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EDU251 Thematic Unit Plan

Thematic Unit: Discovering the Desert

Emily Anderson

Department of Education, Geneva College

EDU 251: Integrating the Arts

Dr. Michal Wargo

October 7, 2022
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EDU251 Thematic Unit Plan

Name: Emily Anderson

Date: 9/12/22

Unit Title (must include the topic): Discovering the Desert

Grade Level: 4th Grade

1) Broad Unit Understandings/Goals:

 Students will understand that deserts are located all around the world.
 Students will understand the geographical characteristics of deserts.
 Students will become familiar with the extreme temperatures associated with a desert
climate.
 Students will become familiar with the type of animals found in the desert.
 Students will appreciate the cultural components of the desert through art and music.
2) Unit Questions:
- What do temperatures feel like during the day and during the night in most deserts?
- What types of plants and animals can be found in the desert, and how do they survive
in the desert climate?
- How is a cold desert different from a hot desert?
- How is a desert biome different compared to other biomes?
- Do people travel through the desert in similar ways to those traveling in a city?
- Why might people live in the desert?
- What might be the best way to travel through the desert?
- How might houses and buildings be built in the desert?
- How is the desert important to our everyday life?
- Would the world look different if temperatures were the same everywhere around the
world?
3) State/Common Core Standards (obtained from PDESAS):
- 4.5.4.D. – Environment and Ecology – Biodiversity - explain how specific adaptations
can help organisms survive in their environment
- 7.2.4.A. – Geography – Physical Characteristics of Places and Regions - identify the
physical characteristics of places and regions
- CC.2.4.4.A.2 – Mathematics – Measurements and Data – translate information from one
type of data display to another
- CC.1.3.4.E – Reading Literature – Craft and Structure of Text – explain major
differences between poems, drama, and prose and refer to the elements of each when
writing or speaking about a text
4) Learning Objectives:
- Students will identify the various plants and animals found in a desert ecosystem.
- Students will compare and contrast the various desert types, including other
environment types.
- Students will interpret and construct data related to the desert’s climate.
- Students will create visual and written works of art in reflecting on the physical and
cultural elements of the desert.
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- Students will discover the specific types of music and instruments of the desert and
their cultural influence on music in the desert.

5) Description of Unit:
The unit, Discovering the Desert, is geared specifically towards fourth grade. For
this unit, students will gain an in-depth understanding of the desert through each of the
content areas including reading, writing, mathematics, social studies, and science.
Students aren’t limited to gaining knowledge just from those areas, as they will
additionally explore the desert in its relation to art, music, and physical
education/movement. As students obtain an in-depth understanding of the desert through
these classroom activities, they will be pick up on key ideas such as, the adaptations of
animals, the physical characteristics of an environment, examining data and constructing
data related to conditions of an environment, and identifying differences between several
types of written works. Overall, students learning about the desert grants them the chance
to connect to the environment without necessarily being present in it.
6) Introduction
With the unit, Discovering the Desert, it allows fourth grade students to
experience the desert through the various content areas. Further students will be able to
identify how the desert relates to their own life and education through the various
activities conducted in the classroom. For students in fourth grade, this is a great way to
expand their knowledge surrounding a biome, as this is the first year students take the
science PSSAs. Moving forward, these various activities include activities that are play-
based, experience-based, and project-based.
In highlighting these play-based activities, students can work individually or
collectively with their peers in the classroom. A play-based experience centers around
more of an independence in student learning with the activity most likely being of interest
to the student. A play-based experience could be done through students playing a game.
For instance, the game, “Feed the Dingo: An Ecosystem Game” by Plum Landing, can be
incorporated into the classroom. The objective of the game is for students to create a
healthy, thriving ecosystem. Students are provided with twelve organisms they can place
into their desert ecosystem, consisting of spinifex grass, never-fail grass, Sturt’s desert
pea, mulga tree, desert bloodwood tree, ant, termite, spiny-cheeked honeyeater, thorny
devil, red kangaroo, spinifex-hopping mouse, bilby, wedged-tail eagle, and a dingo. They
are only allowed to place out five organisms each day. The game has twelve rounds, or
days, and after each day a summary is provided for the health of the ecosystem, as well as
the health of each individual organism and what the organism may need to continue
thriving. At the end of the game, the player is presented with a score for how well they
managed the ecosystem. Students could play this game on classroom computers or
classroom iPads, or even the teacher could project her computer screen on the board and
students could collectively work together on managing the ecosystem. This activity is
significant, as it goes alongside the standard under Environment and Ecology- Materials
Cycles- 4.1.4.B. – identify how matter cycles through an ecosystem, trace how death,
growth, and decay cycle matter through an ecosystem. Not only do students learn about
several types of animals and plants in the desert, but they learn how they rely on one
another for this exchange of energy for their survival.
In breaking down an experience-based activity, students could either go on a field
trip or a guest speaker from a zoo could come into the classroom to speak to students
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EDU251 Thematic Unit Plan

