Lesson Plans prepared by Carol A. Thomson Grade Two-Three Unit: Animals in the Environment Focus: Endangered Species in Endangered Spaces INDEX  Lesson 1: Interesting Owls  Lesson 2: The Burrowing Owl  Lesson 3: Food for Thought  Lesson 4: Operation Burrowing Owl  Lesson 5: Red List / Blue List  Lesson 6:Thompson-Okanagan Endangered Species  Assessment and Evaluation  Adapting Activities for Students with Special Needs  Student Glossary  Resources  Additional Activities  Curriculum Connections  Sites to Visit LESSON ONE: Interesting Owls Learning outcomes: It is expected that students will: describe structures that enable different animals to survive in different environments compare and contrast different types of owls Materials: Blunt-ended scissors, toothpicks Spoons, spring-type clothespins Bird identification guides Raisins, cooked macaroni Marbles and foam chips Owl charts and model A Family for Minerva Introduction: * Display charts and photographs of owls; have resource books available, plus charts which display different types of wings, beaks and feet. If possible, have a stuffed owl for observation. * Read A Family for Minerva. * Compare and contrast Minerva and the stuffed owl. Data Collecting: * Discuss the story, examine wing, foot and beak types on charts and compare to Minerva's wings, feet and beak. Discuss why the wings/feet/beak are like they are. * Compare the beaks to simulated bird "beaks" (spoons, spring-type clothespins, blunt-ended scissors, and toothpicks) and using these, have students attempt to pick up "food" (marble "snails"/raisin "grubs"/cooked macaroni "worms"/foam chip "bugs") and put these into plastic glasses. * Have the students discover which type of beak picks up which type of food. Data Processing: * Graph the results to summarize the data. * Determine which beaks can pick up many types of food and which can pick up only one or two types of food. * Hypothesize what owls eat. * Prepare a We Wonder/We Know chart for owls. * Add a section How can we find answers? Closure: * Request students to collect resources and information for an owl study. LESSON TWO: The Burrowing Owl Learning outcomes: It is expected that students will: demonstrate a knowledge of what an owl needs to survive demonstrate some understanding of an owl's life cycle compare and contrast different types of owls Materials: Owls video Form: Owls Introduction: * Discuss information which students and teacher have collected since the last class. * Display articles and photographs; add books and realia to resource display table. Data Collecting: * View Owls*video from the Investigators' series which focuses on the Saw-Whet and Burrowing Owls, asking children to carefully observe the owls and their behaviours. (*Teachers should preview this video and select only certain portions for viewing and discussion.) Data Processing: * Discuss viewed portions of the video, specifically the owls' description, habitat (food and shelter requirements), and young. * Add to We Wonder chart -- can students now answer any of the questions? * Add to We Know chart -- identify a number of species, and add new information, especially the fact that the burrowing owl is an endangered species. * Add to How can we find the answers? (Students should now be able to add "ask a scientist/biologist" if they haven't already listed this information source.) Closure: * Challenge children to find the names of as many different owls as possible before the next class. LESSON THREE: Food for Thought Learning outcomes: It is expected that students will: demonstrate a knowledge of what owls need to survive explain how animals interact with each other understand the concept of a simple food chain Materials: Ladybug Garden A Place for Owls Paper strips for food chain Introduction: * Children list, and chart, owl species they have identified. * Teacher and children display additional pictures and information. Data Collecting: * Read chapter 10, pp. 73-76, of A Place for Owls, "Cricket, a different kind of owl." beginning at line 3: "Burrowing owls don't look like any other kind of owl in the whole world." Data Processing: * Compare and contrast the burrowing owl to the other owls studied. How are they alike? How are they different? Emphasize differences in shelter (tree nests vs. ground burrows) and food (burrowing owls eat more insects than other owls). Examine beaks and feet to see if there are noticeable differences. Why or why not? * Complete the chart, using information about the burrowing owl from the story. * Discuss one or two food chains for the burrowing owl and make some simple ones using three strips of paper for each: Closure: * Have students suggest additional links to the food chain (food for the lower link in the food chain: the insects and seeds for grasshoppers, mice or voles). * Read Ladybug Garden to illustrate the food chain and the balance of nature. LESSON FOUR: Operation Burrowing Owl Learning outcomes: It is expected that students will: compare and contrast plant and animal requirements compare and contrast animal fossils (dinosaurs) with living organisms understand the terms extinct and endangered Materials: Map of Thompson-Okanagan Operation Burrowing Owl video Grasslands picture/chart Image credit: photo of Grasslands taken by Leon Pavlick Introduction: * Display picture of grasslands and have students suggest similarities between the picture and local areas. Data Collecting: * Brainstorming: identify inhabitants of the grassland. What would live there and why? What would they eat and why? Would grasses and seeds be added to the food chain? What do the grasses need to survive? What if the grasses were poisoned, or otherwise destroyed (ie. paved over)? * Show a map of the Thompson-Okanagan region; mark the community where these children live, and then shade the area where the burrowing owl makes its home. * Refer to the part of the Owls video (Investigators series) where the scientists couldn't find any burrowing owls when they went to the grasslands, and had to go to the Kamloops Wildlife Park