PLAYING WITH ANIMALS

CLASSY CLASSIFYING OF ARTSY ANIMALS: PLAYING WITH ANIMALS

Learning Description

In this project, students will write a fictional play around the premise of a zookeeper trying to solve the problem of “the zoo just received several new animals and no one knows where each animal belongs”. The play will incorporate science content that will demonstrate student knowledge of animal classification. Students will also create 3-D masks to represent the animals in their play. To culminate this project, students will dramatize their play to an audience in order to express the inner workings of the animal classification system.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 3,5
CONTENT FOCUS: THEATRE & SCIENCE
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can write a play that illustrates how animals are sorted into groups: Invertebrates, vertebrates, and vertebrate subgroups (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians).
  • I can create a 3-D animal mask that demonstrates multiple design concepts.
  • I can dramatize a play by developing, communicating, and sustaining a role within the script.

Essential Questions

  • How can I develop a play that illustrates how animals are sorted into groups?
  • How can I create a visual artwork that clearly articulates the characteristics of vertebrates?
  • How can dramatizing a play help me to communicate and model scientific concepts?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 5:

S5L1 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to group organisms using scientific classification procedures.
S5L1.a Develop a model that illustrates how animals are sorted into groups (vertebrate and invertebrate) and how vertebrates are sorted into groups (fish, amphibian, reprise, bird, and mammal) using data from multiple sources.

Arts Standards

Grade 5:

TA5.CR.2 Develop scripts through theatrical techniques.
TA5.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 3:

3-LS2-1. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have inherited traits that vary within a group of similar organisms.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can create scenes and write scripts using story elements and structure.
Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.


 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Vertebrate - An animal that has a backbone or spinal column, which is part of an internal skeleton that supports its body
  • Invertebrate - An animal that does not have a backbone or spinal column
  • Mammal - A warm-blooded vertebrate animal characterized by the presence of hair or fur, the ability to produce milk for its young through mammary glands, and (in most cases) giving live birth
  • Amphibian - A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that typically has a life cycle with both aquatic and terrestrial stages
  • Fish - A cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrate that lives in water and breathes through gills
  • Bird - A warm-blooded vertebrate animal characterized by feathers, beaks (instead of teeth), and the ability to lay eggs with hard shells
  • Reptile - A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that typically has scaly skin and lays eggs with leathery or hard shells
  • Insect - A small invertebrate animal that belongs to the class Insecta; Insects have three main body parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen
  • Classify - To organize or group objects, organisms, or phenomena based on shared characteristics or properties
  • Characteristics - The distinguishing features, traits, or properties of an object, organism, or phenomenon that help to identify or describe it
  • Organism - Any living thing, whether it's a plant, animal, fungus, bacterium, or microorganism, that exhibits the characteristics of life
  • Backbone - A flexible, column-like structure made up of individual bones called vertebrae
  • Warm-blooded - Refers to animals that can regulate and maintain a constant internal body temperature, regardless of the temperature of their surroundings
  • Cold-blooded - Refers to animals whose internal body temperature is largely determined by the temperature of their environment
  • Reproduce - The biological process by which living organisms produce offspring

Arts Vocabulary

Visual Art

  • Henri Rousseau - French post-impressionist painter; his subject matter was often ecosystems
  • Three dimensional - Having or appearing to have length, breadth, and depth
  • Media - Tools and materials used to create art
  • Relief sculpture - A type of sculpture where figures or objects protrude from a two-dimensional background, while remaining attached to it
  • Armature - Skeleton for a sculpture
  • Subject matter - Things represented in artwork
  • Texture - The surface quality, or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture.
  • Balance - This is a sense of stability in the body of work. Balance can be created by repeating the same shapes and by creating a feeling of equal visual weight.

