1. Language Arts activities will include a visit to the school library, story time to share animal books, creative writing time to generate stories about animals, weekly spelling lists of words related to animal life unit. (i.e. zoo, tiger, snake, etc.)
2. Math activities will include story problems with animals in them, numbered dot-to-dot pictures, practice in oral counting with pictures or manipulatives of animals.
3. Art activities will include painting/drawing animals, creating original animals and naming them, making clay animals, and coloring animal pictures.
4. Social Studies activities will include finding the location of animals habitat on a world map and discussing countries where habitats are located.
5.General activities will include animal puzzles, games (students will imitate animals), riddles, matching paw prints to animal, making predictions about animals students will see at the National Zoo.
On-Site Activities:
1. Identify animal paw prints walking throughout the zoo.
2. Visit Elephant House for daily grooming of the elephants.
3. Take photos of children with animals.
4. Students will find animals at the zoo that begins with the same letter on an index card hanging around their neck/waist. Parent volunteer writes animal name on the card.
5. Lunch and bathroom break.
6. Parent volunteer reads informational signs to students
7. Students will watch animals and take turns finding outstanding characteristics about the animal.
Follow-Up Activities:
1. Discuss field trip with class.
2. Draw a picture of favorite animal.
3. Class creates a "Zoo Book" for the classroom
4. Students write a story to go with photograph of them at the zoo.
5. Check to see if student predictions about animals were true.
6. Students share index card with class and discuss list of animals.
7. Students will meet the objectives set for the Animal Life Unit. the testing for the mastery of the objectives will be oral (i.e. class/individual discussion) given the grade level of student. There should be an increase in the number of responses the student provides from the pre-visit test.
8. Display stories on bulletin board that go with photographs.
9. Create animal dictionary with picture and characteristics of animals. Share book with other classes and then place it in student book section of the school library.
Appendices:
None.
Bibliography:
None.
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