REPTILES Rachel Cox
Social Studies Unit
Dr. Jay Monson
4/21/00
Kindergarten
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCHEMATIC WEB 1
UNIT GOALS 2
INITIATION ACTIVITY 3
5 UNIT LESSONS 4 - 8
CULMINATING ACTIVITY 9
ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES 10
RESOURCES 11
UNIT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The children will become familiar with reptiles as they see pictures and real life reptiles
The children will begin to understand where reptiles live as we discuss habitat
The children will understand what reptiles live in Utah as we place reptiles on a map of Utah.
The students will be able to tell the teacher what the characteristics of a reptile are.
The students will gain a greater understanding on cold-blooded animals and that most reptiles are hatched from eggs.
The children will gain greater math, science, reading, and art skills through integrated activities.
By the time I went to my kindergarten class for practicum, my teacher informed me that they had already finished Social Studies for the year. She did give me a list of subjects that they would be covering for the weeks I was there. She was just beginning to talk about mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. I was a little concerned about trying to fit a unit in on one of these subjects. I decided to go with reptiles. I observed her class and noticed that on Tuesdays and Thursdays she had three centers set up. I decided to keep in with her format. Because my teacher was behind when the week rolled around for me to do my unit I only ended up doing one lesson, my Friday lesson.
DAY ONE:
INITIATION ACTIVITY:
WHAT IS A REPTILE?
I read to the class Mama Don’t Allow and we talk about what makes a reptile a reptile. We discuss things like cold-blooded, eggs, scaly skin, and many other characteristics of reptiles. We list as many reptiles as we saw in the story and as many others that we can.
ALTERNIT INITIATION ACTIVITIES:
Watch Reading Rainbow Mama Don’t Allow
Watch Reading Rainbow And Still the Turtle Watched
Hurd, T (1984). Mama Don’t Allow. New York; Harper & Row
DAY TWO:
REPTILE COLLAGE
I will read The Salamander Room. We will talk about the different habitats that reptiles can live in. Then they will break up into their tables.
Each table will be given a stack of magazines, mostly National Geographics. They will look through the magazines and find and cut out reptiles. They will also have a piece of paper with a habitat on it, desert or jungle, and the students can glue on the paper the reptiles they cut out.
OTHER ACITVITIES:
Watch Reading Rainbow’s The Salamander Room
Read I Wish I Could Fly and talk about protective covering.
Mazer, A (1998). The Salamander Room. New York; Random House.
Maris, R (1986). I Wish I Could Fly. New York; Scholastic Inc.
DAY THREE:
CENTER 1: SORTING
By this time the children are familiar with the unique characteristics of mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. At this center the children will be given a bucket of plastic animals that can be sorted into the three categories of mammal, reptile, or amphibian.
CENTER 2: READING
At this center the children will have a variety of books of reptiles. The books will be both of the informative type and of the children’s book type. There will be several books on tape for the children to listen to while they read them. (See resource list for list of books)
CENTER 3: REPTILE GRAPH
Each child will have a piece of paper with a graph on it. The graph will list snake, turtle, alligator, and iguana. There will be a paper bag on the table with pictures of the above animals. Children will take a turn pulling out a picture and coloring a corresponding square on their graph.
ALTERNIT CENTER: REPTILE CHALKING
Outside the children can take sidewalk chalk to draw pictures of the reptiles we have been learning about.
DAY FOUR:
REPTILES IN UTAH
When the children gather at the rug there will be a large poster in the shape of Utah. A mini review will take place while we discuss what sets a reptile apart from amphibians and mammals. Then we will begin to talk about what type of reptiles live in Utah. The children will be given pictures of reptiles that live in Utah and we will place them on the map in the area where we could find them. We will talk about how the reptiles we have place on the map are native to Utah, but there are many reptiles that have been brought in to Utah as pets, like iguanas.
OTHER ACTIVITIES:
Watch National Geographic Animals and How They Grow.
DAY FIVE:
CENTER 1: REPTILE MAPS
The children will be given a map of Utah and small pictures of reptiles. They can color the map and the pictures if they want. They then will place the pictures on the map where they belong. The map from the day before will still be displayed as a helper to the students.
CENTER 2: CREATE YOUR OWN REPTILE
Based on what we have learned about the characteristics of reptiles, the children will be given materials to create their own reptile. They need to know that most reptiles are hatched from eggs, are cold blooded, and have scaly skin. They also need to show in their reptile some of these characteristics.
