Unit 3 – Kingdoms of Life

Lesson 2 – Learning Animals

Today we are going to be going over different types of animals by making pamphlets. This activity will improve your student’s literacy, creativity, and memory. Because this is a literature activity, there will be a bit of reading. Some words on the reading may be confusing. Be sure to have the Vocabulary List ready to help your student with any difficult words.

This activity is the first activity where having a learning community or access to other students’ work is incredibly important. If you are not a part of my Facebook Learning Community, click here to sign up. Because there are six different categories (and an example category), there are too many informational sheets for students to do a project on all of them.

If you do not want to join a learning community, I recommend reading all the different pamphlets and letting your student pick their favorite animal category for the project. I also recommend making this a two-day activity because it can be very long. Try to keep it between 30-60 minutes. If time goes over, take a break and pick up the next day.

SUPPLIES

  1. Print out of animal information guide 
  2. Vocabulary board
  3. Construction paper
  4. Markers, crayons, or colored pencils
  5. Decorations for pamphlets (animal print outs)
  6. Script
  7. Print out of pamphlet instruction
  8. Whiteboard (optional)
  9. Science journal

 

Activity

Let’s teach our students how to be teachers!!! By creating their own pamphlets!

  • Before we start with this lesson, let’s read my example and get an idea of what we are doing. You should have my “teacher’s” copy of the reading. This copy has the correct information already highlighted. Give your children the “student’s” copy.
  • Read the copy once for comprehension. If you have a younger student, read it with them.
  • Read the instructions for creating the pamphlet. Have students take special notes of the instruction’s questions because they will need to answer the questions in their own pamphlets. (I made it super easy by including the answers for the mollusks information guide directly on the pamphlet instructions). The challenge will be to get students to do this for their own animal category informational guide.
  • Reread the Animal Information Guide together. This time have your students highlight the answers to the questions from the instructions. If the student is younger, do this with them. Challenge them to write down notes on the side and circle words they do not understand. If your student is older, see if they can look up the words themselves, if not help them. For younger students, explain the word for them. And for students in the middle, explain to them how to look things up and do it together.
  • Compare highlighted notes from your student to the highlighted notes on “Teacher’s Copy.” If any information on the “Teacher’s Copy” is not highlighted on the “Student’s Copy,” help students review the guide and highlight the correct information.
  • Show students the print out of my pamphlet. Make sure to find where I answered each question. Pay attention to how it’s folded and where I put information. If you want to get fancy, make your own mollusks pamphlets to show your student exactly how they will be doing theirs. Don’t forget to post your example on the Facebook page. 
  • Now that we have our information, we can start creating the pamphlet. Refer to instructions for creating a pamphlet to complete the activity.
  • If you want more coloring pages for you pamphlet sign up below and get a whole set of coloring pages! 

 

 

Instructions for creating a pamphlet

  • Take a piece of construction paper and turn it landscape (the long side is laying flat).
  • Now fold it into three equal pieces
  • The first page will be your title page. It should answer these questions
    • What category of animal (ex: Mollusks)
    • How many species are in the category (ex: 80,000 species)
    • Where does the animal live (ex: land and water)
    • Examples of animals
    • Examples of the animals (Ex: clams, snails, and squids)
  • Pages 2-4 will be informational. It will answer the questions
    • How the animals breathe (ex: gills in water, lungs on land)
    • How the animals reproduce (ex: lay eggs)
    • Interesting fact (ex: mollusks often only have one large muscle)
    • Interesting fact (ex: Mollusks are known for their self-defense)
    • Any other interesting facts (as many as your heart desires)
    • Include drawings or pictures of your animals if you can

 

YAY! We have created our very own pamphlets!!!

Now that we have created our pamphlets, we can take pictures and post them onto the Facebook Group (tag it #animalpamphlet). Make sure we can read what your child has written so other students can read it too. Search #animalpamphlet to see other people’s projects. Have your student go over and learn about the animal groups. Make sure they write down the answers to the question in their science journal. If you are not a Facebook Group member, use the second day to read the other information guides. You don’t have to do a whole project, but highlight the answer to the questions and write them down in your science journals.

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