about animals living in the desert, in which they could present visuals of the animals
found at their zoo. An example of a virtual field trip that could be implemented as part of
an experience-based activity, is of the Mojave Desert found on YouTube by NG Science.
This video dives into the temperatures experienced in the desert, the landscape of the
desert, vegetation of the desert, animals found in the desert like the California slow-
moving turtle, and how the desert is also referred to by the name Death Valley. While the
teacher can play this video in the classroom for students to visually experience what the
desert is like, the teacher can also set up stations in the classroom for students to explore
after the video is finished. These stations can consist of students looking at more visuals
of the desert in terms of its landscape, its vegetation, and animals, including having
students write down what they learned about a specific feature, animal, or plant
mentioned in the video. As a result, students can become more familiar with the
characteristics and life found in the desert.
In concluding with a project-based activity, students can make their own cacti as
part of a visual arts project and doing so through the process of paper mache. Students
will use newspaper, masking tape, acrylic paint, a Mason jar lid (my idea), and a hot glue
gun (the article suggests cement, but I would have the teacher use and handle hot glue).
For this project, students will roll newspaper up into the shape of a cactus and then use
the masking tape to hold it together. Students can then add prepared paper mache onto
their cactus and once it dries, they then can decorate their cactus with the acrylic paints.
Finally, with help from the teacher, the teacher can glue the cactus onto the Mason jar lid.
This project-based activity can help students make connections to the structure of a real-
life cactus.
In tying in play-based, experience-based, and project-based experiences, the
student is provided with a handful of opportunities to learn about the desert without
learning being done in the same manner each time. Adding variety to the classroom
allows for students with a particular learning style to connect to their learning, but it also
challenges students to learn in ways that are unfamiliar to them. Through these varying
experiences, it shows students that learning isn’t carried out in one particular way, and it
allows for students to form greater connections when they realize that they can connect
what they are learning back to each content area.
 You must choose three items from the categories listed below
o Visual art ideas related to the topic—things the children can make
o Music ideas related to the topic: words and tunes to songs needed—if you don’t
know the melody don’t include it.
o Children’s books related to the topic: title, author, and summary needed
o Creative movement ideas related to the topic
o Games related to the topic: rules needed for unfamiliar games
o Drama ideas related to the topic including pantomime and improvisation ideas
o Art or artists that can be used to teach the topic—explain the connections.
o Ways to integrate science and health using any of the arts (1 or more arts) into
the topic. Include activity ideas with enough information that you could use the
idea without additional information.
o Ways to integrate social studies using any of the arts into the topic
o Ways to integrate math using any of the arts into the topic
o Ways to integrate other children’s literature (poems, riddles) into the topic
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o Field trips and guest speakers related to the topic

o Multicultural ideas related to the topic

7) Additional Standards and Assessment

- 4.5.4.D. – Environment and Ecology – Biodiversity - explain how specific adaptations
can help organisms survive in their environment

The areas of Science and Health can be examined according to this standard.
Students can watch the video “Desert Animal Adaptations” as a part of the Vegas PBS
Steam Camp. The video dives into how animals adapt to the desert climate, suggesting
things like turtles burrowing and the Gila monster eating one meal every so often in
living a limited active life. Students can then be provided a formative assessment, by the
teacher asking students to explain a few of the ways in which the animals adapt to their
environment as mentioned in the video. In connecting science and health furthermore, the
teacher can have students create a flow chart on paper that demonstrates ways in which
animals prioritize their health and then have students make a separate flow chart beside
the animal’s flow chart, identifying ways in which they take care of their health as
humans.

- 7.2.4.A. – Geography – Physical Characteristics of Places and Regions - identify the

physical characteristics of places and regions

Social studies with the help of the arts can be met according to this standard. An
activity that could go along with this activity is having students create their own map and
key on paper by using markers and crayons to depict a specific desert located in the U.S.
or around the world. Students can look up a particular desert region online, and students
can be shown the example of the Sonoran Desert Region from the Arizona-Sonora
Desert Museum as a guide for their own map, but the teacher should have the students
further indicate the physical characteristics and vegetation of this area. In measuring
students’ knowledge presented through their maps, the teacher can go through a
checklist, ensuring students chose a desert region, they labeled their map correctly, and
that they added enough detail to distinguish the physical characteristics of the
environment.

