Activity 3C: How Does It Look and Feel
Overview
Children will describe living and nonliving things in water using simple descriptive words like colors and textures. They create mini-books and compare the features of different things they observe.
Focus Question
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What words can you use to describe this aquatic living or nonliving thing?
Enduring Understandings
- Living and nonliving things in Alaska waters come in a great assortment of colors, shapes, and sizes.
- Living things move, grow, and change.
Engage
15 minutes
Read a book specific to the living and nonliving things in your aquatic environment. Books with simple text and photos, such as those published by Heinemann, are useful. Possible books are listed in the Bibliography and Resources section for this unit. Have children notice the photos and/or illustrations, and talk about what they see and what words they can use to describe it.
Model the use of the sentence “I see a …”
Model first using one describing word and eventually two describing words such as a color word and a texture word. For example; “I see a soft green anemone.” Use a pocket chart to model matching words with the picture, and/or display a photo or drawing of the anemone (or other local creature) along with the sentence strip. Model both a living thing and a nonliving thing. You might also model the characteristics with the pocket chart, and sort them by color, shape, and size. The pocket chart could be used as a “word bank” for children to have support with writing their mini-book.
Explore
20 minutes
Children will use their experiences with both living and nonliving aquatic things to make a mini-book. By this time there should be books, posters, drawings, science notebooks and other resources around the room to use for getting ideas. These mini-books will focus on shape, size, and color. Children may start their book with illustrations and/or with words. The teacher emphasizes that the pictures must match the words. For example: “I see a red sea star.” “I see an oval limpet.” “I see a large sea anemone.” “I see a dark rock.” “I see squishy mud.” “I see a white barnacle.” “I see a ______.” “I see a _____.”
Students write and draw something unique that they see. They can start with one descriptive word and extend to two, such as “I see a large white barnacle.” The teacher may want to decide how many nonliving things to put in the book to support comparison and contrast of living and nonliving things.
Explain
10 minutes
After children have finished their book they can read and share their book with a friend. Provide support for the children to compare and contrast the things they chose to put in their book: “What is the same?” “What is different?” “How many are living?” “How many are nonliving?” Challenge children to come up with more than one way that they can know if something is living or nonliving. Some children may want to make more books.
Elaborate
15 minutes
Gather students as a large group (or smaller groups if they are finishing at different times). Ask them to discuss their ideas of living and nonliving things in aquatic environments. Mini-books can be compared and a class list of all the living and nonliving things in the books can be made. If desired, put all of the items on tagboard (using both the word and a child-drawn picture) so that students can move them on a pocket graph, noting which is living and which is nonliving and then explaining how they know. These same cards could also be used for a graph of how living things move—legs, fins, tail, etc. This could become an independent center to encourage use of the vocabulary and understanding of the characteristics.
Evaluate
Students will be able to show their understanding of a variety of characteristics in an individually made and colored mini-book. Use authentic assessment, having children read their books to the teacher or a peer. A checklist may also be used to note which students are able to match pictures to the words, and which children are able to sort nonliving and living things on the pocket chart.
Teacher Needs
Teacher Prep
Prepare puzzles
Print the photos and description of the pseudoscorpion. Print the small picture.
Compile resources and materials.
Print, copy and fold mini-books.
Prepare class book pages with the words printed out.
Cut, sort and organize textured materials.
Gather, prepare, and organize art materials for murals.
Materials List
- Tagboard or construction paper for puzzles
- Larval to adult marine puzzles
- Larval to adult freshwater puzzles
- Science notebooks
- Resource books, posters, pictures, ID charts, films
- Objects from aquatic environments (shells, rocks, etc.)
- Picture and description of pseudoscorpion
- One mini-book per student
- “Class Book” pages with words printed on them
- A wide variety materials with texture; cloth, plastic, thread, yarn, etc.
- Glue or glue sticks
- Magazines for cutting
- Art materials: large sheets of paper, tempera paints, construction paper, newspaper, paper fasteners (brads), toothpicks, paper bags, markers, wire, and other materials. Children may have ideas of materials to use.
Student Needs
Prior Knowledge
Information from previous lessons with plankton and microscopic creatures. Experience with animals such as class pets, and with a variety of living and nonliving things in the aquatic environment. Experience with glue or glue sticks.
Vocabulary
aquatic, balance, body, bristles, change, claws, color, develop, environment, feel, grow, jaws, legs, living, look, move, mural, oval, non-living, phytoplankton, pincers, segments, shape, size, texture, zooplankton
Standards
Science GLEs Addressed
- A2, C2, C3
Ocean Literacy Principles
- The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.