in order to find a burrowing owl. Question why none could be found in the grasslands. Recall why there were burrowing owls in Kamloops. * Review that in the story of Cricket the burrowing owlets were sent to British Columbia after they were a few months old. Question children as to the reason. * Define terms: "endangered" and "extinct". (Children will easily recall the meaning of extinct because of prior knowledge about dinosaurs. The extinction of dinosaurs could be discussed briefly at this time with students imagining how they would feel if owls became extinct.) * In preparation to view video Operation Burrowing Owl have students predict what the title might mean. Then view the video. (Since this is a lengthy lesson, one could split the lesson at this point, or alternatively, proceed with an Art lesson to complement, and complete, this activity.) Data Processing: * Draw the burrowing owl in its habitat. (If this is to be correlated with an art lesson the students could do other, more lengthy projects, such as a mural of the grasslands and its inhabitants, a papier maché owl model, or a shadow box of the habitat where the owl lives.) Closure: * Have some students display their drawings, or other art projects, and state one important thing they'd like others to know about burrowing owls. * Display all of the pictures. Image Credit: Burrowing Owl sketch in The Birds of British Columbia, Campbell et al., 1990. LESSON FIVE: Red List / Blue List Learning outcomes: It is expected that students will: demonstrate a knowledge of what animals need to survive explain how animals interact with one another suggest reasons for the endangerment or extinction of animal species Materials: Listening posts Audio cassettes, (teacher prepared) List of endangered birds Endangered Animal Series Form: Endangered Species Introduction: * Refer to the list of owl species which the children had compiled in Lesson Three. Using the official Red and Blue lists of endangered species in the Thompson-Okanagan region, read the bird portion of the lists and determine if any of the owls the children had listed are at risk. Data Collecting: * Challenge children to think of reasons why birds, fish, animals or plants would become extinct or endangered. Encourage children to discuss this with others -- their friends, classmates, siblings, parents, librarian etc. -- before the next class. * Have students state why the burrowing owl is endangered. Ensure that students realize that the most important reason is loss of habitat. * Point out that the Western Harvest Mouse (one of the food sources for the burrowing owl) is on the Blue List and badgers and prairie dogs are also at risk. Have students suggest why these species would also be endangered. Determine how their endangerment would affect the burrowing owl (mouse provides food; badger/prairie dog provides shelter). * Tell students there are other habitats where animals are endangered. Describe wetlands and read the introductory pages of "The wetlands of the world," pp. 4-5 in Endangered Wetland Animals. * At Listening Posts have groups of students listen to recordings of the introductory pages (pp. 4-5) in the Endangered Animals series. Have the books available so students can follow the text. Data Processing: * Synthesize why certain animals are endangered. * Have students complete a form for one habitat (depending on which audio cassette they listened to): Grasslands, Wetlands, Forests, Mountains. Closure: * Students compare the reasons for endangerment in each habitat and suggest the main reason for endangerment of species. What patterns do they see? LESSON SIX: Thompson-Okanagan Endangered Species Learning outcomes: It is expected that students will: demonstrate understanding of what animals need to survive explain how animals interact with one another suggest reasons for the endangerment or extinction of animal species Materials: Wolf Island Photographs/charts: Thompson-Okanagan species Information on reasons for endangerment: See Species Account pages or Student Text Introduction: * Question children as to the importance of endangerment. Have them consider what they have seen and what they have heard before coming to any conclusions. Data Collecting: * Refer to the reasons for endangerment from student forms; chart these and have students rank them as to importance. * Discuss the number of endangered species in the area where we live. Display pictures of species in the Thompson-Okanagan region such as the robber fly, vivid dancer, night snake, tiger salamander, short-horned lizard, pallid bat, etc. which are labelled with species' name and habitat. (See end of the unit for brief information.) * Have students suggest reasons for endangerment for each species making certain they support their reasons. * Explore relationships between habitat and endangerment, and actions of humans and endangerment. * List reasons that scientists give for the endangerment of these species. * Compare the scientists' reasons with the students' inferences. Data Processing: * Discuss what positive actions people can take to alleviate the problems. What did the gardener do in the story Ladybug Garden? What did the scientists do to help the burrowing owl? What can we do? (See suggestions in Take Action, Earthcycles and Ecosystems, The Kids' Green Plan, Saving Our Animal Friends.) * Create an Action Plan specifying what can be done, and how it can help. Closure: * Read Wolf Island to illustrate the fragility of the balance of nature. See more brief information in Grade 4 Student Text materials for Burrowing Owl, Night Snake, Pallid Bat, Sagebrush Brewer's Sparrow, Tiger Salamander, Vivid Dancer, Western Harvest Mouse, White-headed Woodpecker, White-tailed Jackrabbit. For complete background information see Species Account pages for Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Insects, Mammals, Plants, Other Invertebrates and Reptiles. Image Credit: Short-horned Lizard sketch in Reptiles of British Columbia, Gregory and Campbell, 1984. this section sponsored by: Industry Canada