Sea World
Whales
A whale of a lesson is sure to intrigue your elementary oceanographers! Learn about the mammals of the sea with a series of activities about whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Kids complete worksheets about the anatomy of a whale, create a...
Curated OER
2nd Grade - Act. 23: Sprout Houses
Read the story "Sunflower House," by Eve Bunting with your 2nd graders to investigate the relationships between plants and animals. They will discover how living things change during their lives by creating their own sprout houses. In...
Curated OER
Give Me Five!
Students become familiar with their five senses and how their experiences would change without them. In this observations lesson, students observe using their five senses in a garden. Students illustrate what they've observed and share...
Curated OER
Barnyard Bingo
Students explore farm animal sounds. They sing a song that introduces them to the sounds of farm animals. Students create animal bingo cards to help them recognize the correct sounds for each of the farm animals. They discuss the types...
Curated OER
Virtual Nature Walk
Students use the internet to take a virtual nature walk. Identifying animals found in specific forest habitats, they list their characteristics. They research various animals using the internet and create a PowerPoint slideshow with the...
Curated OER
Visual Messages: Creating a Photomontage
Learners create a photomontage. In this instructional activity on photography as a means of conveying emotion, students use images gathered from the Internet to create a photomontage comparing how water is used in Africa and the U.S.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Numbers Are Made of Parts
Children play with barnyard animal cards to practice composing and decomposing numbers. With their "secret number" of animal cards in a cup, they shake and spill them onto a barn story board, counting how many animals fall in the barn...
Curated OER
Can You Do It? I Can Do It!
Students imitate the same movements that different animals would make.
Curated OER
Vacancy: Habitats Available!
Sixth graders pick a native animal and write a classified housing ad to match the animal's habitat requirements, paste it on posterboard and then try to match each habitat with the animal it represents.
Curated OER
Who Says Plants Can't Move?
Students discover how plants spread their seeds using other plants and animals. In this plant activity, students role play different plants and how their seeds travel. Students then have a class discussion to ensure their understanding.
Curated OER
Pets Around the World
Students communicate via e-mail with other students to learn about pets, animals of interest , and geography from different parts of the world. Vocabulary focuses on rural, urban, and suburban areas.
Curated OER
Creative Classroom Creatures
Students are introduced to the five kingdoms and discover why there is a need for a classification system. Using the internet, they examine how scientific names are created and practice putting animals into their correct classification....
Curated OER
Ugly? Says Who?
Students explore biology by writing animal poetry in class. In this animal characteristics lesson, students research the Internet for facts about an "ugly" animal such as a bug or small critter. Students complete worksheets about animal...
Curated OER
How Does It Move?
Students listen to the song, The Wheels on the Bus. They attempt to sing the song again, but change it for a tractor. They watch the book, A Visit With Grandma, through a projector, LCD panel, or big screen television and develop their...
Curated OER
Planting Seeds Around the World
First graders discuss the book The Lorax and research what living things need. In this environmental lesson, 1st graders investigate how humans affect the growth of plants. Students conduct an experiment with sunflowers.
Curated OER
Biosecurity Keeps Everyone Safe
Students evaluate websites and determine whether they are valid or invalid resources regarding the topic of infectious diseases and animals. They explore a variety of websites, write a research paper about biosafety, and complete a...
Curated OER
Disease Prevention and HIV/AIDS Education
Students discuss communicable and non-communicable diseases, and how germs travel from person to person through the air, on objects, in body fluids, and on animals and insects. They take a short quiz.
Curated OER
What is Wrong with My Pet? - An Introduction to Zoonoses
Learners describe how ringworm and roundworm cause diseases in both humans and animals. In this life science lesson, students research how these diseases can be transmitted. They create an information brochure to promote public awareness...
Curated OER
The Dinosaur Body
Students recognize that body design affects balance. They investigate the basic structure of a dinosaur body to see how it achieved balance, then build any dinosaur body system they want, using small marshmallows and extra straws as needed.
Curated OER
Hatched From An Egg
Students discover how animals are born/hatched. In this life science instructional activity, students listen to a book entitled Chickens Aren't The Only Ones, and discuss animals that are hatched or born. Students receive a picture of...
Curated OER
Too Bee Or Not To Bee
Students recognize that bees are important in the reproduction of plants and to the survival of animals. In this bee lesson plan, students become familiar with the parts of bees and how those adaptations help them pollinate plants....
Curated OER
A Zoo Book for All
A visit to the local zoo launches an integrated life science/ language arts research project into the habitat, feeding habits, offspring, lifespan, and other interesting facts about animals. Each group selects two animals to photograph...
American Museum of Natural History
Being a Conservation Biologist: Eleanor Sterling
Eleanor Sterling responds to 21 questions posed by young learners about the challenges she faces as a woman conservation biologist. She also discusses her research of the aye-aye, an unusual animal that lives in Madagascar.
Curated OER
Investigating Local Ecosystems
Students investigate the habitats of local plants and animals. They explore some of the ways animals depend on plants and each other. Students observe living organisms in a local ecosystem and create detailed drawings and descriptions...