Teacher s Prep Guide

Transcription

1 Teacher s Prep Guide In the end, we will only conserve what we love, we will love only what we understand, we will understand only what we are taught. -BABA DIOUM 1

2 Greetings! Thank you for including the Zoo in your children s school year! This packet includes activities to complete before and after your Zoo visit. Included are excerpts from A Child s Place in the Environment, an award-winning curriculum series sponsored by the California Department of Education. Our goal is for your class to leave with a better understanding of animals, the environment and their own role in conservation. This guide offers activities to assist in teaching how animals use their senses to communicate, hunt and evade predators to survive in their native habitats. Also included are post-visit activities, a word list and environmental action pages to assist in their learning. Students will not only see many fascinating animals on their field trip, but will also use their senses to explore, learn and become inspired at the Sacramento Zoo. Sincerely, Sacramento Zoo Education Staff 2

3 Table of Contents Before Your Zoo Visit How Do Some Animals Communicate? Post-Visit Activities Vocabulary List Environmental Action Pages

4 Before Your Zoo Visit Logistics Name Tags (optional). Make a name tag for each child using an outline form of a Zoo animal.. Explain that the child is to report back three things about his/her animal.. Choose from: Groups Senses Adaptations for survival Communication Social groupings Food chain Protection/defense Divide your students into groups of no more than eight before arriving at the Zoo. Each group of eight students (through age 18) is required to have a chaperone. Zoo Guest Behavior Explain why the Zoo behavior rules help the animals.. Don t tease or call to the animals.. Don t run. Be safe and stay off the fences. Please don t feed the animals!. Report any foreign objects in an animal exhibit 4

5 Pre-Visit Classroom Activities Begin preparing for your trip in advance. Discuss with the students:. How are zoos working to save animals and plants? (Education, nationwide breeding & conservation programs, see What does it mean to be endangered or threatened? (See vocabulary list at end of this packet) Animal Senses How do animals senses help them survive? Get ready to use your senses at the Zoo! Which animals have have at least one well-developed sense? (Animals with large ears, eyes, or big wet nose can use the corresponding sense well.) The location of animal eyes can can sometimes tell you whether the animal is predator or prey. (E.g. see how a tiger s eyes face forward while an antelope s eyes are on the side.) Print out some animal fact sheets from /animals. Animal Sounds Optional: Listen to a recording of animal sounds.. Discuss the many ways animals communicate (sounds, body movement, coloration, scent-marking, pheromones). Ask students to provide examples of ways that animal parents and their offspring communicate (a coyote calls out a warning to its young; a baby bird peeps to be fed). Compare animal and human communication. What are the ways we communicate that are similar to or different from animals? 5

6 Animal Diets One way to categorize animals is to compare and contrast their diets.. Carnivores are meat eaters (tiger, lion, eagle). Scavengers feed on dead animals (hyenas, vultures). Herbivores are plant eaters (zebra, giraffe, crested screamer). Omnivores eat meat and plants (chimpanzee, people) Make a list of foods you ate yesterday. Did the foods come from plants or animals? What animals eat the foods you like to eat? Check out our animal fact sheets to find out at /animals. Petṣ Discuss how well pets use their five senses. are some of their senses better than others?. Talk about how kids are involved in feeding and care of their pets.. Who provides food, shelter, water and companionship?. Compare with keepers taking care of our animals. Teacher Loan Kits Photos of Teacher Resources on under the Education tab.. Birds: Great for teaching about adaptations to environment (e.g. Grade 1, 3, 4, 6 Science Standard). Wetlands: Great for teaching about food chains and ecosystem studies (especially Grade 4, 5, 6 Science Standard) Which Zoo animal s tongue has lots of taste buds just like yours? How would that help them survive? Chimpanzee need to recognize whether a wide variety of plants and animals are good to eat. 6

7 7

8 8

9 9

10 10

11 11

12 12

13 13

14 Post-Visit Activities Who Am I Game Draw/find tags with pictures of the animals you met at the Zoo. Photos of many animals are available as part of our online fact sheets at /animals. Hang one of these photos on each child s back (make sure they don t peek!). Have the children each find a partner and show each other their animal s picture. The child may ask their partner yes or no questions. Try to guess the animal on their back. Encourage the child to ask questions in terms of senses, body covering, habitat, camouflage, social grouping, food chain, etc. Then it is the partner s turn. Birthday Party for an Animal Have each child select a Zoo animal and plan an imaginary birthday party. Include the following:. Refreshments the animal would like. Is it a plant-eater, animal-eater, scavenger...? (feeding habits?). Where the party would be held. What is the animal s home? (habitat?). The kinds of gifts - what would help it survive? (adaptations?). Who would you invite? What other animals share its habitat? (kinship and community?) Classroom Zoo Make a zoo in your classroom using pictures from magazines and coloring books. You can even make three-dimensional figures out of paper or have students bring their favorite stuffed animal and then display it in a natural setting. Which animals will be in water, air, trees or on the ground? Which animals could live together safely? Make sure the animals have everything they need. Role Playing Tell the children to pretend that they are their favorite Zoo animal. Ask how they would communicate different feelings or ideas, i.e. You are all lions... How would you locate a friend far away?... How would you warn another lion to stay away?...how would you show that you are happy?... Write/Draw a Zoo Story Write stories or draw pictures and murals about your Zoo visit. What was the most important thing you learned? What did you like the best? Create a Commercial What would you say to let other people know that they should care about the Earth? and the animals? How would you say it? Create an environmental commercial to tell people about a problem faced by animals. 14

15 Ecosystem Web Game Objective: Through playing the game, students will realize the complex interrelationships and trophic levels in a rain forest. The students will also explore the impacts of extinction. This activity works for all grades! Addresses Science Standards: Grade 1: Grade 3: Grade 4: 2. a, b, c 3. a, b, c 2. a, b, 3.b, c Preparation The teacher will give an introduction explaining how the energy pyramid of predators and prey works, perhaps giving examples from the local setting. In most ecosystems, you have a few large predators, a greater number of small predators, even more herbivores, then the largest biomass is plants (see diagram on reverse). Students choose their character from either the rain forest list below, or a set of your choosing. Many of the animals below can be seen at the Zoo, and fact sheets with photos are available at /Animals. For a more in-depth experience, the students can spend time researching their organisms habitat, foods, and predators. Cast of Characters Sun Soil Jaguar Agouti Green-crested basilisk lizard Beetle Harpy eagle Macaw Brazil nut tree Two-toed sloth Cecropia tree 15 Eyelash viper White-faced saki Tree (fruiting) Toucan Margay cat Iguana (adults are herbivores) Materials One large ball of yarn Either:. Cards or paper for the students to draw their character, crayons Or:. Photographs representing the characters Masking tape or string to place the character on each child Optional: inflatable Earth globe ball. Activity. Each student chooses their character. They can then either research the character or go to the next step. You may wish to divide the class into two groups of 10 or 12, as it works best with no more than 15 people in the circle. (so two student could work together to research the same character but be in different groups). Each student puts a character picture/drawing on themselves (can hang around their neck or use tape).. Students stand in a circle. Give the ball of yarn to any player to begin (we often start with the sun). The student holds the yarn s end and passes the ball to another player. As the player tosses the ball, she/he must state the two characters relationship (e.g. I eat you, or you eat me, you disperse my seeds, I take shelter in your branches, I grow using the sun s rays...). Characters hold the yarn taut between them across the circle.

16 . Play continues until the web has been completed amongst all players. It is okay for a character to receive the yarn more than once, but discourage. You will have yarn criss-crossing in the center, making a web. You can now discuss the complexity of the web relationships.. Next, change the web: someone becomes extinct due to habitat loss for example. Have them tug on the yarn and then release it when they die. Who feels the tug? You can remove a few or all of the players. As members step back, they drop their yarn and say something about how the web and remaining players are affected. What may happen? (e.g. predators could become extinct, or prey animals become overpopulated). Optional Earth Ball: put an inflatable globe on the intact food web to show that the web makes a structure, then after a few extinctions, repeat to show how the damaged web no longer supports the ball. 16

17 Adaptation: Amphibian: Bird: Brachiation: Something that an animal has or does which makes it better suited to its environment. Ectothermic ( cold-blooded ) animal with a backbone (vertebrate) that tends to lay eggs in water and go through a larval stage and adults live in water, on land or both. An endothermic ( warm-blooded ), feathered vertebrate that lays hard-shelled eggs. Swinging hand over hand through the trees (e.g. like a gibbon). Camouflage: Using color, patterns, and/or body shape to hide in your habitat. Carnivore: Diurnal: Domestic: Any animal that eats meat (more specific: carnivores are mammals such as wolves & cats) Active during the daytime. An animal tamed and bred by humans. Ectothermic: Having a body temperature determined primarily by the temperature of the environment. ( cold-blooded ). However, the animals maintain their temperature by choosing to sit in sun or shade. Endangered Species: A species threatened with extinction. Endothermic: Having a body temperature largely independent of the temperature of surroundings ( warm-blooded ) - able to control body temperature internally. Food Chain/ Web: insects, Habitat: Herbivore: Mammal: Marsupial: Nocturnal: Omnivore: Predator: Prey: Primate: Rainforest: Raptor: Reptile: Describes the transfer of energy from the sun to plants and then to herbivores etc., which in turn are eaten by carnivores. Type of local or native environment occupied by an organism. An animal that eats plants. A warm-blooded vertebrate with hair, females have milk-producing glands. A kind of mammal whose young are born and then develop from a very immature stage in their mother s belly pouch. Active at night. Vocabulary List An animal that eats a variety of food such as meat, plants, fruits, nuts, etc. An organism that feeds by preying on other organisms, killing them for food. An animal killed and consumed by a predator. Lemurs, monkeys, & apes (and humans), among others. A forest (tropical or temperate) with over 100 inches of rainfall per year. Birds of prey such as eagles, hawks and owls. An ectothermic, air-breathing verbrate covered with scales. 17

18 How do the pollutants get into the water? Rain or excess water from our yard goes into storm drains (those metal grates in the gutters) and directly to our local creeks, lakes and rivers without treatment. As water travels over street, lawns and gardens it collects pollutants. Pollutants, such as oil from leaky cars, pesticides and fertilizers from yards, trash and pet waste; are carried along with the excess water right into the storm drains and then right into our local waterways. You can help protect the survival of fish and other aquatic life by helping to keep pollutants out of our storm drains. Here s how you can protect our waterways from pollution! Use water-based paints and wash up inside the classroom. Remember to reduce, re-use and recycle! Always put trash in trash cans, never in the street! Ride your bike or the bus, or car pool with a friend. When it rains, air pollution turns to water pollution. Your class can stencil a storm drain with the NO DUMPING FLOWS TO RIVER stencil to teach other to protect our waterways. Call for more information. 18

19 Here s how you can protect our waterways from pollution! Sweep sidewalks. Don t hose trash and dirt into the gutters. If you see oil in the driveway, use kitty litter to clean-up oil leaks and spills on driveways. If your mom or dad changes the oil in the family car, be sure to let them know that used motor oil can be recycled. Ask mom and dad to buy and use the least toxic garden products, read the directions carefully and never apply garden products when rain is forecasted. If you have a pet, use your pooper scooper and put poop in the trash. 19