Living Things ... Animal Homes!

*** Parents : The Needs of Living Things is a curriculum expectation of Grade 1. In Kindergarten, I am introducing the concepts, but not in as much detail **** 

First of all - How are your seeds doing? 
Sometimes the seeds get moldy and they don't grow. If that happened to you, that's okay, just compost them! 

We have learned that plants need certain things to grow. Can you remember what plants need?
Plants Need:
Air
Water
Nutrients (Food)(mostly from soil) 
Sunlight 

Do animals (including humans) need the same things to stay alive? 
(Parents - let your children answer the questions :)
Do you need air? Yes! We need to breathe!
Do you need water? Yes! We need it to drink!
Do you need food? Yes! We need to eat!
Do we need sunlight? We need to eat plants, and they need the sun, so yes, we do!

Think about our goldfish, Gumball. 
Does Gumball need air? hmmm -- she does, but she gets her oxygen (oxygen is in air) from the water - she breathes through her gills!
Does Gumball need water? Yes, of course she does! She lives in water! 
Does she need food? Yes! We feed her every day.  
Does she need sunlight? Just like people, she eats plants, and plants need the sun, so yes, she needs the sun. 

There is something else that many animals need to live. It is something that we talked about last week. Animals need somewhere to live. People need shelter. Do you remember when we talked about our homes? They protect us from the weather (and from other animals).

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  Let's talk about animal homes!
 Some of you listed some animal homes when we made lists of different kinds of homes.
Can you think of any more?

Try it!
Make a list of as many animal homes as you can think of!
 

Why do you think that the animals that you chose live in that home? For example, Why do you think a bird sleeps in a nest in a tree? Why doesn't a horse sleep in a nest in a tree? 

 (The area that an animal lives in is its habitat. An animal might have a separate home in its habitat where sleeps or has its babies)

This story is by one of my favourite-author illustrators,  Il Sung Na.
Read along to Welcome Home Bear.

Where did bear end up choosing for his home? Why do you think he chose this place?
 
This book is a  nonfiction book about Animal Homes. A nonfiction book is an information book. This one uses photographs to help us learn about animal homes.
 

Here is a great video song for all of you who like to sing! 

Everyone needs a home!

 

Try it!
Do you have an animal stuffie or a toy animal? Can you build a home for it? You can use whatever material you like, or mix them up! You could use cardboard or paper or boxes or socks or Lego, or blocks....
Explain to someone why you built the home the way you did. Why was the way you built it important to the animal that will live there?