This digital crossword puzzle features images, information, and vocabulary about endangered plants and animals in California.
Students will learn about several different species, their habitats, and the causes of their endangerment.
Hints are provided for each puzzle to help students complete them.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This is a fun and engaging game for students to play.
It provides a quick activity to break up lessons or add in something interactive.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should understand how to complete a crossword puzzle.
Differentiation
This could be made more difficult by projecting the game for the entire class to complete individually and covering up the image or the sentence it's used in.
To extend the activity, have students complete the puzzle and then read about one of the animals detailed in the puzzle to learn more about them.
Another extension would be to challenge students to create their own crossword puzzles about other species of endangered plants and animals for their peers to complete.
Scientist Notes
The crossword introduces students to fit in appropriate words to answer a set of questions on wildlife conservation and human impacts on biodiversity loss. The resource is insightful and would stretch student's capability to think critically on ways to mitigate biodiversity loss. This resource is recommended for classroom use.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Language (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.6 Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that night we went looking for them).
