Lesson Title: Camouflage vs. Migrations: Are Some Adaptations Better Than Others?

By: Kathy True

Instructional Coach: Jenina Sorenson

Brief Description:The students will participate in variation of the predator/prey macaroni activity to engage their thinking on camouflage. Plus, they will be studying how their body gives them clues, such as an “empty stomach”, to engage their thinking on why animals migrate. Students will create questions for us to observe and research. They will study various animals from around the world that migrate or are camouflaged using the website kidsplanet.org. Then they will create their own camouflaged animal and study the migration of the monarch butterfly through Journey North. This lesson will require the students to critically think about the adaptations animals a have and how useful they are. I am focusing on camouflage and migration because they are very well known, even if they are not really understood. This lesson will help the students understand the adaptations and then give them the opportunity to research animals that have the adaptations. After all of the research and activities the students will be asked to evaluate the adaptations. Which one is better, camouflage or migration? There is no real answer to this question but it will force the kids to elaborate on their understanding and critically think about the benefits of adaptations as a whole.

Grade Level: 4th

Essential Question:Why do animals have adaptations? How do adaptations help animals?

Student Objectives with GLE’s:

  • (4.1.A.a) Identify ways a specific organism may interact with other organisms or with the environment. Objective: The students will identify and evaluate animal adaptations and how they adaptations help the animal survive in its environment.
  • (4.3.C.c) Identify internal cues and external cues that cause organisms to behave in certain ways. Objective: The students will research and identify environmental and physical cues that encourage animals to migrate.

Featured Textbook and Resources:

Scott Foresman’s 4th grade textbook: Chapter 1, Lesson 5, pg.26-33

Kidsplanet.org

Jouneynorth.org

Curiosity.discovery.com

Sheddaquarium.org

Spaceplace.nasa.gov/migration/en

Nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals

Science notebook

Featured Picture Books:

The Journey of a Butterfly by Carolyn Scarce

(The rest of the books are in the back of the lesson where I layout the books for each of the research stations and the questions that will go with them.)

Time Needed: Most of the lesson will be complete in four 45 minute science sessions, so I will have completed these lessons by the beginning of September. Though, the Monarch observations will continue through September.

Academic Vocabulary Words:

  • Ecosystem: A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
  • Habitat: the place and natural conditions in which plants and animals live
  • Adaptations:The action or process of adapting or being adapted.
  • Camouflage: the disguise where and animal imitates its surroundings
  • Migration: the natural movement of animals from one place to another
  • Predators: animals hunting other animals
  • Prey: animals being hunted

Depth of Knowledge: Most of the project will stay at level 2 DOK while the students ask and research animal’s adaptation questions on Camouflage and migration. The elaboration section will increase DOK to 3 because they will be applying their knowledge to create a new animal and continually observe the migration of Monarchs. The test at the end will have mostly DOK 2 multiple choice questions, but the persuasive paragraph is DOK 3, depending on the ability of the child.

Materials Needed: Science Notebook, all the resources in the “Featured Textbook” section, GPS, Kesler, Sugar water, shallow plates, Animal Research sheets, macaroni noodle in various colors, graph paper, wrist watch, computers, and books listed in stations.

Lesson Narrative:

Engage: Camouflage vs. Migration will occur after two previous lessons on habitats and adaptations. In the previous lesson, the class has already done a KWL on animal adaptations, so I will be building from that previous KWL. In addition to the KWL chart the students will participate in the following activities. Camouflage: I will be adapting the Predator /Prey lesson presented in class. I am going to mark a large square area on a grassy field. I will spread out color macaroni noodles in the grass. The macaroni will be colored red, orange, yellow, green and blue. The green and blue will be dyed darkly to make is blend better with the grass. The students will be asked to stand around the outline of the square and instructed to grab as many noodles as possible when I say go. The will be hawks looking for mice in the field. I will give the students 30 seconds to look for their noodles. They will put these noodles in a baggie with their names on them and turn them into me. We will play the game three times. After we have played the game three times we will go inside and record our data. The students will create bar graphs showing how many macaroni noodles in the different colors they were able to find, while I collect their data to create a class graph using excel. I will display the class graph and we will discuss the data. Which color was the hardest to find? Why was it hard? How can you tell it was the hardest color to find? If you were a hawk what color would you wish a mouse to be? If you were a mouse what color would you want to be? Migration: I really liked an idea I read off Journey North on getting the kids to think about why animals migrate, so I am going to do the activating to engage the students in thinking about animal behavior. A couples days prior to the lesson I will cover or remove all the clocks in the room. The students will be asked to tell the Scientist (a job in my class for recording data we are observing) when they feel hungry. The students may only interrupt the Scientist once during the day. The Scientist will record the time (using a watch only they can wear, on a class list next to the name of the student who reported hunger. The day of the lesson I will have the Scientist share the data with the class. During which hour of the day did the most students say they were hungry? What do we do when we get hungry? “we eat” I will then ask them to find food in our classroom habitat. They may find food on my desk, but it will not be enough to feed the whole class. If we can’t find food in our habitat what are we going to do? What would an animal do? After we have done and discussed these two engaging activities I will ask the students to come up with more questions they would want answered about animals, what they look like and what they do. We will post these questions on the research wall (a door in the library of my room where I have research book and computers). I will plant the questions “Do animals only migrate because they are hungry?” and “Why do some animals have camouflage while others are very brightly colored?”Formative Assessment: Are the students using vocabulary from previous lessons: adaptation, habitat? Do they already know quite a bit about camouflage or migration? Do they have any misconceptions I need to address? I will hear the answer to these as I work with the students on the KWL chart and on their questions.

Explore: After discussing the questions and assigning some of the questions the researchers I will say that two of the questions will need every body’s assistance. I will point out the two planted questions and ask the students what they think about them. Can we observe a ton of animals here in the classroom to find these answers? We will use books and computers to do our research. I will introduce the students to the website listed in the resources section and hand them their research factsheet. On the sheet will be fifteen animals from around the world. Five will use camouflage, five will migrate, and for the last five I will ask the students to pick “weird and interesting” animals of their own to share with me and their class.

Explain: The students will be researching in small groups at different stations. While one group is online looking up individual animals on kidsplanet.com the rest of the students will be at three other stations. The stations will rotate so that every kid will get to every station. Camouflage station: station with books on camouflage. Prior to the lesson I will put sticky notes in books that help answer some of the questions we created as apart of our engagement activities. The students will read the books and record their new learning in their science notebooks. Migration station: this station will be the same as the camouflage station. Note taking station: this station will be with me. I am going to guide the student on taking notes using the Scotts Foresman book. As a small group we will read sections of Chapter 1 Lesson 5, pages 26-33. We will take notes on main idea and supporting details on different adaptations that animals have. Most of the vocabulary the students would need they learned in the first lessons: habitat, environment, adaptation, physical, behavioral, and migration. Formative Assessment: Every session will end ten minutes before Science is over. The students will share with the group what they have learned. Did we answer any of our questions? The two main questions will get their own chart paper and we will add information to the paper as we study the adaptations.

Elaborate: There are two different activities the students will participate in to elaborate on these adaptations. Camouflage: In the previous lesson on habitats the students were asked to create habitats in shoeboxes. To elaborate on camouflage I am asking the students to create a new animal whose camouflage will help conceal it in their habitats. After they have created their new animal they will incorporate it into their habitat. I will warn them that after they have added the new animal I am going to send other kids to try and find it. The students with the hardest to find animal will win a special prize. “oohhhh, ahhhhh.” The scoring guide for their new animal is attached at the end of this lesson. Migration: I am going to read the book The Journey of a Butterflyby Carolyn Scarce to the class. As I read I am going to stop to talk about the geographical location mentioned in the book using a large North American map I have. “The Monarch butterfly is an animal that migrates through our area, so we can watch a part of its great adventure. We will be recording the butterflies we see and posting their locations on a web site.” I will then show the students Journey North. We will look at the post that have already been written and the map on the site. Are there any sightings by us? In order to encourage the butterflies to land where we can see and record them we are going to create butterfly feeding stations around the building. We will set sugar water in shallow dishes and place them at various locations around the building, but near windows so we can monitor them throughout the day. The Scientist will be expected to check the stations once a day (stay in the station for at least five minutes) and record what they see on a record sheet I have attached to the end of this lesson. They will also have to check and make sure we still have solution in the dish. I am sure they will be recording tons of bug sightings but we will focus on just monarch butterflies. If there are sightings at other times we will of course add them to our data. We will use the GPS to find the longitude and latitude of each of the feeding stations as we create them. If some stations are not attracting butterflies we will do some research and plan another means for attracting butterflies. If other butterflies are sighted at the school (like during recess) I will give the observer the GPS so we can mark the location of the sighting accurately. I just hope I remember to take the GPS unit with me to recess every day. At the end of every day we will report finding if we have them and check to see if any other interesting sightings have be reported.