Theatre

  • Character - An actor or actress in a specified role
  • Dialogue - A conversation between two or more persons
  • Playwright - A person who writes a play
  • Setting - Place of action
  • Concentration - Actors must concentrate in order to keep their mind on the stage and in the imagined circumstances. Actors must also concentrate on what the other actors are doing and how their character would react to them.
  • Ensemble - The parts of a thing taken together, so that each part is considered only in relation to the whole
  • Stage blocking - The physical arrangement of actors on a stage that facilitates the performance of a play. Blocking can be determined by the director or indicated in the script’s stage directions.
  • Pantomime - Using gestures, facial expressions, and body movements to convey a story or narrative without speaking. Often includes pretending to hold, touch, or do something one is not holding, touching, or using.
  • Props - Items that actors use in a performance to depict real-life objects.  Props can also be used to help students brainstorm for their writing or character study.
  • Voice - Actors use their voice to be heard by the audience clearly. Actors must also apply vocal choices such as pitch, tempo, and volume to the character they are dramatizing.


Materials

Mask-making:

  • Mask template - one per student printed on computer paper to use for planning
  • White plastic face mask or masks templates printed on cardstock for mask creation (one per student)
  • Newspaper/newsprint or paper towel and masking tape (for armatures to create snouts, horns, etc.)
  • Various materials to add texture, color, and pattern to masks:
    • tissue paper
    • feathers
    • faux animal fur sheets (or a bolt of cloth)
    • mesh netting
    • metallic paper or aluminum foil (fish scales)
  • Liquid glue and sponge for application of materials to mask (if using plastic mask) or glue stick
  • Markers/Sharpies
  • Optional:
    • Tempera paint or tempera sticks
    • Paint brushes for applying paint

Play:

  • Zookeeper hat (optional)
  • Paper and pencils


Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Teacher will lead students in a “Story Chain” activity with pantomime.
    • This activity may work best with groups no larger than six to seven students. (It is preferred that these groups be the same groups students will work in for the remainder of the project.)
    • The “Story Chain” activity begins with a one line prompt. This can come from the teacher or from a student. An example could be, “Pat walks into a forest”.
    • Another student will add the next sentence (ONE) detail to the story, making sure to remain in third person, as well as relate to the details mentioned before.
      • Good example: “Pat walks into a forest. He hears birds chirping.”
      • Bad example: “Pat walks into a forest. Pat sees a dolphin jumping out of the ocean.” This is not a good example because you would not see a dolphin in the middle of a forest.
    • As a student shares their one sentence detail, they will pantomime the verb(s) within the sentence.
  • The activity continues with each student in the group adding a new detail to the story, making sure to remain in third person, as well as relate to the details previously mentioned.
  • Debrief the activity by discussing what students had to do to be successful–listen to each other and build off of one another’s ideas. Discuss the word “collaboration” with students.
  • The goal of this activity is to get students listening to each other (they will have to do this when they collaboratively write their play), making ideas connect (their individual animal descriptions/details must connect within their play), and moving in ways related to what they are saying (in the play they will have to perform in the role they have chosen).
  • Disclaimer: Students can take the story in any direction they like; however, they just need to make sure the details lead them there. For instance, “Pat walks into a forest. Pat hears birds chirping. Now Pat is walking on the planet Pluto.” It is okay for Pat to end up on Pluto, the students just need to provide the details of how Pat gets there.

Work Session

Part I - Writing the Play:

  • If not done already from the activating activity, the teacher will place students into groups of six to seven students (group of seven will have an added animal group of invertebrates).
  • Teacher will preview theatre vocabulary with class (character, dialogue, playwright, setting).
    • Remind students what it means to collaborate with others.
  • Students will pick roles (if students cannot select on their own, write the roles on slips of paper and have students randomly select roles.): Zoo keeper (narrator), mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, (optional invertebrate).
  • Each group will compose a rough draft of their play. To begin, each student within the group will write at least four lines for the play that includes at least three characteristics of the vertebrate subgroup they chose to portray (i.e., mammal, bird, etc.). The zookeeper should write questions to ask each animal character in order to help classify each animal. The zookeeper will need to work closely with each animal to ensure the zookeeper’s questions are answered by each animal. The zookeeper needs to be sure to “assign” each animal to a particular group in the zoo (which will be either the mammal group, bird group, reptile group, etc.)
  • The zookeeper can really take on a fun role by including the audience in the dialogue of the play. For instance, as the zookeeper discovers attributes of each animal he/she can ask the audience “yes or no” questions like “Hmmm, this animal has feathers. Does it belong in the amphibian group? etc.
  • As a group, students will decide the order the characters will appear and compose the final script.
  • Teacher will formatively assess students during the writing process using the Teacher Timeline Checklist to ensure students remain on task. At the completion of the play writing, the teacher will use Project Rubric (Task A) to summatively assess the written portion of the play.