CENTER 3: JOURNALING
Each child will bring out his or her journals and write in it what they have learned about reptiles and draw a picture of their favorite reptiles. Each child already had his or her own journal and is already familiar with how to use it.
ALTERNIT CENTER: FILMSTRIP
Watch Gila Monsters Meet You At the Airport
DAY SIX:
CREATE HABITAT FOR REPTILE
Today the class will be getting a new class pet, an Annola. Annolas are small lizards that change from green to brown depending on what they are sitting on. What the class will do is create a habitat in an aquarium for our new pet. Each table will be responsible for a different item. Table one will be in chare of the ground covering. Table two will be in charge of the plants in the aquarium. Table three will be in charge of the background of the aquarium; the backside of the aquarium needs to be covered in a decorative manner. Lastly, table four will be in charge of the water and food containers.
The last thing we will do is all write down the names we want for our new Annola and put them into a can. The name will be picked out at the end of the day.
OTHER ACTIVITIES:
Reading Center on lizards
Read Eric Carle’s The Very Confused Chameleon
DAY SEVEN:
CULMINATING ACTIVITY
VISITOR
The children will gather at the rug for unit time. They already know that we will be having a guest, but they do not know who it is. I will read to them Gila Monsters meet you at the Airport. After we have read the book I will explain the rules of our guest. Because our guest is shy, we need to stay in our spots and remain quiet; we can ask questions after our guest is done talking, and other such rules. Our guest is a friend and his huge iguana. There is about 15 minutes left in unit time so Jason will tell them about his iguana. He can tell them where it lives, what it eats, and other such information. After about 10 minutes the time is turned over to the class to ask questions.
ALTERNIT CULMINATING ACTIVITIES:
Dale Ashcroft from Willow Park Zoo could bring some reptiles from the zoo.
Take an actual trip to the zoo to see the reptiles.
Borrow 3rd grade’s class turtle to visit our class for the day.
Sharmat, M. W. (1980). Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport. New York;
Macmillian.
ASSESSMENT
It is harder to do assessment with the younger children, so I tried to work assessment in as more of an observation. On the first day we as a class discussed what makes a reptile a reptile. At one of the centers the next day the children will be sorting animals into the different categories. If a child has a firm grasp on what a reptile is he or she can at least sort all the reptiles together. By watching the children sort the animals I would be able to see if they understand the characteristics of a reptile.
On the fourth day we will be placing on a map reptiles that live in Utah. The next day in center time the students will be doing this by themselves. If they have an understanding of what reptiles live in Utah, then I know that they understood and learned from the activity the day before.
Finally on the last day when our guest comes to visit, I will listen to the types of questions the children ask, to see if what they are asking are relative to what we are learning the whole weeklong.
RESOURCES
COMMUNITY:
Dale Ashcroft
Willow Park Zoo
INTERNET:
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LIBRARY:
Carle, E. (1975). The Mixed-Up Chameleon. Singapore; Harper Collins
Hakes, T. (1980). The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash. New York; Dial Press.
Hurd, T. (1984). Mama Don’t Allow. New York; Harper &Row
Johnston, G. & Cutching, J. (1988). Scaly Babies. New York; Morrow Junior
Books.
Maris, R. (1986). I Wish I could Fly. New York; Scholastic Inc.
Martin, L. (1989). Turtles. Vero Beach; Rourke Enterprises, Inc.
Martin, L. (1989). Lizards. Vero Beach; Rourke Enterprises, Inc.
Martin, L. (1989). Iguanas. Vero Beach; Rourke Enterprises, Inc.
Martin, L. (1989). Komodo Dragons. Vero Beach; Rourke Enterprises, Inc.
Martin, L. (1989). Chameleons. Vero Beach; Rourke Enterprises, Inc.
Martin, L. (1989). Alligators. Vero Beacg; Rourke Enterprises, Inc.
Mazer, A. (1998). The Salamander Room. New York; Random House.
McCarthy, C. (1991). Reptile. New York; Alfred A. Knopf
Scharmat, M. W. (1980). Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport. New York;
Macmillian.
AUDIO VISUAL
National Geographic Society (1976). Animals and How They Grow.
Reading Rainbow (1998). The Salamander Room. GPN/WNED-TV
Reading Rainbow (1998). Mama Don’t Allow. GPN/WNED-TV
Reading Rainbow (1998). Gila Monsters Meet You At the Airport.
GPN/WNED-TV
Reading Rainbow (1998). And Still the Turtle Watched. GPN/WNED-TV