Pre-Visit Activities : Animal Habitats
K-Second Grade Online Curriculum : Habitats

THESE ITEMS MUST BE PRINTED INDIVIDUALLY
 These materials are necessary for this activity. Click on each link to print.
River otter picture
American alligator picture
Bottlenose dolphin picture
Second Grade Math extension

MAIN

Focus Question
What do salamanders and other animals need to survive?

Activity Synopsis
The teacher will read the book The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer to the students and discuss it with the students. The teacher will discuss with students some of the interesting characteristics of the spotted salamander and have them think about what they would need to do to ensure a salamander would survive if they were to keep one as a pet. The students will then discuss what they would need to do to keep a river otter, an American alligator or a bottle-nosed dolphin as a pet in the classroom. The students will create a mural on the wall to show how they would meet the habitat needs of the animal they have chosen.

Time Frame
1-2 class periods

Student Key Terms

Teacher Key Terms

OBJECTIVES

The learner will be able to:

STANDARDS

Standards Supported in Animal Habitats Activity  
        

Grade Level

Standards

Kindergarten

K-1.3, K-2.1

1st Grade

1-2.1, 1-2.5

2nd Grade

2-1.3, 2-2.1, 2-2.3, 2-2.4
* Bold standards are the main standards addressed in this activity.

 

 

 

Kindergarten Indicators

K-1.3

Predict and explain information or events based on observation or previous experience.
K-2.1 Recognize what organisms need to stay alive. (including air, water, food, and shelter)

First Grade Indicators

1-2.1  Recall the basic needs of plants (including air, water, nutrients, space, and light) for energy and growth.
1-2.5

Explain how distinct environments throughout the world support the life of different types of plants.

Second Grade Indicators

2-1.3 Represent and communicate simple data and explanations through drawings, tables, pictographs, bar graphs, and oral and written language.
2-2.1 Recall the basic needs of animals including air, water, food, and shelter for energy, growth, and production.
2-2.3

Explain how distinct environments throughout the world support the life of different types of animals.

2-2.4

Summarize the interdependence between animals and plants as sources of food and shelter.

BACKGROUND

Key Points
Key Points will give you the main information you should know to teach the activity.

Detailed Information
Detailed Information gives more in-depth background to increase your own knowledge, in case you want to expand upon the activity or you are asked detailed questions by students.

Animals need food, water, air, shelter and space to survive. No matter where an animal lives, it must be able to attain these things. The world is comprised of many different environments with many varied climates. Because of this, animals develop specialized adaptations to allow them to get the things they need to survive from a variety of different environments. Where they get these things is there habitat. The animals found in the deep ocean are not the animals found in the tropical rainforest or the desert or the tundra, yet all these share in common the need for food, water, air, shelter and space.

Animals cannot produce their own energy like plants can, and so they must eat other organisms to get their food energy. Some animals, such as deer and elk, are herbivores, and eat only plants. They make use of the energy the plant has produced through photosynthesis. Some animals, such as eagles and hawks, are carnivores that eat other animals and get their energy from the organic compounds stored in their prey. Some animals, such as humans, are omnivores that can eat both plants and animals. Some animals are scavengers that live off of dead animals, such as turkey vultures, and get energy from the organic compounds remaining in the animal's dead carcass. Some animals, such as blue crabs, are opportunistic feeders, meaning they will eat just about anything they can get their mouths around. All animals depend on the food they eat to receive the energy and nutrients they need to carry out their life functions.

All living things depend on water to survive. Water is a major component of all the fluids in the body as well as the protoplasm of each individual cell. Water is also important as a solvent for chemicals and nutrients in the body. Water makes up 60 to 90% of the composition of all living things. For this reason, all animals must find a way to intake water on a regular basis.

All animals must bring oxygen into their systems in order to convert food energy into usable energy. For this reason, all animals must utilize some form of respiration. Terrestrial animals, such as reptiles and mammals can pull oxygen out of the atmosphere. Aquatic animal such as fish can pull oxygen out of the water. Amphibians can do both. Because life processes occur twenty-four hours a day and they all require energy, an animal would soon die without oxygen.