- CC.2.4.4.A.2 – Mathematics – Measurements and Data - translate information from one

type of data display to another

Mathematics with the help of the arts can be met according to this standard.
Students can create their own graph and chart according to the data provided by NASA on
the annual rainfall and temperatures from the time period of 1970-2000. Students can
create their graphs and charts on paper using markers and a ruler to keep their data
displays organized. A summative assessment can be conducted afterwards by asking
students details about either a graph or chart related to the one they make in class, like
“How much rainfall was there in the month of March?” and “What month had the least
amount of rain in looking at both the graph and chart?”. Students therefore can interpret
and organize data based on characteristics of the desert environment.
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EDU251 Thematic Unit Plan

- CC.1.3.4.C – ELA – Key Ideas and Details, Literary Elements – describe in depth a
character, setting, or event in a story/drama, drawing on specific details in text

The books Grand Canyon by Jason Chin and Watching Desert Wildlife by Jim
Arnosky can be implemented in touching upon this standard. In the book Grand Canyon,
the author dives into the wonders of the Grand Canyon and how it has become to look the
way it now does, as explored by a father and daughter over time. With the book,
Watching Desert Wildlife, the author and scientist describes his journey through the
American Southwest, mentioning the wildlife he manages to see, such as the Gila
monster, snakes, lizards, deer, and hummingbirds. After reading both of these books,
students can cut out ten pictures from magazines and glue them on a piece of paper to
identify what they took away from each book, creating two separate pictures. Students
can then explain why they chose three of the pictures for each of their overall pictures
they made. A checklist can be used to interpret whether or not a student, included the
assigned number of pictures, they organized the pictures in a meaningful way, and if they
chose three pictures in talking about their significance in being included in the picture.
Through these books, students can become familiar with how others view the desert,
picking up on the images associated with the desert.

- CC.1.3.4.E – Reading Literature – Craft and Structure of Text – explain major

differences between poems, drama, and prose and refer to the elements of each when
writing or speaking about a text

Students can meet this standard by creating their own Bedouin poem, a poem of
significant importance to those living in the Middle East, as they chant them during
travel. A Bedouin poem is seven lines or less and relates to one’s culture, family, or
desires. The teacher can then compare a poem to the books previously mentioned above,
and to an example if they had students act out one of the books. An example students can
look at of a Bedouin poem in recognizing its structure and then moving into writing their
own is the following written by Malihah Zawaideh:

“Oh my family, I miss you

If my heart were a stone it would drop down to meet you
Oh you tree on top of the mountain
The gazelle is sleeping in the hot hours of the day, the sound of the rain knocks against the tree
Oh woods on the top of the mountain
She is very beautiful, all the men track her steps like wolves following the goats”

Students can be assessed on the content of their own poem through a rubric, identifying
whether the student met the criteria for the length, content, and overall creativity included in the
poem. From this, students can learn to appreciate another culture and identify an additional form
of writing.

**Your final product should include:

 A title page (APA format)
 The completed thematic unit plan (above)
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 The completed thematic graphic plan of subjects/ideas/projects (below)

 Reference page (APA format)
 Expectations
o Points will be deducted for ideas that are not plausible, fully explained, or
standards and assessments that are not reasonable.
o Points will be deducted for errors in mechanics, inconsistencies, omissions, lack
of neatness, and late work.
o Final product will be uploaded to eLearning.

Other areas to consider: Community or Pop Culture, IEP goals (gifted, IDD, SLD, etc.)
Literature, History, Technology

*History focuses on the people and human contributions that led to historical (past) events.
Thematic Graphic Plan
*Social Studies encompasses history (past events) and focuses on human society. Social
Studies also includes geography, civics, economics, and sociology.

Activities that go along with a classroom desert theme🏜:

Reading: Reading the book Grand Canyon

Reading the book Watching Desert Wildlife

Identifying desert vocab in the books above

Science: Watch a video on animal adaptations in the desert

Play an online interactive game on managing a desert ecosystem

Create Venn diagrams on paper or using technology to compare and contrast each of the other
biomes (grasslands, savanna, tundra, tropical rainforest, temperate forest, and taiga forest) to the
desert biome

Music: Listen to ancient Arabian Desert music

Create an instrument found in the desert culture – darbuka, make it out of Pringle can and put
napkin over top and rubber band to make drum

Social Studies: Create a map of a desert region

Explore an interactive online website on various desert types and characteristics associated with
the environment
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Math: Observe data presented on rainfall and temperatures for a desert and discuss any similar
patterns or outliers presented in the data

Compare and convert desert temperatures between degrees Fahrenheit and degrees Celsius

