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Meg

ARCTIC & ANTARCTIC UNIT STUDY

Text:
Arctic & Antarctic:eyewitness

Extra Books from library about:
Eskimos
Arctic Animals
Antarctica

Activities:
Map work of the Arctic & Antarctic
Iceberg experiment.
Crafts from book Make it Work! Arctic People
Effects of an Oil Spill experiment
Experiment to clean up oil spill
Draw Write Now 4 The Polar Regions

Discussion:
Talk about the two poles and locate them on a map.
Talk about why their winters are dark all the time and why the sun is shining all summer.
Talk about why trees don't grow on the tundra.
Talk about icebergs and how they are a hazard to ships, Titanic.
Talk about the differences between the Arctic and Antarctic.
Could we survive in the Antarctic or Arctic?
How would our lifestyle change?
Talk about the life in the ocean. How the cold would affect the life.
Talk about migration. Look on the globe to see how far some whales and snow geeses migrate.
Talk about why animals migrate.
Look at the pictures of Musk Ox and talk about how they can survive the cold weather all winter.
Talk about how and wy animals have to changes and the kind of changes different animals make.
What are some of the things we do to adapt to winter?
Could penguins survive in the Arctic?
Could polar bears survive in the Antarctic?


Anita W

PILGRIMS

1. Learn about who the Pilgrims were and why they wanted to come to America.

2. What was it like on the Mayflower?

3. Daily life of a Pilgrim.

4. The First Thanksgiving.

Books
Dear America: A Journey to a New World 1620
Eating the Plates: A Pilgrims Book of Food and Manners - Lucille Recht Penner
Sarah Morton's Day - Kate Waters
Samuel Eaton's Day - Kate Waters
If you sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 - Ann McGovern
The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving - Ann McGovern

Activities
http://www.scholastic.com/dearamerica/activities/crafts/journey_bonnet.htm
http://www.scholastic.com/dearamerica/activities/crafts/journey_gingcake.htm

Movies
Video - William Bradford: The First Thanksgiving
Video - Early Settlers (American History for children series)

Lesson Plan # 1:
Get an empty 2 liter bottle for each child or use just one for a sort of "class" project. Go online and print out intructions for how to make a terrarium, use any site you can find or like most. Then go out and find all the dirt, sand, plant life and rocks that you will need for the terrarium. You will need to cut the bottle into and layer the contents as shown in the proper instructions that you will find on the net. Then when you have all the contents inside make sure you add about a half cup of water and put the two parts of the bottle together, they should easily fit inside one another. Make sure the cap is on and set your terrarium in the sun. Have the kids track the weather system inside the terrarium each day. You will be able to see it sort of "rain inside. It is very neat and can last for months.
Destiny dac21@hotmail.com

Lesson plan # 2:
Read books about volcanos and then make your own. You can use playdoe and let it dry after you scalped it. Or you can make your own salt dough.There are more expensive clays out there but I like the cheap stuff. Make sure you put a small medicine cup or old test tube inside to pour your lava mixture into before drying. After you scalped your volcano you can paint it and label the parts of the volcano. Pour baking soda into the cup opening and add a couple drops of red food coloring. Then add a couple teaspoons of vinegar and watch the eruption. Your kids will want to do this over and over.
Destiny dac21@hotmail.com

Lesson plan # 3:
You can let your kids pick a subject that they really are interested in and read up on it. Then they can make a diorama out of a cardboard box and contruction paper. Just use a box of some sort deep enough to put various animals or whatever they are studying in. You can use foam board, more cardboard or whatever else you want to to make the pieces that will be inside. Make a background on the back of the box. For flying animals or ocean life you can suspend them insde the box with fishing line or string. You can add a "glass" front with plastic ir plastic wrap. Cute for many different projects.
Destiny dac21@hotmail.com

Lesson plan # 4:
Learn about insects by going for a drive near a lake or near a forest. Whe you stop the car and look on the front you should be able to find various already dead specimins to pin or glue to a piece of cardboard or foamboard. The lookup each insect and label just the names or the names and each part of the insect (assuming it was still in tact after its ltitle car accident). LOL Destiny dac21@hotmail.com

Lesson plan # 5:
Make a planatarium in your car by using glow in the dark space stickers. You can make it accurate by following a star chart or just have the kids think of their own constellations and have fun in the dark while driving. You could also get a audio tape or cd about the stars and solar system to play in the car at night to go along with this project.
Destiny dac21@hotmail.com

BATS

Books:
Stellaluna
Magic School Bus: The Truth about Bats
Bats: Eyes on Nature

Activites:
1. Make a bat flip book http://www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/bats/flip.html
2. Look at a bat skeleton http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/eutheria/battwo.gif
3. Watch Magic School Bus Going Batty & worksheet http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/games/teacher/batty/index.htm

Anita W

FOOD CHAINS

Books:
What are food chains and webs? Bobbie Kalman
Who Eats What? Patricia Lauber

Activities:

Using animal flash cards make a food chain.

Make a food chain with construction paper, cut paper into 1 x 6 inch strips. Cut pictures from magazine and glue onto strips or draw animals and plants on strips, then put them in order, who would eat what, hook together and glue (like a Christmas tree chain). See how long you can make the chain.