Animals also depend on shelter to survive. Shelter protects an animal both from the elements and from predators, and thus increases its survival chances. Shelter can take many forms. The shells of snails and other mollusks, the nests of birds and the burrows and dens of mammals are just some examples of shelter.

Space is necessary too. If too many animals are competing for the same space, than they are also often competing for food, water and shelter. Being crowded together makes the animals more prone to diseases and parasites, which are spread more quickly and easily. Because an environment can only support a certain number of organisms, removing predators from an ecosystem can sometimes have negative effects on the animals the predator preys on. Without the limiting factor of predators, the prey animals can multiply rapidly causing a loss of space for these animals and leading to diseased and malnourished animals.

An animal's habitat is the place where it can get air, food, water, space and shelter. The animal's adaptations determine where its habitat will be. Because an animal has specific habitat requirements, if you take the animal away from its habitat, or if you bulldoze the habitat away from the animal, the animal will not survive. This is why a habitat that is suitable for one animal, such as a house for a human, may not be suitable for another animal, such as a house for a salamander. The house cannot meet the salamander's habitat needs.

Top

Featured Species
Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)
The spotted salamander is the state amphibian of South Carolina. This 6 to 10 inch salamander is found near shallow pools in deciduous forests in eastern North America from Louisiana to Canada as well as throughout South Carolina. In South Carolina it is most common in the Piedmont and Mountain regions. These salamanders avoid areas prone to flooding or pools populated with fish. They spend a good deal of their time in burrows underground or under trees and so are difficult to find.

Spotted salamanders prey on insects, worms, slugs and other small invertebrates. They can most easily be found on a rainy night on the forest floor looking for food. In the wild, they can live over 30 years.

Though they spend most of their adult life on land, they lay their eggs in water and spend their larval stages in water. Therefore, spotted salamanders tend to stay near aquatic habitats. When it warms in spring, the female will move to a shallow pool, lay 200-250 eggs in a mass on submerged sticks. The eggs will hatch within two months. The larval salamanders will remain in the pool for another two months, maturing and developing until they look like adult salamanders. They then move on land to begin the terrestrial life of an adult spotted salamander.

River Otter (Lutra canadensis)
The largest mammal predator in the mountain stream, river otters are found throughout North America except for the extreme northern portion of Alaska and the Southwest desert and arid Plains states. Locally common in South Carolina, it ranges across the state in virtually all freshwater and estuarine aquatic habitats. A member of the weasel family, the otter has short legs with webbed toes, a broad tail, and an elongated body. An adult otter will grow from three-and-half to four feet in length and weigh from ten to twenty-five pounds. Social animals, otters travel within a home range of 15 square miles in family units of four to five individuals.

Uniquely adapted to its aquatic environment, the otter has webbed toes, a water-repellant coat, and the ability to close its ears and nostrils while diving. The otter also has long whiskers that help it to detect prey underwater. These adaptations allow the animal to exist chiefly on a diet of fish, which they catch with their superior underwater swimming skills. Otters are also known to eat frogs, turtles, snakes, crayfish, and an occasional bird.

Beavers are very important to otters. If beavers frequent a particular area, there is a good chance that otters will also be found there. The ponds created by beaver dams are prime habitat for the otter. Otters often use the abandoned dens of beavers as sleeping quarters. If a beaver den is not available, they also may be found in hollow trees or between rocks or roots, building nests out of sticks, leaves and grass.

Otters are active and curious. They spend much of their time playing with each other and exploring their environment. While other animals may play to practice hunting and survival skills, otters often play for pure enjoyment, a rare trait in animals and usually a sign of higher intelligence.

Mating takes place in the fall after rival males battle for a mate. After a gestation period of up to 270 days, the female otter gives birth to one to three young, called kits, in a den with an underwater entrance constructed beneath the bank of a stream, river or lake. The mother otter defends her kits fiercely and they remain with her as a family unit for over a year.