P.E./Movement: Participate in a virtual field trip and walk around the classroom to visit stations
corresponding to locations and topics mentioned in video

Watch an interactive video taking place in a desert that gets students to move around

Art: Look at paintings of deserts presented by a few artists and talk about the components
presented in the work of art

Create a paper mache cactus

Writing: Write a Bedouin poem

Write a story related to being stuck in the desert and what you would do
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Works Cited

Abma, B. (2015). Bedouin music: the poetic music of the desert. Wadi Rum
Nomads Desert Memories for Life.
https://www.wadirumnomads.com/bedouin-music/#:~:text=Music
%20instruments%20used%20for%20Bedouin%20music&text=We
%20use%20the%20rababa%2C%20the%20oud%2C%20and%20the
%20darbuka.&text=The%20Rababa%20is%20an%20over,of%20an
%20Arabian%20racing%20horse

Arnosky, J. (2002). Watching Desert Wildlife. National Geographic Kids.

https://www.amazon.com/Watching-Desert-Wildlife-Younger-Reader/
dp/0792267370/ref=sr_1_55?
crid=1CHXYDCHQO397&keywords=desert+books+for+kids&qid=1665
362049&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI0LjQ5IiwicXNhIjoiNC4zMyIsInFzcCI6IjQuM
TkifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=desert+book%2Cstripbooks
%2C94&sr=1-55.

Asymptote. “If my heart were a stone, it would drop down to meet you”: Bedouin
Oral Poetry and Translation as Reciprocity.
https://www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feature/if-my-heart-were-a-
stone-it-would-drop-down-to-meet-you-bedouin-oral-poetry-and-
translation-as-reciprocity-caitlin-woolsey/.

Best Chance. The Science of Play: The Importance of Play-based Learning.

https://www.bestchance.org.au/blog/the-science-of-play-the-importance-
of-play-based-learning/.

Chin, J. (2017). Grand Canyon. Roaring Book Press.

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Canyon-Jason-
Chin/dp/1596439505/ref=sr_1_3?
crid=X8W9UEMJTWLG&keywords=grand+canyon+kids+book&qid=16
65362127&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI0LjAxIiwicXNhIjoiMy4zNSIsInFzcCI6IjMu
MzAifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=Grand+Canyon%2Cstripbooks
%2C97&sr=1-3.

Coach Corey Martin. (2021). YouTube. (Desert Chase, Brain Break, GoNoodle
Inspired). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUEHJu90TAU.

DK Find Out! Deserts. https://www.dkfindout.com/us/earth/deserts/.

Donovan, L. & Pascale, L. (2012) Integrating the Arts Across the Content Areas.
Shell Education.
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Ducksters. Biomes Desert.

https://www.ducksters.com/science/ecosystems/desert_biome.php.

Ducksters. Desert Geography. https://www.ducksters.com/geography/deserts.php.

Fantasy & World Music by the Fiechters. (2014). YouTube. (Ancient Arabian
Music – Cobra Desert). https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=a7Vwzw2WTzk.

Japenga, A. Early Painters of the Borrego Desert. California Desert Art – Art,
History and Landscape of the California Desert.
https://www.californiadesertart.com/early-painters-of-the-borrego-desert/.

Math is Fun. Interactive Thermometer.

https://www.mathsisfun.com/measure/thermometer.html.

Meri Chery. Paper Mache Cactus Plants.

https://mericherry.com/2018/05/21/paper-mache-cactus-plants/.

NASA. Desert. Earth Observatory.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/biome/biodesert.php.

NG Science. (2020). YouTube. (Mojave Desert – Virtual Field Trip).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA55JxzyQck.

PBS Learning Media. Desert Animal Adaptations. WQED.

https://wqed.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/desert-animal-adaptations-
video/vegas-pbs-steam-camp/.

PBS Learning Media. Feed the Dingo: An Ecosystem Game. WQED.

https://wqed.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/plum14.sci.life.feeddingo/
feed-the-dingo-an-ecosystem-game/.

Teaching Resource. Desert Word Wall Vocabulary.

https://www.teachstarter.com/us/teaching-resource/desert-word-wall-
vocabulary-us/.

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Al-Taghrooda

traditional Bedouin chanted poetry in the United Arab Emirates and
Sultanate of Oman. Intangible Cultural Heritage.
https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/al-taghrooda-traditional-bedouin-chanted-
poetry-in-the-united-arab-emirates-and-the-sultanate-of-oman-00744.

Standards Aligned System. https://www.pdesas.org/Page/Viewer/ViewPage/11.

Wasko, B. (2011). Write At Home.

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http://blog.writeathome.com/index.php/2011/11/descriptive-writing-
prompt-deserted-island/.