Habitat Inquiry

It is difficult to know where to start.  For the last six weeks, we have been reading, writing, and researching different habitats.  It has been quite the cross curricular inquiry project.  The students have learned and applied so many important skills.  They are pretty spectacular!  First each inquiry group read several books about a habitat.  Some of the habitats we studied included grasslands, ocean, wetlands, desserts, and woodlands.  Through our whole group discussion, we discovered that all the habitats meet animal and plant basic needs.  As a class, we made this short informational video about basic needs.



In science, this habitat study has led to discussions about living and nonliving, producers and consumers, food chains, adaptations, and more.  Our class checked out every habitat book from the library.  They also utilized our schools' subscription to WorldBook , a website called Wonderopolis, and we learned from Animal Atlas videos.  We found some great interactive games on food chains and adaptations.  Click on the links above to check them out!

We also incorporated some art.  Each inquiry group made a mural of their habitat.  The groups were sure to include the basic needs of the habitat, as well as, some of the living and nonliving things that are in the habitat.  The children had to use team work to create the murals.  Also, each child wrote a poem about one of the habitats we have studied.  Here are a few of the poems and the finished murals.

Hot and Grassy

Yellow and Green

A few trees and many flowers

Home to cheetahs, elephants, and zebras

The savanna is pretty

by Savannah

Hot and dry
Sand and rocks
Filled with cactus
Home to owls, camels, and snakes
The Dessert
by Bradyn

Wet and grassy.
Big and clear.
Filled with cattails and water lilies.
Home to ducks, fish, and frogs.
The pond is a habitat.
by Matthew

Prairie
Flat and Grassy
Hills and Trees
Filled with plants and holes.
Home to deer, prairie dogs, and antelope.
The prairie is a habitat.
by Nathan

Water and Soil
Plants and Animals
Filled with trees and flowers.
Home to squirrels, eagles, and wolves.
The forest is a home.
by Sawyer

For the last part of the inquiry project, we teched it up a notch!  The students added animals to the murals.  They had to research their animal and discover some of the adaptations that animal has to live in it's habitat.  Then, the students each made a short video clip stating one of the animal's adaptations.  We borrowed the green screen from the Eagle Cliffs Student News Crew.  Our Billings Schools technology integration specialist, Mr. Harvey, came in and helped us use the green screen to make it look like we were in the habitat we were talking about.  Check out a couple of our clips!

We wanted our videos to be published on our murals.  We used augmented reality with an app called Arasma.  The students used the animals they made and turned them into a trigger image.  When the students hold their ipads over the animal, the video appears like magic!  Even more impressive, the students could take you step by step through how connect a video to an image in the Arasma app.  The techie murals are up in the hallway!  Feel free to stop by and an amazing first grader can show you all our hard work.