Having Fun with Habitats

One of my favorite units to teach in science is habitats.  I think over the years I've gotten better and better at incorporating all of the subjects within my habitat unit.  The books in the carousel above are perfect for any habitat unit, especially because of the new Common Core Standards.  I love them because of the realistic, vivid illustrations and the simple, factual text on each page.  My students were really engaged as we read these books to them, and they asked many intelligent questions that led to more in-depth study about sharks, scorpions, and poisonous frogs and snakes.

I really like starting my lesson off with the songs "Habitat" by Walkin' Jim Stoltz, "Habitat Scat" by Mar Harman, and "Habitat Homes" by Dr. Jean.  I then read one of the habitat books from the carousel above.  Next I use a giant graphic organizer, either on a chart with realistic pictures or on the floor with plastic animals.  Here is a lesson plan that I think will thoroughly describe exactly what I do.  We have to do full-out lesson plans at our school, and this lesson plan was especially tweaked for an ESOL class that I'm taking.  I hope it's useful.

Final Lesson Plan - Sharon Dudley - Habitat by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

I wanted to do some writing mixed with science, and I found that my students kept asking me how to spell the names of animals found in the various habitats that we were doing.  I decided to make sentence starters with word banks so that I could really concentrate on circulating around the room and finding out if my children understood what a habitat was.  The papers worked beautifully.  Here is a sample of one that you can use with your kids:

Animal Habitat Writing Prompt Desert by Sharon A Blachowicz Dudley

I put up a whole Animal Habitat Unit on TPT including a writing prompt for a multitude of habitats and some graphic organizers.  If you buy this unit, here are some teaching tips to make things run really smoothly.  The first day that I used one of these writing prompts, a few of my students decided to rewrite the initial prompt.  I should have modeled for them on the Visualizer how to complete the prompt.  I learned my lesson, however, and I did that every day after the first time.  After the first writing prompt, I pulled some samples to show to the students.  I sort of used them as anchor charts to help the students to know what a high score would look like and what I expected from them.  My students caught on really quickly.  They started critiquing each other's work.  I heard comments such as "Oh, if you want a good grade on that you have to use more color," and "Maybe you could label your picture; Mrs. Dudley might like that."

Finally, here are a few Animal Habitat Books that you might want to take a look at.

Please let me know what you think, or if you have any questions.

Super Science and Social Studies

"What's Alive" by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

I really enjoy writing posts about science and social studies, because it's so necessary for logical thinking and problem solving, which are big parts of the core curriculum.  The book What's Alive by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is beautiful for kindergarten.  It's appealing and factual at the same time.  It talks about similarities and differences between us (people) and plants and animals.  It very clearly states what living things need to stay alive.  I also like how the girl in the story has a wall display of living and non-living things at the end of the story, and how she talks about things that were once alive but not anymore (such as a plant that has wilted, or a bird that has fallen from a nest).

A fabulous song to use with this book is Dr. Jean's "Basic Needs".  It's sung to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", but it talks about different animals (including people) and what we need to stay alive.  I don't know about you, but I love matching books to songs.

Here is a graphic organizer that I will use as an assessment for my students after I do some sorting of magazine pictures.

Living Nonliving Graphic Organizer

Please let me know what you think of this graphic organizer, and if you'd like me to make more for units dealing with needs and wants of living things.  If you'd like to look at other graphic organizers in my TPT shop, check out my Animal Graphic Organizers or Motion and Matter Graphic Organizers.

I just remembered two other really great songs for a living things unit: "Growing" by Hap Palmer and "I am a Flower" by Jack Hartmann.

Rockin' Resources Linky Party

Kelly Dolling over at Teacher Idea Factory is having a great Rockin' Resources Linky Party, and this is so timely for me because I just got back from a week-long Lego Education conference in Kansas City!  I have used Duplo and Lego products in my classroom for years.  I love the way the kids are so motivated and excited to learn math, science, language and social skills that are essential in kindergarten and in pre-k.  At the convention I found out that they make many great products that I never heard about.

1. Duplo Early Simple Machines

Duplo Early Simple Machines

I feel that science should not just be something that is talked about, but that the children should have their hands on the materials, actually seeing and feeling how things work.  What better way to teach about Simple Machines such as pulleys, levers, gears, wheels and axles than to experiment and build with working parts?

2. Duplo Wild Animals

Duplo Wild Animals

The Wild Animals Set is also absolutely fabulous for combining language and science in a uniquely special way.  Children can build different habitats while cooperating with others and having a tremendous amount of fun at the same time.  I know it's a big investment, but this product will last forever.  I have worked with Duplo products and the kids can't break them because it's hard plastic.

3. Measuring Motors

Measuring Motors

A friend bought me Measuring Motors for my birthday and I can't wait to use it in kindergarten this year.  Measuring toys are so hard to find.  This one is so kid-friendly!  It's rubber cars in three different lengths (small, medium and large) with tracks.  Children can place different combinations of cars on the tracks to see how many 1-inch cars it takes to fill the track, how many 2-inch cars it takes, and how many 3-inch cars - or a combination of them.  I like this toy because it shows the children that there's more than one way to arrive at an answer to a problem.  I hate it when students are not allowed to find different solutions to problems.  The cars also come in different colors so they can additionally be used for sorting and patterning.  This is such a multi-purpose tool for mathematics!

4. King School Books

King School Books

These King School books are simply phenomenal.  The books portray friendly, multicultural kids in a kindergarten or first grade setting, depending on the reading level of your students.  Another great thing about these books is that the characters repeat throughout the stories.  So your children are so excited to see Derek or Jasmin in their kindergarten classroom, and then later as they progress in reading they can see those same characters in first grade.  The topics the author chose to write about are things that kindergarten and first grade children actually experience.  If you buy the set, it also comes with a teacher manual, a poster and storage bins.