The otter has few natural enemies other than man, who trap it for its rich, thick pelt, and who also have lowered populations through habitat destruction and roadkill. Look for otters in larger streams or rivers where food is abundant and the water is unpolluted and quiet. The best time to look is early morning or evening.

American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)
American alligators, the largest land reptile in the United States, are found throughout the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. These crocodilians grow from 8 to 12 feet in length, though individuals up to 18 feet in length have been found. Despite their size and their reputation, they are generally not a threat to people. In a quarter century, there have been only six documented alligator attacks on people in South Carolina and none were fatal. An alligator's diet consists of invertebrates, fish, birds and small mammals. Generally if a person is attacked, it is because the alligator was protecting itself or its young and not because it was seeking a meal. Like any wild animal, though, it is a good idea to keep a respectful distance from an alligator, and not to engage in any activity the animal finds threatening such as approaching it.

Alligators are found in freshwater swamps, marshes, impoundments, lakes, ponds and the backwaters of large rivers. Alligators are cold-blooded aquatic animals that depend on the sun for warmth and freshwater aquatic habitats for food. For this reason, they are found only in the Southeastern United States, where the climate is warm and water is plentiful.

Adult alligators feed on fish, turtles, aquatic birds, water snakes and small mammals. Many alligators also feed on carrion. Alligators are carnivores, but they are also opportunistic feeders, and will not turn down an easy meal.

Alligators are often found in the day basking in the sun on the shore of some body of water. Unable to maintain a constant body temperature, alligators depend on external sources to raise or lower their body temperature. Absorbing sunlight warms the alligator and prepares it for evening hunting. If it becomes too warm, it will move to the water to cool off. In the winter when temperatures drop, alligators go into a semi-dormant state, and generally do not become active again until March.

Female alligators are very protective mothers. In June the female builds a mound made of dirt and vegetation about seven feet in diameter and one to two feet in height. In the middle of this mound she digs a hole and lays 15 to 80 eggs. This nest acts as an incubator that keeps temperatures for the eggs in the upper eighties. During this whole time, the mother watches the nest with a protective eye and keeps hungry predators away. When the eggs begin hatching in September, the mother helps the young by digging them out of the nest and even gently carrying some of the young in her jaws to the water. It is amazing that jaws capable of exerting 3,500 pounds of pressure per square inch on a prey item can be used for such delicate actions. For up to a year the mother will stay with the young to protect them from predators. During this time, the young alligators feed on insects, crayfish and frogs.

Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus)
The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, commonly misidentified on the South Carolina coast as a porpoise, occurs from Cape Cod south through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to northern South America. Common along the entire southeastern coast, it frequently ventures up tidal creeks and rivers into virtually freshwater. The bottlenose dolphin grows to twelve feet in length.

Dolphins typically breed in the spring, and after a gestation period of twelve months, one calf is born. At birth the three-foot long dolphin calf weighs approximately 25 pounds. The calf will stay with its mother and nurse for 12 to 18 months before fending for itself. Dolphins live for 25 to 40 years on a diet comprised primarily of fish, squid, and shrimp. The bottlenose dolphin requires about 10% of its body weight in food daily.

Dolphins use echolocation to help them to pinpoint the location of prey. The underwater use of sound to locate food is similar to the terrestrial echolocation used by bats. Dolphins occasionally use complex herding formations to capture fish. In shallow tidal creeks, a pod of dolphins sometimes herds fish towards land. When the fish are cornered, the dolphins rush in and knock the fish onto a sand bar or mud bank with its powerful tail. The dolphin then pulls itself out of the water onto the bank and retrieves its stranded prey.

To prevent sharks from invading their territory, dolphins are known to attack the sharks by ramming the shark in the gills with their rostrum (snout) in an effort to force the shark to leave the area. On occasion dolphins have been observed to surround a shark and take turns either ramming the shark or tossing it into the air. It is unknown if this behavior is a serious attempt to injure the shark or simply a playful game.

