Forts and Garden Homes
COLLECTION
PRIMARY ELEMENTARY | SCIENCE
Forts and Garden Homes
Students will explore their human needs and wants by building a fort in the schoolyard and investigating the features of them. Then students will explore the schoolyard to find evidence of animal life and determine where the animals live and what they need to survive.
Concepts: Plant Needs | Animals
Essential Questions
- What do humans need to survive? How is it different from what humans want to survive?
- What do animals need to survive and how can we provide or protect their habitat?
Standards Addressed
Focus
- S1L1b. Students will ask questions to compare and contrast the basic needs of plants (air, water, light, and nutrients) and animals (air, water, food, and shelter).
- S1L1c. Students will design a solution to ensure that a plant or animal has all of it’s needs met.
Review
- NGSS: KLS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive
Recommended Resources
Online
- AAAS Active Explorer App to create a garden wildlife quest for other students, who can use smartphones or tablets to complete and document their mission in the schoolyard: http://www.active-explorer.com/
- Certify your garden as a Schoolyard Habitat: http://www.nwf.org/Garden-For-Wildlife/Create/Schoolyards/Certify.aspx
- Garden for Wildlife Website: http://www.nwf.org/Garden-For-Wildlife/Create/Schoolyards.aspx
- Make a Home for Wildlife web site (organized by needs of animals found in gardens or by wildlife habitat projects): http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/a-z-of-a-wildlife-garden/animals.aspx
- “What do animals eat?” short film: https://gpb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.colt.eat/what-do-animals-eat/#.WMP7ZLYrKRs