Part II - Constructing the Mask:

  • The teacher will briefly introduce relief sculpture, armature, and balance to help students understand how to create their masks.
  • Students will design a mask of their selected animal using the mask template. Students will plan the color, shape, texture, and armature(s) (extensions) of the mask.
  • Give each student a plastic mask or masks template printed on cardstock.
  • Students can build the armature off the base mask to create features such as horns, fins, ears, snouts, etc. using newspaper, paper towel rolls, and masking tape
  • Students will use markers, glue, and texture materials to decorate masks. Students will include appropriate media for their selected animal (faux fur for mammal, mesh netting for reptile or fish, feathers for bird, etc).
  • Teacher will formatively assess using the Teacher Checklist and will also summatively assess using the Project Rubric (Task B).
  • Teacher note: If time is a concern, students can simply draw patterns on their paper masks to represent their animal’s physical features and texture rather than gluing materials onto the mask.

Part III - Dramatizing the Play:

  • Finally, each group will rehearse its play, focusing on their character’s voice and how their character would move. Groups will also need to focus on the ensemble and stage blocking of each character to ensure group collaboration. Discuss the concept of blocking with students.
  • Each group will dramatize the play for an audience. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to student performances.
  • Teacher will summatively assess using the attached Project Rubric (Task C).

Classroom Tips:

  • Allow adequate time for the creative process. (The unit is designed to be taught over three to five days; however, portions of the project could be left out or extended as the teacher sees fit.)
  • On the mask-creating day, prepare the classroom for easy clean up by covering tables and desks with butcher paper or newspaper. Have towels available for spills and for students to wipe hands at the conclusion of activity.
  • On the play dramatization day, designate an area in the classroom for students to perform.

Closing Reflection

  • After performances, have students reflect on the process with the following questions:
    • How did the dramatization help you model the classification of animals?
    • How did creating the animal mask help you understand the characteristics/attributes of your animal group?
    • How did writing your character’s role in the group’s play help you communicate the characteristics/attributes of your animal group?
    • Is there anything about your group’s project you would like to change in order to make it better?
    • Name one “glow” and one “grow” for your personal contribution to your group’s performance.


Assessments

Formative

  • Teacher Checklist
  • Checking in with students as they are playwriting and creating their masks
  • Questioning during activities

Summative

Project Rubric

Differentiation

Acceleration: 

  • Provide students with the opportunity to include animal adaptation in the storyline of their script. Also let them consider writing an epilogue to their play. This would include writing about what happens to the characters “after” the story is resolved.
  • Classes could pair with a younger grade level to perform plays. At the conclusion of performances, fifth grade students can pair with younger students to complete reflection questions.
  • For an extension of this particular project, technology can be incorporated in many ways.  One way that technology can be incorporated is by using the apps of Dolnk, or Touchcast. These apps are green screen apps that the students can use to create and produce backgrounds if they chose not to perform the play production in a live setting. The students will record using an iPad or mobile device and the production can then be played back for other students at a later time.

Remediation:

  • Provide students with an example of an animal with the characteristics of both invertebrates and vertebrates. Direct students to act out each animal sound.
  • Limit the audience size for students reluctant to perform for a large group.


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (could also be used as an activating activity)

Credits

U.S. Department of Education- STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning

Ideas contributed by: Virginia Diederich and Sarah Weiss. Edited by: Jessica Espinoza. Edited by Dr. Carla Cohen.

*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.

Revised and copyright:  June 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

Back to Lessons