Pondlife Safari

Introduction:

In this activity, students will learn about the different plants, animals and insects that live in a pond life environment.

Materials:

Gather a large supply of magazines with plants and animal pictures that the students can cut out. Great examples are: Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard, National Geographic Jr., National Wildlife, International Wildlife. The students can bring in magazines, or you can find back issues at your school's library. You will also need: scissors, paste/glue and construction paper

Procedure:

• Tell the students that they are going on a pondlife safari. Then pass out the magazines that you have collected. Have the students to cut out pictures of as many different kinds of pond plants and animals that they can find. Once they've collected their pictures, have a sharing session.

• Allow the students pretend that their pictures are real animals and plants. Tell them that they need to organize them into exhibits for a new pondlife habitat museum. Animals pictures can be categorized by: How they move, What they eat, The number of legs that they have, and color. Plant pictures can be categorized by: grow in water, grow on land, tall or short.
  
• Students will use information to complete Fact Cards about each animal in their exhibit.
  
• They will type information
  
• Proofread, spell check and print (cards can be laminated)
  
• Fact cards will be part of exhibit
  

Home Learning:

Have the students to make a pondlife postcard using the left over magazine pictures from class. Each postcard should have a sentence telling about the picture.

Evaluation:

Pass out drawing or construction paper. Have students to name their exhibits, and create picture book for at least one of the classifications. This book can be created simply by stapling several sheets of construction paper together and gluing pictures of plants or animals to each page. Allow the students to share their completed books and place them in your classroom library.

Field Trip:

Allow the students to visit a virtual pond at:

Enchanted Learning- Pondlife.

Extension: Parts of a Frog and Toad

• Students will research the basic parts of an amphibian at Wildlife Ponds 
• Take notes using index cards
• List the parts of a frog and toad: gills, webbed feet, front legs, back legs, head, body, stomach
• Have students draw a frog or toad using a draw program, or students can insert the picture of a frog or toad and label picture
• Draw a line to each basic part
• Have students write 2-3 sentences about each basic part
• Students can add color to frog or toad using the paint bucket
• Proofread, spell check, print
• Add information to Field Notes