Community Explorations
Teacher’s Guide
February 2011
Grades 2 & 3
Time: 2 ½ hours
Develop the concept of the interrelatedness of plants and animals to their environment. A variety of exploratory
and sensory experiences will be utilized.
Wisconsin Standards: Students will develop explanations for connections among living and non-living things.
They will list components of an ecosystem and describe a food chain. They will investigate how organisms
respond to internal and external cues.
Focus Concept:
There are many different communities in nature, each of which meet the needs of its members.
Essential Understandings, Processes and Skills:
Understandings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
A community consists of all living things and interacting in a given area at a given time.
The community members all have the same basic needs. (ex. food, water, sun, shelter, air, space)
All energy within an ecosystem comes originally from the sun.
Communities are constantly changing.
Humans can cause both positive and negative impacts on a community.
Processes and Skills:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Accurately define the concept of community.
State three differences and three similarities between the components of two different communities.
Accurately illustrate how the components of a community are connected.
State two factors that can cause a community to change.
Give two examples of how human activity can change a community.
Vocabulary:
carnivore, community, consumer, decomposer, dependence, food chain, herbivore, photosynthesis, producer
Preparation Activities at School:
Riveredge is a partner with you, the teacher, in creating a high quality educational experience. We depend on you
to prepare your students for their hands-on activities at Riveredge. Please do at least the starred activities before
your field trip. This preparation is essential to meet curriculum goals. We are committed to excellence, so if you
1
Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.
are unable to meet the minimum expectations in this guide or have any questions, please contact a Riveredge
educator for help at 262/675-6888 (local) or 262/375-2715 (metro).
*Denotes important activities that should be done before the field trip.
*1. Familiarize your students with the vocabulary words defined at the end of this guide.
*2. Have students find out a family member’s profession. You might have them make a symbol illustrating the
professions (hammer for a carpenter, etc.). Prepare cards for each family member. Hang all the cards on a
bulletin board and then have the class identify any relationships that exist between various jobs. What did
they discover?
3. Identify different kinds of smaller natural communities on the school site. Before going outside to investigate,
discuss some of the factors that could be used to recognize community differences (i.e. plant & animal
populations, climate, diversity of living things, soils).
Some smaller communities that might be found are:
Wetland -- at down spout, or a puddle
Desert -- baseball diamond
Woodland -- under trees and shrubs
Grassland -- lawn
Rock surface -- sidewalk cracks
Introduce the idea of jobs such as: producer (green plants), plant eater (rabbit or caterpillar), meat eater
(fox or spider), decomposer (earthworms).
*4. Discuss several simple food chains to which people belong. For example: Wheat plants need energy from
the sun and wheat is food for a person; or grass needs energy from the sun, grass is food for a cow, and a
cow's meat is food for a person. Turn this into a hands-on activity by making a food chain using food the
students eat for a snack or for lunch.
At Riveredge:
Please meet your Riveredge teacher/naturalists in the main parking lot. Large classes may be divided into smaller
groups, each with their own teacher/naturalist. This is best done upon arrival at Riveredge when the number of
students and teacher/naturalists has been finalized. Please have your students wear name tags. All necessary
equipment will be provided by Riveredge.
In each community the students will be involved in the following:
a. Sensory awareness activities (using their five sense to explore).
b. Investigations of non-living factors (soil, water, air, sun).
c. Investigation of living factors (plants and animals).
From their investigation, students will compare communities and draw conclusions about the interrelationships
among plants and animals and their habitats and people. We will be outside most of the day, rain or shine! Older
shoes and clothing are highly recommended. Boots can be worn if rain is expected. Riveredge will supply rain
ponchos if necessary. Please check the weather forecast and plan accordingly.
Follow-up Activities at School:
1. Review experiences at Riveredge and discuss any unanswered questions.
2. Using two-liter soda bottles or large glass jars make a terrarium of various communities around your school.
a. Collect five animals (we suggest mostly decomposers) and plants for the terrarium.
Discuss how each organism supplies the needs of, and is interdependent with, the other organisms.
b. Place a rotting log in the terrarium. Observe it. How is a rotting log a community?
For more information about how to construct and maintain terrariums go to the following websites:
www.bottlebiology.org/ or www.fastplants.org/bottle_biology/
3. Draw and describe food chains and webs typical of communities found at Riveredge or around their school.
4. Play a giant food web game with the whole class. Have students assume the identity of a Wisconsin plant or
animal they learned about during their field trip at Riveredge. Each person thus becomes one of the vital
organisms of a community. Connect the organisms with string to show their interrelationships. Take one or
more individuals away and see what happens.
2
Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.
5. Leave an area of grass in the schoolyard uncut. Observe and record the changes that occur as the field
community develops.
6. Sit quietly in one of your local communities. Discuss or draw a picture about what you heard and saw.
7. A. Take a hike around your school. Make a map of the human and natural community. As a class record the
following information:
1. Show the path you followed on this hike.
2. List the names of the streets on which you walk.
3. Label any business or public building.
4. Note vacant lots or parks.
B. Have each student or pair of students collect or record the following:
1. Bring back two pieces of litter, one biodegradable and one not.
2. Something you see that is pretty.
3. Something that is ugly.
4. An object, place or problem you saw on the walk that you would like to find out more about.
Try to draw connections to natural communities from the information you have obtained. How do the
businesses, etc. in their community affect the natural communities? What are some of the positive impacts
you can see (i.e. bird feeding)? What are some of the negative impacts (i.e. loss of habitats)?
Vocabulary:
carnivore An animal that eats other animals.
community All of the plants and animals that live in a particular habitat and interact with each other.
consumer An organism that cannot make its own food; it must find other living or nonliving things to eat.
decomposer An animal or fungus that gets its energy from dead plants or animals.
dependence To rely on another member of a community for one’s livelihood.
food chain The system in which living things eat or are eaten by other living things.
herbivore An animal that eats plants.
photosynthesis The process in which green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make sugar and
oxygen.
producer An organism that makes its food through the process of photosynthesis, usually green plants.
Additional Resources:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/ Learn a little about various habitats.
3
Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.