Set up outdoor field trips on school grounds to investigate the types of animals living in your area. Students identify various animals by direct signs and sight. For example, students may hear cicada and see abandoned skins hanging on trees or structures, but not see the actual insect. Create small groups of three to four students and have the group choose and learn about one animal’s appearance, life cycle, home, foods and predators. Each group puts together a project board to educate classmates about their animal. The class may create a composite picture of the local environment and label where various animals make their home and where students can observe them.
Use websites, videos and other media to explore exotic animal environments. For example, view a program on the ocean to learn about the various animals that live there. Students compare the various animals and determine what characteristics they share to survive in the same environment. For example, many animals living in the ocean possess gills to extract oxygen from the water. Students may explore how some of the animals live in symbiotic relationship. Alternatively, students may map the food chain in the environment and how various prey hide from predators.
Students study the characteristics of biomes and determine what kinds of animals prefer each environment. Have students look at the characteristics of animals and how they adapt to their primary environment. For example, camels have long eyelashes that help protect their eyes against blowing sand and nostrils they can close to keep from breathing in the sand. Students compare how various species of an animal adapt to life in different environments, such as how the Galapagos penguins living in the topics differs from the emperor penguins living in Antarctica. Students could match animals with their preferred biome based on physical characteristics, type of home and food source.
Using classroom pets such as gerbils, snakes or birds, students learn how animals adapt to captive environments. Students compare the confines of the classroom enclosure to the animal’s natural environment. Have the students make a list of the necessary elements the owner must provide for the animal to survive in captivity. Students may extend the lesson by comparing the various ways zoos create habitat exhibits for their animals. One comparison includes how wildlife parks where the animals run free differ from zoos where all animals live in cages.