MINIUNIT

Jackelyn Mejia
Professor Lacey Peters
ECC 300
May 3. 2019

Age Group:
4-5-year old's

Central Focus:
Science- Animal Habitat

Essential Question:
Why do these animals need to live in these habitats (grassland, aquatic, and rain forest)?
How do you know that a (Jaguar, bird, elephant, penguin, zebra, shark, giraffe, whale, and monkey) figurines?
live in this habitat?
Why do animal’s live in different habitats?
How do animal’s habitats differ from each other?

Goals of the Mini-unit:

Children will demonstrate a comprehension that different animals live in different habitats. They will differentiate the habitats of
animals by three categories: rainforest, aquatic and grassland animal habitat. This mini-unit will create a respect for living creatures
and the importance of their habitats for their survival.

Describe each of the learning experiences (aka lessons) – What do you want children to do during the mini-unit? Each activity must
build on one another. You also need to think about how each activity will help children explore answers to your essential questions
and how they will help them meet the goals of the mini-unit.
MINIUNIT
Lesson 1 – Introduction
Materials:
BOOK: Where do animals live? Rocio Bonilla
Tier 2 Words:
Habitat
Rain Forest
Aquatic
Grassland
Before reading the book “Where do animals live?”
written by Rocio Bonilla. I will introduce the science
unit of animal habitats by defining the word habitats and
explaining to the children that animal habitats are where
animals live. Different animals live in different habitats.
Different habitats provide the needs that the animals
need to survive as in air, water, food, shelter and space.
While doing the dialogical reading I will introduce rain
forest animals, aquatic animals and grassland animals. I
will ask the children questions as in who has seen this
animal? where did you see this animal? The main
vocabulary words will be to increase their knowledge on
different habitats and the animals that live in it.
Lesson 2 – Exploration
Materials
Jaguar, bird, zebra, shark, giraffe, whale, and monkey
figurines
Labels on the table (aquatic, rainforest, grassland)
To help the children explore the unit on animal habitats.
I will guide the children in the activity, by setting up
three tables with different habitats (aquatic, grassland,
and rainforest) labels on them. And will spread out
different animal figurines in the classroom.
The first step will be to reintroduce the habitats that we
saw in the book prior to the activity and show the
children each table and explain that each table represents
an animal home. I will then show the children the
figurines and explain that we will be putting each animal
in their home.
They will have the opportunity to go around the
classroom look for the animal and put it in the right
table with the animal habitat (grassland, aquatic,
rainforest).
The instructor will then wait till the activity is over and
conclude it with questions as in:
What animal (jaguar, bird, zebra, shark, giraffe, whale,
and monkey) is this? What is the difference between
aquatic, grassland, and rainforest habitats? How do you
know this?
Children will explore the classroom for the animal
figurines and learn that animals live in different habitats
depending on their need for survival.
Lesson 3 – Extension
Materials:
Paper
Punch holder
Markers, crayons, pencils
Scissors
Butcher Paper
Construction paper
BOOK: Where do animals live? Rocio Bonilla
I will explain to the children that we will be doing an
activity that involves picking our own animal mask, they
will have a choice of jaguar, bird, zebra, shark, giraffe,
whale, and monkey.
After we will organize the art center with markers,
crayons, color pencils, scissors, and fabrics and allow
the children to decorate and cut out their own mask.
After they cut out their mask, they will each get a hole
punched on both sides of the mask and a string.
We will use different materials as in a butcher paper,
construction paper of all sorts of colors to decorate our
pretend play center as one of the three habitats we have
been focusing on (grassland, aquatic, rainforest).
I will then ask the students to go to the pretend play
center and to get in the group with their peers with their
animal mask in the same habitat.
To conclude the activity, I will ask them how we sorted
the animals and what else do they know about the
animals.
MINIUNIT