Our science focus this month is plant and animal habitats and their environments. In addition to looking at the parent and offspring relationship and how they meet their needs, we also study what they need to survive. As I’ve said before, my monthly themes are based on our science and social studies standards/units. We use this overall theme to engage student learning and completely immerse the kiddos in the topic. I try to base as much of our reading and writing and math on those central ideas as possible. Each month first-grade classrooms are transformed into the unit of study.

Studying animals and plants and their habitats is one of my favorites. We approach it from all kinds of angles. Sadly, the importance of this type of engagement and immersive learning has been lost on the “curriculum police” that don’t quite get education in a primary classroom and dynamic learning. Luckily, this trend seems to be hitting a wall and will hopefully disappear soon! Anyhoo, I have a door. I shut it. I do what’s best. We are engaged. We are immersed. We are learning.

We’ve been busy.

A Look at the Desert

October’s habitat study started out with a visit to the desert.

After discussing the trials that the desert climate offers, we discovered the adaptations that desert plants and animals have that allow them to live quite comfortably in this arid and commonly hot habitat. Then we completed an A LOOK at the Desert activity.

The unit comes with a variety of writing activities. This one is designed for early 1st. There is a simpler Kindergarten activity as well as 2 other more developed paragraph writing activities.  

Hibernating to Survive

After the desert we took a trip to the forest.

We talked about why animals hibernate while we “visited” the forest. Then we worked on the “Nighty, Night Bear!” lesson and craft.

The Layers of the Rainforest

This week we kicked back in the rainforest and discovered all it’s layers.

This “Hanging Around the Rainforest” activity was lots of fun for the kiddos. We read the little banana-shaped book and used our inference skills to determine which rainforest animal would fit best with the information provided.

It actually comes with 2 different sized monkeys. I LOVE the larger ones, but 30 large monkeys don’t fit too well on the bulletin board.

To introduce this unit we look at a lot of books, online videos, Scholastic News, and online images. We also work with these posters. The kids LOVE filling in and coloring their own!

Headers to label the different layers of your rainforest bulletin board as well as the board itself are also included.

Each of these habitat activities are available individually. They are also available in a bundle.

  The Happening Habitats Bundle includes a couple extra things for FREE!  

Savanna Extras

Sensational Savanna Alliteration is a fun activity that incorporates an alliteration lesson and savanna animals!

The bundle also includes some FREE BONUS vocabulary cards.

I LOVE that the kiddos are always so excited about this unit. I enjoy doing it during the first part of the year because it truly encourages student buy in to the fun we have in engaging in a thematic unit each month!

What’s your favorite habitat to teach about?