In this activity, students will place animals on their respective continents and learn about how climate change has impacted animal habitats.
The resource includes a lesson plan, a printable worksheet, and linked sources for more information.
Teaching Tips
Positives
In this simple and engaging activity, students will learn about climate change, habitats, animals, and geography.
There are plenty of great conversation starters and classroom ideas in the Teacher's Guide.
Additional Prerequisites
Students will need scissors and glue skills to complete this activity.
Teachers may want to read the animal habitat descriptions out loud for younger students.
Differentiation
This activity would work well in a language arts class for practicing nonfiction reading.
Social studies classes could use this activity when learning about the continents. Teachers could ask students to describe some distinguishing environmental features of each continent and discuss how these features might be affected by climate change.
As an extension, have groups of students look up other animals that share habitats with the animals from the worksheet.
In addition to learning how climate change is influencing animal migration, students will acquire a thorough understanding of the spatial distribution of species worldwide. For instruction, this is advised.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
K-ESS3-1 Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
K-ESS3-3 Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
2-LS4-1 Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.10.K-2 Describe changes in the physical and cultural characteristics of various world regions.
D2.Geo.5.K-2 Describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of places or regions.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.6 Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.10 By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
