PLANTS & ANIMALS: WHAT DID WE SEE?
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Overview
In this lesson students will be introduced to the world's ecosystems. They will create a class book about an ecosystem based on the patterned rhyming and repetitive text of Bill Martin Jr.'s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
GRADE LEVEL
Kindergarten
OBJECTIVES
Students will do the following:
- Actively listen to audio information using Internet resources
- Summarize information by retelling
- Make connections between new information and prior knowledge
- Write a class book that exhibits an understanding of an ecosystem
SUBJECT AREAS
Language Arts, Science
INTERNET LINKS
Bookmark the following Web sites:
MATERIALS
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
- 9x12 oak tag (Quantity will depend on the number of books you write.)
- Colored pencils
BUILDING BACKGROUND
Activity One: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
In the days leading up to this lesson, read Bill Martin Jr.'s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? This will familiarize students with the book's patterned rhyming and repetitive text.
Activity Two: Exploring EekoWorld
Share the EekoWorld Ecosystem stories, found in the Environment section of the EekoWorld Web site, with your students. Before visiting the ecosystems, activate students' prior knowledge by engaging them in a discussion regarding what they already know about the different ecosystems.
As you view the different ecosystems, confirm students' prior knowledge and ask them what new information they have learned about the ecosystem.
Steps
Activity One: Creating A Class Book
Step 1
Explain to students that they are going to write a class What Did We See? book about one of the ecosystems they visited on the EekoWorld site. Read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Ask students to point out patterns and repetitions that appear in the story. Explain to students that their What Did We See? book will contain the same pattern found in the Brown Bear book.
Step 2
Choose one ecosystem on which the book will be based. Tell students to imagine that they are standing in the ecosystem and to think about some of the things that they might see. Tell students that they are going to replace the words Brown Bear, Brown Bear with their own name and add something that a person would see in the ecosystem.
Example: Student name, Student name what did you see?
I saw a (color) - (animal, plant or other noun) - (looking or other verb i.e. blowing) at me.
The following is an example of what students might say if they are writing a book about the desert:
Gina, Gina what do you see?
I see a green toad croaking at me.
Richard, Richard what do you see?
I see some brown sand blowing at me.
Step 3
Ask students for ideas about what they would see in the ecosystem to include in the book. Record the suggestions on the board or a piece of chart paper.
Teacher Note: You may need to create more than one book in order for every student to write a page. If this is the case, choose a different ecosystem for each book that you create. You may also choose to bring in additional pictures of the ecosystem or look at photographs on the Internet to help generate material for the book.
Step 4
Each book will contain six student-generated statements about what they saw in the ecosystem. Print the statements onto a piece of paper, cut them apart and glue them onto the corresponding page of the book. Pass out blank pieces of paper on which students will illustrate the text from the story. Select students to create the front and back covers and the title page. Use the provided template to construct the book.
Book Construction Steps
- Create the front and back covers and title page. (What Did We See?)
- Create the text pages. See template.
- Cut out the numbered squares.
- Glue the text strips on the corresponding pages. Page one contains the first line of text, and is placed on the left hand side. (ex. Gina, Gina what do you see?) Page two contains the first cut-out hole and the response text. (ex. I see a green toad croaking at me.)
- Glue the illustrations of what the student saw on the last page of the book.
- When you get to the final page of the book, all of the shapes have been cut through all of the pages, and the illustrations are all visible.
- Continue in this manner until the last page.
- The last page might contain the words," Class, class what did we see? We saw a…" Write the names of the objects under the corresponding illustrations.
- Bind the pages together.
Step 5
Host a book party after completing the book.
EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Create a class mural for each ecosystem and display them around the room.
STANDARDS
McRel Standards
Science
Standard 6. Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment
Level 1 [Grade: K-2]
1. Knows that plants and animals need certain resources for energy and growth (e.g., food, water, light, air)
2. Knows that living things are found almost everywhere in the world and that distinct environments support the life of different types of plants and animals
Language Arts
Standard 1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
Level 1 [Grade: K-2]
7. Writes in a variety of forms or genres (e.g., picture books, friendly letters, stories, poems, information pieces, invitations, personal experience narratives, messages, responses to literature)
8. Writes for different purposes (e.g., to entertain, inform, learn, communicate ideas)
Standard 5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
Level 1 [Grade: K-2]
6. Understands level-appropriate sight words and vocabulary (e.g., words for persons, places, things, actions; high frequency words such as said, was, and where)
8. Reads aloud familiar stories, poems, and passages with fluency and expression (e.g., rhythm, flow, meter, tempo, pitch, tone, intonation)
