ALEX Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (0) 1 :

1. Actively listen and speak using agreed-upon rules for discussion, with guidance and support.

a. Use speech that is understandable with only grade-appropriate errors.

b. Use word endings to indicate plurals, possessives, and verb tenses in speech.

Examples: dogs, brother's shirt, jumped

c. Use age-appropriate irregular plurals in conversation.

Examples: foot/feet, tooth/teeth, mouse/mice

d. Listen to others and take turns speaking, carrying on a conversation through multiple exchanges.

[ELA2021] (0) -3 :

R3. Expand background knowledge and build vocabulary through discussion, reading, and writing.

[SC2015] (0) 5 :

5 ) Construct a model of a natural habitat (e.g., terrarium, ant farm, diorama) conducive to meeting the needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.

[ELA2021] (0) -5 :

R1. Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.

[ELA2021] (0) 39 :

39. Participate in shared research and writing projects to answer a question or describe a topic.

a. Include information recalled from personal experiences in research and writing projects.

b. Gather information from provided sources for research and writing projects.

In this lesson, students will research a variety of animals, plants, and habitats from Alabama. After researching animals, plants, and habitats from Alabama, small groups of students will be assigned a habitat to create.  After creating the habitat in small groups, the small groups of students will share their habitat with their classmates.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (0) 5 :

5 ) Construct a model of a natural habitat (e.g., terrarium, ant farm, diorama) conducive to meeting the needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.

[ELA2021] (0) 37 :

37. Actively participate in shared and independent writing experiences, for varied purposes and audiences, across different genres.

a. Actively participate in shared writing experiences to create messages, lists, and labels for a drawing or illustration.

b. Actively participate in shared writing experiences to create narratives with the events in chronological order and share feelings about the story, using drawing, dictating, and/or writing.

c. Actively participate in shared writing experiences to create opinion pieces about a topic or text, state the opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide a sense of closure, using drawing, dictating, and/or writing.

d. Actively participate in shared writing experiences to create explanatory texts or provide factual information about a topic, using drawing, dictating, and/or writing.

e. With prompting and support, compose writing for varied purposes and audiences, across different genres.

In this lesson, students will explore and construct forest habitats of plants and animals native to Alabama. In the beginning, students will activate their prior knowledge by reviewing the definition of a habitat and discussing what they know about forests to create a KWL chart. Next, the book A Forest Habitat by Bobbie Kalman is used to further the students learning of the components that comprise a forest habitat and how those components interact with one another. The students will demonstrate their learning through animal sorts, habitat construction, and informational writing using the conventions of Standard English such as capitalization and punctuation. For the conclusion, the students will peer edit their writing using the provided writing anchor chart before presenting their learning to others.

This lesson was created as part of the ALEX Gap Project.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (0) 39 :

39. Participate in shared research and writing projects to answer a question or describe a topic.

a. Include information recalled from personal experiences in research and writing projects.

b. Gather information from provided sources for research and writing projects.

[SC2015] (0) 5 :

5 ) Construct a model of a natural habitat (e.g., terrarium, ant farm, diorama) conducive to meeting the needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.

Students will begin by brainstorming a list of needs that must be met for an animal to survive in its habitat. Next, the students will observe an ant farm, created by the teacher prior to the lesson, and determine how the ants' needs are being met through their environment. Then, students will create a list of needs that must be met for a plant to survive in its habitat and compare this list to animals' survival needs. Lastly, the teacher will assist students in developing a plan to build a natural habitat conducive to meeting the needs of a plant. At the conclusion of the lesson, the students will construct a plant terrarium. 

This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ARTS] VISA (0) 2 :

2) Explore collaboratively in creative art-making.

Example: Work with a partner to create a project.

[SC2015] (0) 5 :

5 ) Construct a model of a natural habitat (e.g., terrarium, ant farm, diorama) conducive to meeting the needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.

This learning activity should be used after a lesson or unit on animals native to Alabama and their habitats. The teacher will read the book If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss or use the digital resource as a read-aloud of the book. The students will then work with a partner to pretend like they are in charge of the zoo and need to build a new animal habitat for an animal native to Alabama. The students will create a drawing of a habitat for an animal native to Alabama.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (0) 5 :

5 ) Construct a model of a natural habitat (e.g., terrarium, ant farm, diorama) conducive to meeting the needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.

Students will create a classroom terrarium. Everything the plant needs (food, soil, and water) will be placed inside a plastic bottle and the bottle will be sealed. The students will place the bottle in the sunlight and watch the plants grow.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (0) 5 :

5 ) Construct a model of a natural habitat (e.g., terrarium, ant farm, diorama) conducive to meeting the needs of plants and animals native to Alabama.

[ELA2021] (0) -5 :

R1. Utilize active listening skills during discussion and conversation in pairs, small groups, or whole-class settings, following agreed-upon rules for participation.

[ELA2021] (0) 2 :

2. Actively engage in teacher-led reading experiences and collaborative discussions with peers to build background knowledge needed to be successful as they learn to read and, later, read to learn.

[ELA2021] (0) 30 :

30. With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in literary and informational texts.

[ELA2021] (1) 16 :

16. Use grade-appropriate academic vocabulary in speaking and writing.

[ELA2021] (2) 4 :

4. Orally answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about a text or conversation, using complete sentences to provide key ideas and details.

[ELA2021] (2) 25 :

25. Identify and use various text features to locate ideas, facts, or supporting details in both written and digital formats.

a. Identify and locate captions, bold print, subheadings, indexes, graphs, maps, glossaries, and illustrations.

b. Explain how specific features can clarify a text or enhance comprehension.

[ELA2021] (2) 46 :

46. Gather and use research to answer questions to complete a research product.

a. Create topics of interest for a research project.

b. Create questions to gather information for a research project.

c. Find information from a variety of sources.

Examples: books, magazines, newspapers, digital media

d. Define plagiarism and explain the importance of using their own words.

Foregrounding scientific vocabulary, these integrated lesson plans invite students to research worms in order to create a classroom habitat. Students are first introduced to inquiry notebooks and then use them to record what they already know about worms. Next, students observe the cover of a fiction book about worms and make a hypothesis on whether the book is fact or fiction, and then check their hypotheses after the book is read aloud. Next, after an introduction to related scientific words such as hypothesis, habitat, attribute, predator, and prey, students conduct and record research and findings in their inquiry notebooks. Once they have gathered the necessary information, students plan and build a worm habitat, which becomes the springboard for further scientific exploration, observation, and experimentation.