Week 2: Habitats

Last week's unit of study was the Earth, so this week we narrowed that down to the idea of habitats. A habitat, quite simply, is where things live, and every habitat needs to provide four things: water, food, shelter and space. Throughout the week I would watch the kids play, and I was surprised at how often the word "habitat" sprung up. Once I saw them with their stuffed birds, placing them in a dollhouse chair under an umbrella, with a "beach" of fabric and play food and a jug of water on a little table, and they informed me they were creating a habitat for the birds. "See, Mom? The birds have food, water and space, and the umbrella gives them shelter." Cool.

We also talked about our habitat -- what is it? How big is it? Is it only our house? Or does it include the grocery store and the parks we go to? How much space do we need? Is our habitat a different size than a family that lives in a crowded city?

Various activities we did included:

Project 1: After reading about the different types of land and water habitats I created small posterboards with pictures of habitat types (I cut them out from free travel magazines at the library). The kids took their sizeable collection of plastic animals and placed them in the correct habitats (the pirates' habitat was the beach). There seemed to be several "aha" moments when they understood basic interconnections among animals -- that lions eat zebras in the grasslands, for example. That led to discussions of food chains, so back to the library we went!

Project 2: They each chose an animal from flashcards, created the animal out of felt, then drew in the habitat. V-Man chose a hammerhead shark whose habitat consisted mainly of fish with chunks bitten out of them.

Project 3: We visited a waterfowl park (very very cool!) where the birds were sectioned off by continent, and each habitat was populated with the ecosystems of that particular region. I'd love to think that the kids noticed the colorful plants and birds of the South American region, or that Africa had the most wild-looking birds, but really I think they just had fun. Which was okay, too!

Project 4: Something I wanted to do but didn't get around to was to draw a map of our family's habitat on a posterboard. Oh well -- someday!

What we're reading:
"Land Habitats," by Bobbie Kalman
"Wildlife Atlas: A complete guide to animals and their habitats," by John Farndon
"Who eats what?" by Patricia Lauber