Life Cycle - Organisms (KB)
Pre Lab 

   
OBJECTIVES:
  • Exploring students' backyards.
  • Observing how and where organisms live.
VOCABULARY:
  • environment
  • organism
MATERIALS:
  • worksheet
  • crayons

Students use a worksheet to help them observe their backyard.

BACKGROUND:

Children can be taught to notice and observe their surroundings. Recognizing where an organism lives helps to understand about that organism's natural environment. It is important to emphasize that animals, protozoa, fungi, plants, and bacteria live in different places because of temperature, food availability, chemicals, and light.

Observation skills are very important to children to learn. Quiet time, to allow the brain to "appreciate" visual stimuli, can help a child to be more patient and observant.

PROCEDURE:
  1. In this coloring exercise the children are to pretend that the person looking at the butterflies are themselves. Tell the children before they color the picture to sit in their backyard, park, or other appropriate place and observe their surroundings or environment. In the classroom or at home have them draw organisms that they may have seen but which are not in the drawing.
      
  2. When all the pictures are completed, have the students discuss what things are similar and what things are different with other students in the class. You can make a list on the board of these comparisons and see if any organisms prefer to live in a certain part of town, in a park, a river or other places the children have selected. For instance, squirrels will more likely be found in a park rather than in a student's backyard.

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