HABITATS ON AIR

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Conservation charades index cards with one of the following activities listed on each: Recycle soda cans, turn off water, pick up litter, plant a tree, carpool
• Habitat pages with pictures of animals and plants
• Types of pollution list with pictures of harmed habitats
• Habitat visuals with three pictures - healthy habitat, polluted habitat, harmed animal

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Start with a general physical warm-up to get the students' bodies ready. Use exercises such as:
  • Stretching: Stretch all major muscle groups.
  • Shaking Out Limbs: Shake out arms, legs, and the whole body to release tension.
  • Energy Passes: Stand in a circle and pass a clap or a simple motion around to build group focus and energy.
• Explain that students will explore different characters by changing their movements and physicality.
  • Call out simple prompts to get students thinking about different ways to move. Call out various types of characters and ask students to walk around the space embodying those characters. Examples include:
    • A squirrel looking for acorns
    • A tree blowing in the wind
    • A fish swimming in the river

 

Work Session

LOCAL HABITATS

• Facilitate a discussion around what students know about habitats.
  • Ask students: What makes up a habitat? (Food, water, shelter, air)
  • Name some of the habitats in your state. For example, Georgia’s habitats would include the Piedmont, Mountains, Swamp Marsh, Coastal, and Atlantic Ocean. Write them on the board.
  • Ask students to make the following movements every time they hear these words (replace these habitats with those of your your state):
    • Piedmont – left arm salutes at chest level, right elbow up with forearm pointing down, both pointer fingers pointing at each other to the area between the arms
    • Mountains – hands flat, touching with arms making a downward V in front of chest
    • Swamp marsh –
      • Swamp - flat hands come in front of chest, moving like boggy water
      • Marsh - use hands as if opening a little window in front of your face (like moving the swamp grass out of your way)
    • Coastal – hold both elbows with opposite hands (as if a border) then wiggle hands out like a wave running back into the ocean
    • Atlantic Ocean – use both hands as if waves rolling in front of body
  • Discuss with students how each habitat has different characteristics, so different organisms will live in different habitats. For example, ask students if a bear is able to live in the ocean.
    • Organisms cannot live in every habitat. They have specific places that they live because they need specific things that the different habitats provide.
  • Review the different habitats that are local to your state. Discuss which organisms will thrive in each habitat and which would fail to survive and why.
  • Example of Georgia habitats:
    • Piedmont - area of land made up of rolling hills and occasional mountains. A plateau between the coastal plain and the Appalachian Mountains.
      • Land animals - squirrels, red foxes, opossum, raccoons, deer, rabbits
      • Water animals - reptiles, snakes, salamanders, frogs, and lizards. Because they are reptiles and amphibians, they like to be near water! Additionally, beavers and ducks live here.
      • Plants and trees - oak tree, hickory tree, pine tree, azaleas, dogwoods, iris
    • Mountains - area of land that has rocky soil, mountains, forests, and a cold climate. The trees and plants are the same as those in the Piedmont region.
      • Land animals - bear, bobcat, squirrel, red fox, opossum, raccoon, deer, rabbit
      • Water animals - fish, frogs, otters
      • Birds - owls, bats, eagles
    • Swamp marsh - an area of wet, low land usually containing large amounts of grass and no trees. Located near the coast.
      • Trees - giant tupelos and bald cypresses
      • Plants - pitcher plant, bladderwort, cypress tree
      • Land animals - bear, deer, raccoon
      • Water animals - water moccasin, alligator, river otter
      • Water birds - osprey, egret, sandhill crane
    • Coastal (Coastal Plain) - where the ocean meets the land portion of the coastline that separates the plains from the sea.
      • Plants - wiregrass, grasslands
      • Trees - live oak trees, Spanish mosses, cypress trees, saw palmetto
      • Birds - egrets, pelicans, cranes
      • Animals - turtles, sea turtles, snakes
    • Atlantic Ocean - large body of salt water to the east
      • Land animals - Loggerhead sea turtles
      • Marine animals - dolphin, whale, jellyfish, crab, shark
      • Trees - cordgrass, wax myrtle morning glories, sea oats, pennyworts, anemones

 

WHY ARE HABITATS IMPORTANT?

• Discuss why habitats are important. Ask students what they think happens when the habitats change. Ask students what impact they think that animals moving or dying would have on the ecosystem.
  • For example:
    • If there were no more plants, then the butterflies couldn’t eat.
    • If there were no more flies then the frogs couldn’t survive.
  • Tell students that in order to keep ecosystems healthy, we need to take care of our habitats.
    • During the past hundred years, due to new technologies, the world has changed in many ways. Some changes have improved the quality of life and health for many people. Others have affected people’s healthcare adversely causing different kinds of pollution that have harmed the environment. Ask students if they can think of any examples of the way technology has impacted the environment.
    • Ask students what they think of when you say the word, “pollution”. Examples of types of pollution:
      • Air - Air pollution is caused by cars and factories. Harmful gasses and tiny particles (like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide) pollute the air. The smoke released from burning fuel from factories and cars, are the major sources of air pollution.
      • Water - Our water gets polluted because of the dirty water from our house that drains through the pipes into the rivers and oceans dirtying the water. Trash and oil spills also contribute to water pollution.
      • Land - Garbage is thrown on the street every day because we don't always recycle or reuse things. All of the toxic chemicals and waste that is left or dumped on our land causes it to become polluted. All types of waste can be found on land. Some is left behind after human activities and some is washed ashore from boats and sewage outlets. Plastic and dirt also causes land pollution.
    • Tell students to do the following movements every time they hear or say these words:
      • Air - forearms waving back and forth
      • Water - fingers rain down
      • Land - forearms flat on top of each other in front of chest

