Grade 1 Science
Core Unit: Animals

Unit overview

In this unit, a variety of animals are observed and compared; their needs and their adaptation to their environments are studied. The relationships among animals and between animals and humans are described, as is the development of animals from birth or hatching to maturity.

Related units:

Related material will be covered in the grade 2 Core Unit Habitats. That unit will stress the complexity of the environment and how the environment functions as a home for plants, animals, and other living organisms. In the grade 2 Optional Units, Dinosaurs, and Foods, the ideas of change as a natural event and of interdependence of organisms reinforce the concepts of this unit.

The grade 3 Core Unit Animals reiterates the importance of habitat to animals and plants and introduces the part that humans play in the scheme of interdependence.

The grade 4 Optional Unit Vertebrates and Invertebrates, and the grade 6 Optional Unit Growth and Development continue the description of animals that begins in this unit.

Suggested themes:

animal growth, farm animals, farms, food, homes, living things, pets, ranching

Factors of scientific literacy which should be emphasized:

Common Essential Learnings foundational objectives which should be emphasized:

To use a wide range of language experiences for developing the student's knowledge of science. (COM)
To promote both intuitive, imaginative thought and the ability to evaluate ideas, processes, experiences, and objects in meaningful contexts. (CCT)
To support the development of a positive disposition toward lifelong learning. (IL)

Science foundational and learning objectives:

Observe and describe many types of animals.
1. Recognize characteristics which can be used to identify and describe animals.
2. Identify, by sight or by sound, a wide variety of animals.
3. Classify animals on the basis of their size, their body coverings, the foods they eat, and their relationships to humans.
4. Recognize that there are several ways in which the same set of animals may be classified.
Describe the basic needs of animals.
1. Identify some animals which make good pets.
2. Identify a pet's basic needs.
3. Compare the needs of other animals with pets.
Explain how animals are adapted to their environments.
1. Describe the habitats of some animals.
2. Explore the ways that animals adapt to their environments.
3. Explain how animals depend on their habitats for their basic needs.
4. Observe, describe, or imitate how animals behave in their natural environments.
Describe the development of animals from birth or hatching to maturity.
1. Describe the physical changes of several animals from the newly hatched or born to the mature adult.
2. Compare the amount of care needed by the young of several species.

