March 9, 2018
This week we looked at the animal kingdom and the intricate network of sources of food. Students wrote down their favorite animals from A to Z. We connected picture cards of animal within the same ecosystem via predator-prey network, noting the effect of change in population of one species on the other species within the network. Students learned about the classification of vertebrates (as opposed to invertebrates studied last week) and looked at a human-size skeleton from our lab, learning the names of the bones. We also discussed the definition and characteristics of a mammal and played with a special mammal guest—a class guinea pig.
Play: Visit Oakland Zoo and discuss which animals are invertebrates or vertebrates.
Read: Check out Natural History: The Ultimate Visual Guide to Everything on Earth from the library.
Play: Build a food web in this PBS online game.
Read: The Usborne Flap Book: See Inside Your Body (K-2nd grades) and Eyewitness Visual Dictionaries: The Visual Dictionary of the Human Body (3-5th grades).
Photo credit: Anya Bosina