I'm very curious to know how many of you use Duplo or Lego in your classroom, and what you use.  Please leave a comment below.  I would greatly appreciate it!

Over in the Ocean

"Over In The Ocean" Book Cover

When I could still see a few years ago, I thought the pictures in Over in the Ocean by Jack Hartmann were simply gorgeous.  It's very much like the book Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats.  I think it's a wonderful book because it can be used it to teach habitats, one-to-one correspondence up to ten, new vocabulary, sequencing, and numeral recognition.  Another nice thing about this book is that it changes which family member is talking to the sea creatures each time.  On one page it might be a mommy, on another page a daddy, on other pages an auntie, stepmom, etc.  It covers 10 different family relationships in all.  Jack Hartmann has also written a beautiful song called "Over in the Ocean" that matches the book perfectly and encourages your students to perform different motions such as paddle, dive, slither, hunt, and more.  I believe that this really helps them to stay focused on the book.

Here is a guided reading book (approximately DRA level 1) that you could use with your kiddos:
What Lives in the Ocean

If you're not aware that National Geographic has a great link for kids, please check this out:

Animals on National Geographic for Kids

From this site you can show your children great videos, play real animal sounds, view maps that show where each animal lives in the world, and print out fact cards for animals from any habitats that you're studying.  I even used this site with pre-k, and my children were so excited by the videos, especially the one showing baby scorpions climbing all over their mother!  I was sort of glad I couldn't see it - it was creeping me out just hearing about it!

This is a unique graphic organizer your kids can use to place things below and above the water.  The first page is a model that they can color in, and the following pages provide opportunities to cut and paste.
Ocean Above and Below

Coloring by numbers was one of my favorite activities when I was five years old.  It just seemed so magical to me - I don't know why.  Here are two color-by-number papers that are ocean-related:
Color by Number Fish

Finally, if you're looking for a great way to save money, I made a few free table nameplates that are on TPT, including dolphins and happy faces:

Dolphin and Happy Face Nameplates

If you prefer a free butterfly nameplate that also has numbers 1 to 20 and the alphabet, pick it up from Teacher's Notebook here:

Butterfly Nameplates

As always, I LOVE hearing from all of you.  Please feel free to leave a comment, critique, or question below.

Fun Farm Freebies

Doreen Cronin is hysterical!  If you have not read any of these books with your children, you are missing a fabulous, fun-filled story time.  My kids crack up, whether they're pre-k or kindergarten.  The book that started the whole series is Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type.  This book is such a great springboard for having your children write letters to Farmer Brown, to each other, or to you about what they would like in their classroom that they don't already have.  Duck For President provides a really timely social studies link about the electoral process.

For guided reading, I've used the following two books as a science/reading integrated experience.  We read the books and then use them as models for making their graphic organizer (also available for download below).  I have used these books and this graphic organizer for their independent writing time and as a science center activity.  My children really feel independent when they can look back in the books and find the answers for themselves.  If you like this type of thing, I just put up a brand new Farm Animal Unit on TPT that's packed with 141 pages of terrific guided reading books, graphic organizers, games, and writing experiences.

Things at the Farm Living
Things at the Farm Non-Living
Farm Graphic Organizers Living Nonliving

My post would not be complete if I didn't share with you some really fun farm songs that'll have your kids dancing and "moo"-ing all over the room!  "What Word Makes Sense" by Jack Hartmann is really cool because the children have to fill in a line of the song with a rhyming word.  Here's an example: "There's a cow whose name is Sue.  She eats some grass and then says ____ (moo)."  "Down On The Farm" by Greg & Steve is just a kid-pleasing song.  They really get into saying the different sounds that the animals make.  Finally, Dr. Jean, my favorite artist, does a song called "Color Farm" where the children spell the color words of the animals in the song.  If you've never heard this song, it's so wonderful for teaching color words in an upbeat, active manner!

Enjoy the farm freebies!

Life Cycles and More

Spring is a time of growth for lots of living things, and there are so many wonderful stories and factual books about this subject.  I love comparing and contrasting books with my children.  I use simple Venn diagrams to record my students' responses on 8.5"x11" paper, then turn that into a large poster board with the students' names and what they said.  You can use these responses to show comprehension growth over the school year. The students also love seeing these Venn diagrams in Science Center and reading what they and their classmates said.

"There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick" by Lucille Colandro

I also use books such as There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick by Lucille Colandro to teach sequencing and to compare this story to other versions in the "Old Lady Who..." series that we've read.  My students love announcing to me "Didn't you know, Mrs. Dudley?  This book is like that clover book!"  And inevitably, someone else says "Or it's like that lady who swallowed some snow and stuff!"  Then they all start talking and telling me how it's like about eight other "Old Lady Who..." books.  You see, I collect all of them and I love when the children make text-to-text connections.  So, I just let them talk about it with a partner until the excitement dies down, and then I pull out the real objects from the story and see if they can tell me which object she swallowed first.  I use real objects because it's the best way for young children to learn new vocabulary words.  It's also so much more meaningful when you can use your five senses to touch, see, smell, and even taste things that you're learning about.  After the children experience the real objects, you can place these pictures in a center, with velcro or magnets on the back, and have your students sequence them.  You can also have them cut them out and sequence them on sentence strips.

Old Lady Swallowed Chick Sequence

Two really cool songs about chickens that I found are both available on iTunes: "Little Baby Chick Chick" by DB Harriss and Melissa Hooker and "Chicken Dance" by Kids Sing.  They're both loads of fun.

If you need life cycle sequencing cards for frogs, chickens, ducks, plants, or butterflies, check out my Life Cycle Package on TPT!