Suggested Activities

List as many different animals as possible. Point out to the children the broad diversity in the animal kingdom: insects, spiders, worms, mollusks, and vertebrates. One possibility is to play a game. One student is assigned the name of an animal. That student must use words, actions, or drawing to describe the animal. The other students try to identify it from the description.
The students could also be encouraged to watch for, and bring reports of, animals which they see when they are out of the classroom. When the gender of an animal is unknown, ask the students to refer to the animal as 'it', rather than using 'he' in a generic sense.
Factors: B4, C1, C2, C3, F1, F4, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 3.4
Assessment Techniques: 4, 7, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Communication. The students will use their own language, and begin to incorporate the vocabulary of science, to list and describe the animals.
Collect pictures of animals. Have the students name the animals in the pictures. Then attach a card with the animal's name on it to the bottom of each picture for display.
Factors: A2, B4, C2, F1, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2
Assessment Techniques: 3, 8
Common Essential Learnings:Critical and Creative Thinking. The students must compare their knowledge of characteristics of various animals with the characteristics of an animal in a particular picture, and decide whether there is a sufficient match to include the animal in the picture as a member of a known class of animals. A good question to ask here is "Can you tell me how you know that that animal is a (dog)?"
Obtain a recording of animal sounds, or use your own and your students' imitative abilities to produce those sounds. Identify the animals which make the sounds. Many insects, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals make characteristic sounds.
Invite a hunter who uses animal calls to come to the class to demonstrate the calls. Organize an animal call contest to see which students can do the best imitations.
Factors: B4, C2, E2
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2
Assessment Techniques: 3, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. This activity gives students a chance to strengthen their abilities to recognize and distinguish among sounds made by animals. It may also encourage them to become more aware of sounds in their environment and of the information which can be gained from those sounds.
Have students compare their main body features to those of an animal. List or draw common characteristics. Consider any similarities and differences.
Select an animal characteristic with the students. Then sort animal pictures into two piles based upon that characteristic. List the names of the animals in each pile. Then return all the pictures to one pile and repeat the process, using a different characteristic. List the names of the animals in each pile of the new grouping. Compare the lists from the two trials. Ask, "Are there differences?".
Factors: B4, C1, C2, C3, F1, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.3, 1.4
Assessment Techniques: 3, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. The students will be expected to assess each animal (or picture of the animal) for the presence of a particular characteristic, and then explain their judgement to the others. This explanation may also involve justifying the judgement made.
Go for a walk in the neighbourhood around the school. Discover how many different animals can be found, and which types of animals are the most common. Look for animal tracks, and use a guidebook of animal tracks to try to identify them. Describe the surroundings in which the animals are seen. Is there food for them there? Is there protection for them? Can their homes be seen? Ask the students to look in their yard at home to determine which animals live there, and report back to the class.
Factors: C3, E2, F4, G3
Objectives: 1.2, 1.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 4, 7c, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Independent Learning and Numeracy. Encourage the students to look around them and observe carefully every time they are outdoors. Counting actual numbers of animals and estimating approximate numbers, provide students with concrete experiences.
Keep some animals in the classroom. Consult books on the care of living things in the classroom. (See Science: A Bibliography for the Elementary Level for examples.) As a general rule, classroom animals should not be treated as pets, but as subjects for observation. There are numerous animals that are appropriate: brine shrimp, ants in an ant farm, fish, reptiles or amphibians in terraria, mealworms, etc.
The students should be assigned some of the responsibility for care of the animals. The schedule for feeding must be very clear, and followed precisely, so that the animals are not overfed. Insist that the animals be fed only at the assigned times, and that the amounts of food are measured according to guidelines.
Factors: B1, B2, B4, C3, F1, F4, G1, G3
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 4, 9
Common Essential Learnings:Critical and Creative Thinking. The presence of animals in the classroom will provide students with opportunities to hone their skills of observation. Remind them to use as many of the senses as are practical, and to compare similarities and differences in the animals.

Build or acquire a bird feeder, and place it in a location where it can be observed from a window during the winter. A bird book may help to identify the different birds which use the feeder. Keep a class list of the different species of birds which visit the feeder, and the date on which they were first observed. Ask why chickadees or sparrows come to the feeder, but not magpies, ravens, or owls.

Some students may wish to have a bird feeder at home. If the parents, or older brothers or sisters, could help keep records, these records could be compared to the record of the feeder at school.

Factors: B2, B4, C3, E2, F1, F4, G1, G3

Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.3, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1

Assessment Techniques: 1, 4, 9

Common Essential Learnings:Critical and Creative Thinking. Such an activity involves the students in observation, and in recognizing and questioning the patterns which they discern.

The next three activities all contribute to the development of the Common Essential Learnings of Critical and Creative Thinking, and Independent Learning. They expose the students to a wide range of experiences outside the normal classroom setting. Through the visits, and through discussion when they are back in the classroom, the student's experience is broadened. Whenever activities are done with animals, it is wise to check whether any of the students have allergy problems.