 

CONSERVATION/POLLUTION SOLUTIONS 

• Discuss the concept of conservation with the class.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Do the following movements every time that you say the phrases:
  • Reduce – both thumbs down and traveling from shoulder height to belly button
  • Reuse – cups inside of left hand on top of cupped right hand and then switch
  • Recycle – twirl forearms in front of chest
• Ask students if anyone knows what this phrase means. Tell students that it is a motto that is extremely helpful to the environment. It encourages everyone to cut down on the waste that they throw away.
  • Recycle – to change something so it can be used again and again
  • Reuse – to use an object more than once to help save the world
  • Reduce – to stop using or reduce use of products that hurt the environment
• Tell students that many of the resources we use in our everyday lives are disposed of quickly. Ask students for examples of things that they throw away on a daily basis. For example, food is wrapped in paper or plastic bags, drinks are in disposable bottles or cans, and batteries are disposed of after a short life.
  • Ask students what we could do to help with this problem. Students may respond with things like using reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones.
• Tell students that pollution is a responsibility and concern of all people in every community. Ask students to brainstorm some ways that they could help to stop pollution. (Write class ideas on the board. For example: Don’t put garbage into the lakes and streams, walk or ride bikes whenever possible, and pick up litter.)

 

CONSERVATION CHARADES

• Tell students that they are now going to play a game called Conservation Charades. Ask students if anyone has ever played charades. Explain that in this game the participants use their bodies and gestures but not words.
• Divide students into small groups. Give each group a Conservation Charades index card with an activity on it. Tell students that they will need to work together to show the rest of the class that activity dealing with conservation using their bodies and gestures but not words.
• Give students a few minutes to decide how they will show their activity. Circulate to work with students and check for understanding.
• Have each group show their activity and allow the other groups to guess what they are acting out.
• When all groups have had a turn, discuss the conservation tip on each card and how they help save our resources.

 

HABITAT PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT – CRIES FOR HELP 

• Ask students, what do you think some of the animals who live in polluted habitats think and feel?
• Students should remain in their groups. Each member of the group will get a habitat visual page for the same habitat. Each student will also need a blank piece of paper. Ask each student to look at the three pictures.
  • One picture is a healthy habitat; collaborating with their groups, ask students to identify and write the name of the habitat on their blank piece of paper.
  • Ask students to discuss with their groups what is different about the second image. They should observe that it is polluted. Tell students to write down the type of pollution. Ask students, what could humans do to help with that pollution? Students should discuss with their groups and write down their ideas on their paper.
  • Tell students to now look at the animal in the picture (students in groups can have the same or different animal). Tell students to give their animal a name and write it down.
  • Ask students to look at their picture and think about the following:  What sounds do you hear in your habitat?  What things do you see in your habitat? Other animals? Plants?  What do you smell in your habitat?  How does your animal feel about the pollution in the habitat? Provide time for students to discuss in their groups.
  • Now, ask students to sit or stand like their animal would sit or stand. Using a voice different from their own, like they are the animal, ask students to say out loud what they had for their animal breakfast. This exercise will help students embody their animals.
• Next, ask students what they think of when they hear “Public Service Announcement”.
  • Tell students that a Public Service Announcement (or PSA) is a type of advertisement featured on television, social media, print or other format that is intended to change the public interest by raising awareness of an issue, affecting public attitudes, and potentially stimulating action.
  • Now, tell students to write a PSA in which their animal is persuading local people to help save their habitat.
  • Tell students that they must include the name of their habitat/region, a description of how pollution has affected them as the animal, and how people can help.
  • Teachers should demo an example.
  • Give students some time to write their PSAs; students can work individually or in their groups.
  • When complete, ask one student to walk to the front of the room as their animal.  Have them read their PSA to the class using their body and voice to act as their animal.

 

ACTING OUT THE HABITAT

• In their groups, have students create a scene that demonstrates the animal, its habitat, and the impact of pollution on the habitat. Students should use their bodies and voices to bring the scene to life.
• Students will perform their habitats for their classmates.
• Provide time for students to practice their scenes. Circulate to work with students and check for understanding.

 

Closing Reflection

• Students will perform their scenes for the class. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to performances.
• Before performing, students should share their habitat. After each performance ask the audience to identify which characters they see in the habitat and what impact pollution has on the environment.
• Review the types of habitats and pollution using the movements that students learned at the beginning of the lesson.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator; discussion of local habitats, pollution, and conservation methods; collaboration with their groups on the PSA and scenes enacting the effects of pollution on their habitats.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can accurately identify local habitats and organisms.
• Students can recognize pollution types, their effects on habitats, and identify various conservation methods.
• Students can use their voices and bodies to embody the organisms in a local habitat and the impact pollution has on that habitat.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: Have students write a monologue from the point of view of their character in the habitat explaining how pollution has impacted them. Remediation:  Reduce the number of activities to focus on mastery. Allow students to select from the activities, like a choice board, rather than having students complete all activities.

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Susie Spear Purcell. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: July 2024 @ ArtsNOW