Dolphins also display cooperative behavior. Healthy dolphins will come to the aid of another sick or weak dolphin. The two stronger dolphins will flank the sick animal and guide it to the surface by supporting it under a pectoral fin. On rare occasions, the bottlenose dolphin has helped humans in distress in the water. This usually involves a drowning person that the dolphin pushed to the safety of shallow water.

PROCEDURES

Materials

Procedure

  1. Show the students photographs of the spotted salamander and discuss with them some of its life history. Ask the students, "If you found a spotted salamander in the woods and wanted to take it home to your room, what would you need to do to make sure it survived?". Discuss this with the students and write down their predictions.
  2. Introduce and read the book The Salamander Room, by Anne Mazer, to the students. Discuss the book with the students and have them think about some pertinent questions:
    • Where could Brian find the salamander in South Carolina?
    • How did Brian change his bedroom so that the salamander could live there?
    • How did he meet the salamander's (and its friends') needs?
    • Where did Brian end up sleeping?
    • Could the salamander live in the boy's room without changes?
    • Could the boy live in the salamander's habitat? Why or why not?
    • What are four things shown in the book that all animals need to survive? (Food, water, shelter and space)
    • How did Brian provide these for the animals in his room?
    • At the end of the story, would Brian's room be a good habitat for a little boy?
  3. After reading the story, create a word web on a class chart on the things the salamander needed to survive.
  4. Show students photographs and information provided with this activity on river otters, American alligators and bottlenose dolphins. Have the students pick one of these animals and then as a class decide what they would have to do turn the classroom into a habitat that is suitable for that animal to survive in. Write on a chart all of the habitat needs the students determine will need to be met to keep the animal in the classroom. Then with construction paper or other art materials, create the habitat in part of the classroom. For example, if students choose a river otter, on the wall have them create water for them to swim on and land for them to walk on. Then have them make fish in the water for food. Then have them create a log to put on land for shelter. Then have them create a river otter itself.  Have students label "river otter" and the places where it can get "air", "food", "water", "shelter" and "space" in this habitat. 

Follow-up questions

ASSESSMENT

Have a variety of books available to the students that tell about different animals and their habitats. Have the students look through the books to choose an animal that they would like to have come live with them. Students should then determine how they would have to change their room to meet the needs of the animal they have chosen. They should make a drawing and/or a written description of what they would do. In their drawings and/or descriptions of how they would alter their rooms to meet the needs of their chosen animal, students will provide food, water, shelter and space to their chosen animal. For example, if the student chose a river otter, their description and/or picture might include: water to swim in and drink, fish in the water to eat, a hollow log to sleep in and enough space to move around in. Space will have to be a judgment call. If the student opens up their rooms to the outside or expands it in some way, this would be acceptable.

Scoring Rubric (Out of 5 points)

Cross-curricular Extensions
Science
Students will look at pictures of different animals to determine which look similar and which look different. For example, they would look at pictures of an otter, a beaver, a raccoon and a snake and decide which one does not belong with the others (the snake does not belong because it is not a mammal and does not have fur like the others). Other sets: An alligator, a lizard, a snake and a dolphin (the dolphin does not belong because it does not have scaly skin like the others). A salamander, a toad, a frog and an egret (the egret does not belong because it is a bird and has feathers, unlike the other animals). A pelican, a woodpecker, a cardinal and an opossum (the opossum does not belong because it is not a bird). Students will learn about mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds.  

Social Studies
Have students think about their habitat, the local community. Have students think about and discuss where they can get air, food, water, shelter and space in their community.

Second Grade Math extension by SCA Master teacher, Robin Rutherford, Porter Gaud School

RESOURCES

Teacher Reference Books
Audesirk, Gerald and Teresa Audesirk. Biology: Life on Earth. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1993.
Do not be afraid of college textbooks. They are often the best sources for detailed information on general subjects such as biology and food chain ecology.

Fortey, Richard. Life. Vintage Books, New York, 1997.
This well-written and very interesting history of life on earth for the past 4 billion years provides insights into why and how living things developed into consumers to acquire the energy they need to survive.