Visit a pet store and have the manager talk to the students about caring for animals. It might also be possible to have the manager come to the school for a visit.
Factors: B2, B4, C2, C3, F1, G1
Objectives: 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2, 4.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 5, 9
Visit a zoo, animal park, or a wildlife museum. Regional parks, wildlife sanctuaries, wilderness areas, and game ranches are other possible sites. Many of these facilities conduct tours. The information provided on these tours is usually adjusted to the level of the students, but check this beforehand. Such information, or information available from other sources such as the Wildlife Branch of Saskatchewan Parks and Renewable Resources, can be used to create follow-up activities. Extra supervision is essential for such trips.
You may be able to collect enough information from a visit and from inquiries, to have the resources for some sorting and classifying activities with the students.
Factors: B4, C3, F1, G1, G3
Objectives: 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.3, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 5, 9
Visit a farm. Ask the farmer to describe which animals are on the farm, and what care each needs. The farmer could also explain why each type of animal is kept on the farm.
Factors: B2, B4, C2, C3, E2, F1, G1, G3
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 2.3, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 5, 9
Students may prepare reports about their pets. The reports could include: the characteristics of the pet, the type of food it needs, other care that the pet needs, and the type of shelter it requires.
Factors: B2, B4, C2, C3, F1, F4, G1
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 4.1
Assessment Techniques: 3, 4, 5, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking. To produce such a report, the student must summarize information, decide how best to present that information, and look for resources to help in the presentation.
Read stories to the children about animals in their natural habitats. Check your school library collection. Students could then act out what it would be like to be an animal in that habitat. Many stories may be appropriate to be read as a guided fantasy.
Factors: C2, F4
Objectives: 3.3, 3.4
Assessment Techniques: 3, 5, 7c, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. Stories can encourage students to imagine the experiences of animals, and help to develop the ability to analyze a situation from a perspective other than their own.
The students could cooperate in producing a large mural which describes one or more habitats and the life found there. Other themes for murals may also be developed, such as "pets", "life around us", "animals through the seasons", or "growth of animals".
Factors: B1, B2, B4, C3, F4
Objectives: 2.3, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 4.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 2, 4
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking, Communication. The students and teacher must work together to summarize information, and to decide on how to present that information to make the greatest impact.
Have each student make a scrapbook of animal pictures. Pictures can be cut from worksheets, newspapers, or magazines. Ask them to describe how each animal is different from the others. Have them share their observations about their animal pictures with other students in small groups.
Factors: B4, C1, C2, C3, F4
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4
Assessment Techniques: 2, 4, 5, 6, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking. The sharing of the observed differences with other students helps students to make an analysis of the characteristics, and in developing ways of explaining and expressing ideas to others. The use of their own language to make sense of the ideas under study is critical.
Design a set of flash cards with the name and picture or drawing of an adult animal on one card and of the immature animal or young animal on another. For example, butterfly/caterpillar, kangaroo/joey, frog/tadpole, dog/puppy could be used. The cards can be used in a bulletin board display as sets. They could also be used on a table, to be moved from a random arrangement to pairs. Another activity of this sort could involve cards on which one of the gender names for adult animals are found. Examples of these are goose and gander, doe and buck, mare and stallion.
Factors: B1, B4, C2, F1, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 4.1
Assessment Techniques: 1, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. Such an activity brings the questions: "How are they the same?" and "How are they different?" to the forefront. It also provides an opportunity for discussion of, and practice in determining the sequences of events.
Look at different kinds of animal coverings under hand lenses. Fish scales, feathers, fur, and skin are some easy coverings to acquire. Ask the students to draw a picture of what the covering looked like when it was magnified. Discuss how the coverings were the same, and how they were different. What are the purposes of coverings? The study of patterns, in Arts Education, could be extended from here.
Factors: B4, C1, C2, C3, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.3, 3.2
Assessment Techniques: 3, 4, 5, 7c, 8, 9
Common Essential Learnings: Communication, and Critical and Creative Thinking. Recognizing that two objects may have both similarities and differences is an important ability for students. Demonstrating one's understanding through drawing can supplement oral or written descriptions.
Play animal charades. Each student gets a picture of an animal, and must act out the behaviour or habits of the animal so that the others can identify it.
Factors: B4, C2, G1
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. This provides the students with another opportunity to express their perceptions and ideas in a non-verbal form.
Establish a farm corner using plastic animals or stand-up cutouts. Use grass clippings for hay and thimbles for water buckets. Milk cartons can be used to construct a barn and house. Discuss what are the needs of the animals, and how the farmer or rancher looks after these needs.
Factors: B4, C3, F4, G1
Objectives: 2.3
Assessment Techniques: 7c, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. Students will be able to appreciate how farmers or ranchers care for their animals.

Grade 1 Science Core Unit: Animals