Introduction

This interdisciplinary unit was developed for fifth-grade classes in Science and Language Arts.  These fifth graders attended separate classes for Language Arts, Science, Math and Social Studies.  Some of the students attended my LA class, some attended my Science class, and some attended both.  Therefore the unit had to be developed in a way that was compatible with everyone's schedules.

The original purpose of the unit (as designed by the school faculty) was to teach the students the taxonomy of the animal kingdom.  They were to learn each level primarily through rote memorization of the facts, using worksheets.  I knew this would be ineffective and boring.  Wanting to make as many connections as possible in this unit, to connect the knowledge to be learned to the interests and experiences of the students, as well as to real-world needs, I developed the following unit, Kingdom Animalia.

I decided to have the students learn the taxonomy of the animal kingdom through a study of the biomes of the planet Earth.  There were two sets of Expert Groups, and every student belonged to one Expert Group in each set.  The first set of Expert Groups was the Biomes set, and the second set of experts were assigned to one of the seven continents.  For examples, one student may belong to the biome group on Deserts and also be a member of the expert group on Asia.  Each continent group was composed of at least one representative from each Biome Group.  Students were allowed to select the groups to which they belonged, only limited by the fact that we had to have enough people in each group.  Assignment to groups was originally done by drawing the name of a group.  Students were then allowed to negotiate and trade with each other in order to get into a different group if they preferred that group to the one they drew.

The main outcomes from the unit are listed below.  You may click on the unit outcome to view the full details of each unit outcome.  For an explanation of how each unit is designed, please refer to the page on Critical Attributes of Units.

Unit Outcomes

Outcome #1 -  Discover the commonalities, differences and connections among myths, legends and folk tales from different countries.

Outcome #2 -  Based upon your investigations of mythology, create and publish a myth.

Outcome #3 -  Analyze the impact which humans have had upon the Kingdom Animalia, identifying causes and effects.  Make and defend predictions and recommendations. (not online yet)

Outcome #4 -   Conduct an investigation of the seven major biomes on our planet, identifying animals for each classification within the Kingdom Animalia.  Compare and contrast biomes on different continents based on animal species. (not online yet)

Resources

Writing Workshop - If you do not have the book In the Middle by Nancy Atwell, it is a must for your classroom.  She has fantastic examples of how to set up a Writing Center and run excellent Writing Workshops in your classroom.  My students and I loved it.

Suggested Activities