Halliday, Tim. Animal Behavior. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, 1994.
This attractive book uses photographs and text to provide information on the varying behaviors of animals. Includes chapters on herbivores and carnivores.

Hickman, Cleveland, Allan Larson and Larry Roberts. Integrated Principles of Zoology. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1996.
This is another college textbook and another good source of information on animals.

Teacher Reference Videos
Attenborough, Sir David. Trials of Life (Video series), Turner Home Entertainment, 1995.
This is the most famous work of heralded nature documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough. This series shows the various behaviors animals have adapted in order to survive, including much on feeding.  Though the entire series may be too advanced for elementary students, it is a wonderful resource for teachers.

Teacher Reference Websites
Animal Planet 
http://animal.discovery.com
This site contains information and interactive games on a variety of animals.

National Wildlife Federation
www.nwf.org/
This site contains information on this conservation society as well as conservation issues and education programs. Includes a kid's page.

Wildlife Web
www.selu.com/bio/wildlife/
This site inks to a variety of animal related websites with sites dedicated to research, conservation, education and information.

Student Reference Books
The following books may be too difficult for younger children to read but should be understood when read aloud.

Arnosky, Jim.Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Animal Habitats, Simon & Schuster Books, New York, 1997.
This book introduces students to different habitats and animals found in wetlands, woodlands, cornfields, and grasslands.

Eyewitness Science: Ecology, Dorling Kindersley, New York, 1993.
These very attractive books use photographs, illustrations and text to teach the readers about ecology, communities and the interactions of plants and animals. Includes information on food chains and producers and consumers.

Wildsmith, Brian. Animal Homes, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1991.
This is a picture book that introduces students to animals found throughout the world and discusses the habitat of each.

Student Fiction Books
Carle, Eric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Philomel Books, New York, 1969.
The story of a caterpillar who eats a lot of stuff, including things that caterpillars do not normally eat, a potential topic for discussion.

Fleming, Denise. In the Small, Small Pond, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1993.
This Caldecott Honor book takes a look at the pond habitat through the eyes of a frog.

Hoose, Phillip and Hannah. Hey, Little Ant, Tricycle Press, Hong Kong, 1998.
Have you ever squished an ant? As a reader of this book, you follow the trials and tribulations of an ant as it pleads for its life, while a kid contemplates the question "to squish or not to squish".

McDonald, Megan. Is This a House For a Hermit Crab?, Orchard Books, New York. 1990.
In this book, the reader follows the adventures of a hermit crab as it searches for a new home.

Curricula
Aquatic Project WILD
Aquatic Project WILD is an interdisciplinary curriculum for K-12 teachers on aquatic wildlife and ecosystems. The activities cover a broad range of environmental and conservation topics. For information on workshops, call the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources at (803) 734-3814.

For more information click on:
www.dnr.state.sc.us/cec/educate/edu1.html#teacher

Project WILD
Project WILD is an interdisciplinary curriculum for K-12 teachers on a broad range of environmental and conservation topics. For information on workshops, call the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources at (803) 734-3814.

For more information click on:
www.dnr.state.sc.us/cec/educate/edu1.html#teacher

Field Trip Sites
Animals
Going out in a natural area is not always a guarantee of seeing animals, but you can always see their habitats. Certain places in South Carolina, though, are well known for their abundance of birds. Birds are very useful for seeing an animal in its habitat. Students can observe and discuss differences in body size and shape, as well as beaks, wings and feet, and consider how they are used to find food. Below are some sites where birds are plentiful.

Animals in a Salt Marsh Habitat
One of the best places to actually see animals feeding or searching for food is in a salt marsh. Many species (wading birds, fiddler crabs, oysters, periwinkle snails) may be easily observed.  Below are listed some of the sites where salt marshes are accessible to students.

If you are aware of other books, videos, websites, curricula, fieldtrip destinations or other materials that would make excellent resources for this activity, please e-mail them to us for inclusion in this list at: Education@scaquarium.org