COLLECTION
UPPER ELEMENTARY | SCIENCE
No Monkeys, No Chocolate
Students will play a game pretending to be birds hunting for worms to understand how camouflage is an effective adaptation for survival over many generations. Students will play another game hiding different color “insects” made of pipe cleaners in the garden to understand camouflage further. Students will also explore plant adaptations and co-adaptations or co-evolution.
Concepts: Plant and Animal Adaptations
Essential Questions
- How can organisms adapt to survive?
Standards Addressed
Focus
S4L2. Students will identify factors that affect the survival or extinction of organisms such as adaptation, variation of behaviors (hibernation), and external features (camouflage and protection).
- a. Identify external features of organisms that allow them to survive or reproduce better than organisms that do not have these features (for example: camouflage, use of hibernation, protection, etc.).
- b. Identify factors that may have led to the extinction of some organisms.
Explorations in this Collection
Researching Co-Adaptations
Searching for Plant Adaptations in the Garden
Further Exploring Camouflage
Surviving as a Worm for the Birds
Recommended Resources
Children’s Literature
- No Monkeys, No Chocolate by Melissa Stewart
- The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George
- A Frog in a Bog by John Himmelaman
- At Home with the Gopher Tortoise: The Story of a Keystone Species by Madeleine Dunphy
- How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
- Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost
- Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn O. Gailbraith
- The Story Goes On by Aileen Fisher
- Trout are Made of Trees by April Pulley Sayre
- A Warmer World by Caroline Arnold
- When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature’s Balance in Yellowstone by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent