A Wild Family Album!

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As part of a life science unit, students select and research an animal of their choice. Using resources such as the Internet, books, magazines, and encyclopedias, students use a graphic organizer note the animal’s classification, food, shelter, geographical range, family members, and interesting facts. Following project guidelines and a rubric, students then gather a wide assortment of pictures of their animal and its food, prey, shelter, and homes, presenting all the written information in first person captions under the photographs. Pictures and captions are mounted in a binder, folder, or photo album. The completed project is a scrapbook-style Animal Family Album that students share with their classmates and display for the school.

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

1. Use varied resources to gather information about an animal of their choice.
2. Gather pictures of their animal, components of its habitat, and family members from magazines and the Internet.
3. Use their research material to write informative captions for each photo.
4. Follow a rubric to publish their research information and photos as a scrapbook style Animal Family Album.

LESSONS FOR THIS UNIT
Lesson 1: Creating a Wild Family Album

REPRODUCIBLES
Animal Family Album Research Organizer (PDF)
Animal Family Guidelines with Rubric (PDF)

CULMINATING ACTIVITY

Students orally present their completed Animal Family Albums to the class. Afterwards, their work is displayed for all the school to see.

SUPPORTING BOOKS

Books for Teaching about Animals and Research Reports

Teaching Imagery with Gary Paulsen
Introduces a lesson plan in reading a memoir, drawing conclusions, identifying it's characteristics, and students applying that knowledge...

Responding to Literature — Character Analysis
Describes a lesson unit designed to teach students to create a written literary analysis of characters, plot, structure, and theme. A fun craft...

Learning Myths, Writing Myths
Shares a lesson unit on ancient greece. Students identify what story elements constitute a myth, compare three myths and create their own original...

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