Rock Residents: What Lives Under a Rock?

1. Help students become aware that animals live in communities, just as people do
2. Reinforce our third grade vocabulary word, habitat.(From a prior science lesson, the students would have previously made dioramas of habitats using empty tissue boxes. These habitat dioramas are required to include a food chain, which we would also discuss on our nature walk.)
3. Bring awareness to students of which animals live in a forest, especially those whose habitat is under or near a rock

This lesson is intended for a third grade classroom over a period of three days. I would request the help of at least one parent volunteer to accompany us on our nature walk.

I would read aloud and discuss the story with the children on the first day. In the second lesson, we would go on our nature walk searching for small animals listed in the story to draw and/or write about in our nature journals. On the third day of this lesson, I would have students share what they have written about and illustrated in their nature journals.

Vocabulary:

-Community

-Habitat

-Observation

-Non-fiction

-Field notes

-Resources

Materials:

-The book, "Under One Rock: Bugs, Slugs, and Other Ughs," by Anthony D. Fredericks
-Nature journals, one per student
-Lap boards
-Pencils, colored pencils, crayons, markers
-Plastic spoons or popsicle sticks for digging
-Magnifying glasses
-First aid kit

Having the students share individually what they noticed on our walk and recorded in their nature journals would be their final assessment. I would model the appropriate way of speech delivery by sharing what I had observed, written, and drawn in my own nature journal.

1a. History & Nature of Science
Scientific world view: science is a tool to examine the world