 Adirondack
Curriculum
Project
NYS Content Area Standard
ELA
1. Language for information & understanding
MST
4. Science
NATIONAL STANDARDS
- Science: Life Sciences; Nature of Science
- Language
Arts: Writing
- Life
Skills: Working with Others
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Title: Spiders in Our Backyard I
Grade Level: 2nd
Author: Margaret O'Leary, Tupper Lake CSD
Email: Margareto@tupperlakecsd.net
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Adirondack Curriculum Content Area
__X_ Natural History
___ Human History
___ Culture & the Arts
___ Government & Civics
___ Economy
___ Health, Recreation & Life Skills |
Investigative Question or Issue: What kind of spiders
are found in the woods near our school?
Challenge:
Travel
out into the woods and observe the habits of at least three different
spiders in their natural surroundings. Enter your observations on the
sheets your teacher gives you to put in your individual field journals
(picture story notebooks).
Context
for this Challenge: Teachers offering this challenge will want
to check
the immediate environment of their school for the availability of an
appropriate variety of spiders to support this project. Teachers will
also want to prepare the support materials identified in the challenge
(observations sheets for pasting in story notebooks)
Directions for Students:
With a partner and the help of your teacher, travel out
on the Nature Trail and observe the habits of at least three different
spiders in their natural surroundings. Enter your observations on the
sheets your teacher gives you to put in your individual field journals
(picture story notebooks).
As you record your observations, please be sure to record the
following information:
- What is the date and time of day of your
observation?
- What is the weather like?
- Where is the location of your observations?
- What kind of different spiders did you see?
(Draw a picture of them)
- What did the different spiders do while you
were watching them? (Draw
a picture of them)
- What did the webs of the spiders you were
watching look like? (Draw a
picture of them)
Using a collection jar with magnifying lens,
collect one spider for
close observation. Look closely at this spider and record/sketch your
observations in your field journal. Be sure to answer the following:
- What color is it?
- How many legs does it have?
- Where did you find/collect it?
- How big is it? (Measure your spider either by
using the measuring
grid on the bottom of the jar or compare it to something of similar
size)
- What special identifying features does your
spider have? (For
instance, stripes, more than one color, large eyes, etc.)
Based on your observations, write a narrative
(about 3 or 4 sentences
long) from the spider's point of view about what what it looks like,
where it lives, and what its life is like. You are invited to be
creative in this narrative. Maybe you might give your spider a name. Be
sure to give lots of details about your spider when you write.
Please be prepared to present your narrative to the class and share
your drawings with us.
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Quality Standards:
Field
Journal
- Field journal includes observations about
spiders seen on Nature
Trail walk. Information includes date and time, weather, location,
appearance of spiders, activity of spiders, appearance of spider web.
- Field Journal includes observations about one
specific spider that
has been collected. This information includes color of spider, number
of legs, location of collection point, spider size, special identifying
characteristics of spider.
- Field Journal includes illustrations about the
spiders seen on the
Nature Trail
- Field includes illustrations about the
collected spider
Narrative
- Narrative is written from the spider's point
of view
- Narrative is 3 or 4 sentences long
- Narrative is creative, perhaps naming the
spider
Presentation
- Presentation describes observations made about
the collected spider
- Presentation is supported with illustrations
showing the collected
spider
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Adapted for the Adirondack
Curriculum Project from
the work of Education By Design TM and Leading EDGE, LLC
©ACP 2002
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