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Lesson plan · Grade 2 · 40 minutes

Habitat Hunt

I can find and count the kinds of plants and animals in different habitats and tell which habitat has more.

▶ Open the tool Download the tool
Standard
2-LS4-1 NGSS
Shape
Explore first
Grouping
Whole class on the carpet, then small groups outside or by the windows.
You need
The tool on the big screen. Clipboards and a simple tally sheet for the schoolyard walk (optional).
Tool
curioclass.org/tools/habitat-hunt/
  1. Hook5 min
  2. Explore15 min
  3. Make sense8 min
  4. Apply8 min
  5. Exit check4 min

Before class

  • Open the tool. The rainforest is already showing. Sound is on.
  • Draw a four-column chart on the board: Rainforest, Desert, Pond, Backyard. Leave room for the number of kinds.
  • If you can, plan a short walk in the schoolyard for Apply.

Hook 5 min

  1. "If you were a frog, where would you want to live? A cactus in the desert? A pond?" Take ideas.
  2. "A habitat is a place where plants and animals live. Today we're explorers on a hunt. We'll count how many different kinds live in each one."

Explore 15 min

  1. In the Rainforest, children come up one at a time and tap a living thing they spot. Each tap adds it to the field journal and says its name.
  2. Stop at the leafcutter ants: "We found three ants. Is that three kinds or one kind?" (One kind. The journal counts kinds and how many we saw.)
  3. When the rainforest is done, write its number of kinds on the chart (14).
  4. Hunt the Desert the same way (7 kinds), then the Pond (10) and the Backyard (9) if time allows.

Make sense 8 min

  1. Press Compare. "Which habitat has the most kinds? Which has the fewest?" (The rainforest; the desert.)
  2. "Why might the rainforest have more kinds than the desert?" (It's warm and rainy, so there's lots of water and food.)
  3. Teach the word diversity: lots of different kinds of living things. "Which habitat has the most diversity?"
  4. "Three water striders skate on the pond. Three kinds or one?" (One.)

Apply 8 min

  1. Groups go out to the schoolyard (or look out the windows) and tally the kinds of living things they see: grass, a tree, an ant, a bird.
  2. Back on the carpet, add a fifth column to the chart: Our schoolyard. "Is our schoolyard more like the desert or the rainforest?"

Exit check 4 min

Ask three quick questions, with thumbs up or down: "A desert has more kinds than a rainforest." (Down.) "Five robins count as five kinds." (Down.) "Diversity means lots of different kinds." (Up.) Then two children say which habitat they would explore and why.

Support and stretch

  • Support: let children point to a living thing and say its name with the tool's voice before they tap.
  • Support: use pictures on the tally sheet for the schoolyard walk.
  • Stretch: "Real habitats hold thousands of kinds we didn't see. What tiny living things might be hiding?" (Insects, fungi, worms.)
  • Stretch: draw a habitat with at least five kinds of living things and label them.

Short on time

  • Hunt the rainforest and the desert only (10 min).
  • Press Compare and ask why they're different (5 min).

How each button works is in the teacher notes. From Curio Class, free under CC BY 4.0: change it, print it, share it.