Evaluate: The students will already be taking a District Common Assessment on Habitats and Animals that I have attached to the end of this lesson. In addition I will be asking them to write persuasive paragraphs on the two adaptations we have focused on. “Which adaptation is better?” The students will be asked to write a paragraph explain which adaptation, camouflage or migration, they think helps the animals the most. Prior to writing it I will tell them that either adaptation is good but I am looking to see if they can use our new scientific understanding and vocabulary to explain their thinking. They must pick one of the adaptations and list three of its strengths. Scoring guide is attached at the end of this lesson.

Misconceptions: Animals with specialized color are only for camouflage. I will address this when the students are explaining their learning. Were there any animals that had special coloring for something other than camouflage? What about warning colors? Animals only migrate for food. Several of the animals in the research migrate for reproduction, temperature, drought… Students may also think that only birds migrate but the research will point out several other types of animals migrate as well.

Safety: I can think of very few safety hazards that will occur during these lessons. The students may be tempted to go to unsafe internet sites but they will be monitored closely. I will also always send my kids in pairs to check the butterfly stations so I will not need to worry aobut sending them to unsafe or unsupervised locations.

Reading Comprehension Strategies: Determining Importance: many of the books in my station and the web research sites will have prepare questions and topics of study. Synthesize: the students will apply their knowledge to their elaboration and evaluation projects. Questioning: We will question our knowledge and compare it to new knowledge and identify commonalities in resources.

General Suggestion for Students and Teachers: Have clear questions, get to the point and keep it on one adaptation. Each question should have a narrow focus in the beginning. Give every student an opportunity to locate the feeders using the class’s GPS. Make sure to have pre-set questions for the students who are unfocused or have a hard time thinking of something to study. Each of the members of the research team should have a job: supplier, manager, recorder, reporter…

Bibliography of more information: Locate “weird” animals around the world and research their different adaptations and how they apply in their habitats.

How to Hide a Parakeet & Other Birds by Ruth Heller

The Magic School Bus: Butterfly and the Bog Beast by Scholastic

Hungry Little Hare by Howard Goldsmith

How to Hide a Crocodile & Other Reptiles by Ruth Heller

Animals in the Fall by Gail Saunders-Smith

Nature’s Paintbrush: The Patterns and Colors Around You by Susan Stockdale

Green Tree Frogs: Colorful Hiders by Natalie Lunis

Katydids: Leaf Look-alikes by Natalie Lunis

Animals in Disguise: Fish by Lynn Stone

3D Snapshots: Bugs by Fog City Press

The Great Migration by Jonathan Scott

The Journey: Stories of Migration by Cynthia Rylant

Migration with the Monarch Butterfly by Thessaly Catt

Why do the Geese Fly South in Winter? A Book about Migration by Kathy Allen

The Journey of a Whale by Carolyn Scarce

Student Pages:

Camouflage Animal Scoring Guide:

Grade / E (exceeds expectations) / M (meets expectations) / W (working towards expectations) / N (does not meet expectations)
Camouflage / New animal blends in with the surrounding habitat in the box. It has the same coloring of the plants and environment. Plus, animal has at least one more adaptation to help it survive in the habitat / New animal blends in with the surrounding habitat in the box. It has the same coloring of the plants and environment. / New animal is the same color as the rest of the habitat but it is very easy to find. / New animal is not the same color as the rest of the habitat and is easy to find.

Persuasive paragraph:

E / M / W / N
Topic / Pick either camouflage or migration with three supporting details. Name animal examples and habitats from research / Pick either camouflage or migration with three supporting details. / Pick one adaptation with two supporting details / Write about both adaptations with one or less supporting details
Construction / Write a argumentative thesis statement. All sentences are complete and have transition words. Have a conclusion sentence / Write a argumentative thesis statement. All sentences are complete and have transition words / Write a argumentative thesis statement. All sentences are complete / Write a argumentative thesis statement. Some sentences are complete
Conventions / 0-1 spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes / 2-3 spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes / 4 spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes / 5 or more spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes

Camouflage Station:These are the books that I will use in this station and the questions I will post in the book if the students do not think of questions the books could have answers.