desert? (Water)
Stop the
video, and discuss all that you have discovered.
Step 8
Use the globe, and the map to show location of the deserts. Also use the
websites noted to show beautiful pictures of the desert.
Step 9
Focus for Media Interaction:
“We will watch the video again this time without sound. This time, when
you see something that lives or grows in the desert, raise your hand. I will
pause the video and you can show us, what you have discovered.” Teacher will
allow student to touch the screen, and trace the animal or plant they have
discovered. The student will try to recall the name, and can ask a friend for
assistance.
Step 10
Use the 2nd video- American Desert- Life in the Desert #102 to
review and look for animals and plants in the desert.
Step 11
Teacher: Rewinds the video, and quickly goes through the video, pausing
on various animals, and plants, and asking their names.
Step 12
Teacher: “ Now, we will divide into groups of four. Each group will
receive a series of desert animal pictures and words to match together. When you
think that your group is finished, raise your saguaro for checking. “ Teacher
writes the word saguaro on the board, and checks each group as they finish.
Learning Activities:
Activity 1:
Step 1 Teacher:
“Since we will be studying these plants, and animals for the next couple of
weeks, let’s take these animals and plants and create a dictionary of words,
and pictures.”
Step 2 Each
student will have a little booklet to draw and label the plants and animals.
Activity 2:
Step 1 Teacher
will create a learning board using the same plants and animals that the children
have in their booklets. Using this board, the children will label the plants and
animals together as a class as a review.
Step 2 Next,
Teacher will read to the class the story: Gila
Monster Meets You At The Airport, by Marjorie Sharmat, Piffin Books, 1980.
Step 3 Teacher
will be discussing reality from fantasy, and relate it to the story.” Is a
Gila monster real?” “ What does a Gila monster look like?” “ Could a
Gila monster meet you at the airport?”
Step 4 Given a
picture of a Gila monster, the children will give it texture by using beads and
glue. They will be creating his scale pattern on his body.
Step 5 Next, the
children will write about the Gila monster using their level of writing skills.
Step 6 When all
children have finished, have the children read to the class what they wrote.
Step 7 Have the
children decide whether what they wrote is real or fantasy. Hang the pictures up
on a bulletin board, which is divided into Reality/Fantasy.
Activity 3:
Step 1 Introduce the Scientific
Experiment, and how to create a science board.
Step 2 Explain that we will be doing an
experiment on why can’t all plants live in the desert. Teacher will set up a
desert terrarium in front of the class. Teacher will discuss the dirt on the
bottom, then the rocks, then the pebbles, last the sand. As you place the
layers, have the children touch the various soils. Explain about erosion: the
wearing away of layers of rock by the wind, rain, and other elements.
Step 3 Next, talk about how a plant
stands. A plant uses a root to hold itself deep in the soil, and a stem to stand
in the air. A cactus has a root system that doesn’t go deep in the soil. Using
a coffee filter, lay the filter on top of the soil layers. Explain that this is
what the cactus roots are like.
Step 4 Now, take a blow dryer and gently
blow the filter. Explain that this is what the roots will do in the driest part
of the season, but during the rain, the roots soak up water and hold onto the
soil. Wet the coffee filter in the terrarium, and blow the filter again.
Step 5 Now, lift the filter and notice
that the soil under the filter is almost dry. The saguaro will soak up all of
the water with in an area. The saguaro soaks up the water like a straw. (You can
equate this to them holding a straw in their drink and traveling with the drink
to their mouth. You may want to do this with your class.)
Step 6 You may also want to do this neat
idea: Take a strip of construction paper. Give each child a piece. Have them
create a 3-D circle with it. Tape it, and fill it with beans, or something in
which they may count. Write down the number of beans.
Now, take the same strip and fold
the strip into one-inch squares, over/under. It should look like an accordion.
Next, place the beans inside. Watch as the beans push and expand the sides, in
order to hold more. This is the same way a cactus expands its’ sides to let in
more water. Did it hold the same amount of beans as the round version?
Step 7 Now, gently place various cacti,
in one side of the terrarium, in the other side place plants that like cooler
weather, and need water. (Pansies, corn, grass to name just a few. Use items
that your children can relate to.) Water all the plants. Place a heat lamp on
top of the terrarium explaining that cactus like the heat and sun. Also, place a
thermometer on the inside, where they can read the temperature daily.
Step 8 Have the children make a
prediction/hypothesis on what they think might take place in the terrarium. Post
their hypothesis on the science board.
Step 9 Every day the children will look
at the terrarium and note the temperature, which the class will chart. Also,
they will look at the soil for moisture, look at the plants for life. In about a
week, the cactus will still be living and the other plants should be dead or
dying.
Activity
4:
At this time, start to fill in the
missing parts to the experiment on your science board: Scientific Method,
Introduction, Hypothesis, Problem, Procedure, Materials, Data, Results,
Conclusion, and Application. Discuss as you fill out the board.
Activity
5:
Each child will choose one animal
or plant to write a short report about. They will be required to use at least
one book, one reference material such as an encyclopedia, and one computer
website information. They will gather their reference materials. They will be
assisted into organization of format. They will be assisted as needed in
sentence structure. They will create a page of information with a picture of
their selection. We, as a class will collect the papers into a book, and read it
to our class. We will use this book as a reference book for our culminating
activity.
Culminating
Activity:
Each child will create a diorama of
a desert, using the information that they have learned over the past two weeks.
They may use the class book, their reports, the experiment, the video,
and a web site. The diorama must include at least one animal, one plant to
create a true picture of a desert.
Cross
Curricular Activity:
SOCIAL STUDIES:
You can use this during Native American week, and talk about how people might
survive in the desert.
MATH:
You will count beans, you will measure temperature, and you will talk about
weather and climate. You will create charts.
LANGUAGE:
You will read, write and create sentences about the desert.
Community
Connections:
Visit one of the following
locations to observe plants and animals that might live in the desert:
Botanical Gardens of Corpus Christi
8545 S. Staples, Corpus Christi, TX 78413
361-852-7875
Gill Landscape Nursery 2810 Airline
Corpus Christi, TX 78414
361-992-9674
Turners Gardenland 6503 SPID
Corpus Christi, TX 78412
361-991-9002
Fox Nursery 5902 S. Staples
Corpus Christi, TX 78414
361-992-6928
Corpus Christi Museum of Natural
History- their landscaping is xeroscaped.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Texas A&M-Kingsville
Kingsville, TX-Cactus Festival – call their Chamber of Commerce or visit their
website
Student
Materials:
Research Paper guide
Gila Monster Page
Scientific Experiment words
MY RESEARCH GUIDE
The name of my animal/plant is_______________.
It lives in the ______________________________.
It needs _________________and _______________ to live.
It looks like ________________________________.
It is _________________color.
It eats_______________________.
It likes to __________________________________.
Describe something that is unique or special about your animal/plant.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Where did you get your
information?_______________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Draw a picture of your animal/plant.
SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT
Introduction
Materials
Problem
Procedure
Hypothesis
Data
Results
Conclusion
Application
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Updated: April 01, 2008
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