Lesson 1
Introduction
We started our unit be defining "habitat" as a place that is home to a living thing. We then closed our eyes and thought about the habitat of a beaver. We pictured where the beaver would live, the other living things in the habitat, the non-living things in the habitat and any threats that may exist in our habitat. When we were done we opened our eyes to discuss what we pictured. We then repeated the process with our own habitat. Our job for the remainder of class was to compare our habitat to that of a beaver. When we were done we were to start a title page for our unit.
Lesson 2
Needs of Living Things
Today we added to our definition of habitat to now include the fact that it must contain all things necessary for survival of the living thing. We read a bit of information from today's worksheet, and then discussed it in terms of the beaver example from last class. We then progressed through the remainder of the worksheet, checking our ideas with our peers as we went.
Lesson 3
Getting Energy
We started today with a review of what a habitat is, and then turned our discussion towards how living things get energy. The focus question was, "Do all living things get energy in the same way?" Our answer, of course, was no. Plants get energy from the sun, and animals get energy from eating. If we look at it in more detail, we noticed that even different animals get energy from different sources (plant vs. other animals). With these ideas in mind we read through some information that taught us five words: Producer, Consumer, Herbivore, Omnivore, and Carnivore. These are each explained on our worksheet.
Lesson 4
Food Chains
Our lesson today started with a review of the five words we learned last lesson. We then focused on how these different types of living things are connected. In our discussion we added two more words, predator (an animal who hunts food) and prey (an animal who gets hunted as food). We made sure to stress ANIMAL - plants are not prey, as they are not hunted. Our worksheet today showed us that we can represent the relationship amongst these living things in the form of a "food chain," which shows the list of living things in the sequence of which they are eaten. This is explained further on our worksheet.
Lesson 5
Making Food Chains
Over the next two periods we continued working with food chains. Before we got to our activity we pointed out some of the facts about food chains:
- All energy comes from the sun, but the sun is not included.
- All food chains start with a producer - they are the only things that can get the sun's energy.
- Food chains can only have one producer.
- All food chains end in a consumer, but not necessarily a carnivore.
Our task for these two periods was to choose an animal and make a food chain with it in it. We did this by using cue cards, one for each living thing. On one side we drew the living thing and wrote its name. Then, on the back we wrote the information about it (producer/consumer, predator/prey, etc). When complete, we strung the cards together with yarn.
Lesson 6
Food Webs
Because we were able to do such great work with food chains, we got the opportunity to try some advanced stuff. We discussed that a habitat is rarely as simple as a food chain shows, and that most animals have a varied diet (eating more than one type of food). We did a little bit of reading that showed us that we can take all of the food chains and combine them into a food web. The food web shows all of the information about the eating habits of the animals in the habitat. We then tried our hand and building a food web, but cutting out pictures of animals and using clues to try to connect them.
Lesson 7
Communities
Our topic for today was community. We started by discussing our thoughts on what "community" means. We found that most of our definitions were describing "habitat" and not "community". We then learned that community is a group of different species that share a habitat. On our worksheet today we read about some of the ways organisms interact in a habitat, and how the members of the community can help each other.
Lesson 8
Different Communities
We started class by talking about the different habits of a monkey and a scorpion. We talked about why they live in different areas, and what those areas offer that is different. We then looked at a few different habitats and discussed some factors that affect habitats. On our worksheet we discussed what might happen if certain changes occurred within the habitat.
Lesson 9
Adaptations
Our task today was to do some reading about how different organisms have changed to suit their habitat. Due to the volume of reading, we were presented with the option to read alone, or in groups. In the reading we learned that many organisms have special features that help them survive in their habitat. For the remainder of the period, and the following, we were to think of an animal who has an adaptation that helps it survive, and create a poster to present the animal and its adaptation.
At the end of class today we were given a note indicating we would have a quiz in one week's time. The note indicated that there are several definitions we need to be familiar with.
Lesson 10
Changing Habitats
Today's lesson talked about how frogs need water to lay their eggs, and what would happen in a dry spell. We were then divided into small groups and were given information about a species. We read the information, discussed how a change in the habitat is affecting the species, and then we rotated to the next page of information. Once we had rotated through all of the information we got into new groups and answered some discussion questions, which we later discussed as a class.
Lesson 11
Quiz
We used today's period to wrote our quiz. When we finished we used the time to finish up any incomplete work.
Lesson 12
Limits to Population
To start our lesson we sat down with a partner. We were asked to talk about an African savannah (like in Lion King). After a couple of minutes, discussing the details of the savannah, we were thrown a loop. We were to continue talking about the same savannah, but now we were to picture it with 3000 lions. After discussing with our partner, we talked about this scenario as a whole class, noting that by having so many lions, the habitat was very different. For our worksheet today we were given a card that explained a habitat. We discussed this habitat with a small group and recorded some of our thoughts, then we were given a second card to discuss and record. Each group then explained their scenarios to the class. To finish class groups worked together to answer the remaining questions on the worksheet.
Lesson 13
Human Dependency on Natural Habitats
I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I have not planned what I would do.
The expectations is to "describe ways in which humans are dependent on natural habitats and communities."
Lesson 14
Human Affects
I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I have not planned what I would do.
The expectations is to "analyse the positive and negative impacts of human interactions with natural habitats and communities, taking different perspectives into account, and evaluate ways of minimizing the negative impacts."
Lesson 15
Disappearing Species
I did not get around to teaching this lesson, so I have not planned what I would do.
The expectations is to "identify reasons for the depletion or extinction of a plant or animal species, evaluate the impacts on the rest of the natural community, and propose possible actions for preventing such depletions or extinctions from happening."