Idea Circle - Living Things Get Energy, Grow Up and React

After completing the First Impressions activity, students will use an Idea Circle approach to find out more information about the characteristics of living things. Encourage students to select a living thing that they dislike or have neutral feelings about.
 
Each student will select a book about a specific plant or animal.  These non-fiction books may be in the teacher’s classroom library, the school library, borrowed from public libraries or online libraries.  See “Resources for eBooks and Digital Media” for suggestions on finding content online.
 
1.  Students begin by selecting a book about an animal. Some books will not provide all of the information requested on the graphic organizer.  Teachers can decide to implement any of the following as a whole class, or differentiate strategies for individuals or small groups. Students can use:

• Any information students do find and skip the other details.
• Several books to find all of the information.
• Carefully selected (by the teacher) books that contain all of the details requested. 

 
2.  As they read, students fill out a graphic organizer about how their living thing gets its energy, grows up and reacts to its environment.  If needed, this activity could be completed as a small group working collaboratively to complete one graphic organizer. Another option could be for students to add the characteristics of their living thing to a class chart as they complete their individual or small group research.

3.  Students share the results of their research on their living thing with their small and/or large group(s). This research can be completed during time allocated for science instruction, as a center activity, or during time allocated for reading.
 
Suggested Text for the Idea Circle

• Ferdinand Fox’s First Summer, by Mary Holland
• Eat Like a Bear, by April Pulley Sayre
• Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Nicole Davies, “Caterpillars, Butterflies” (p. 40), “Just Ducks” (p. 98), “Acorn” (p. 68), and “Squirrel” (p. 74) are a few of the poems that could be used to find how living things grow up, get energy, react to the environment, and/or have body parts that help them do specific tasks. While poems are being read, students can also identify words and phrases that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.  They can also use the illustrations and details in the poem to describe the characters, setting and events of the poem. 

• Epic!’s “Living Things” or “Science and Nature” collections contain many books about plants and animals. About Penguins: A Guide for Children, by Cathryn Sill; Gray Foxes by Jane P. Gardner, and Arctic Fox Pups or Lion Cubs, both by Ruth Owen, each provide all of the information requested. This is only a partial list of possible ebooks student may use.

• InfOhio.org
  • BookFlix– The “Animals and Nature” category contains many books about animals that would be appropriate for this activity. A Lady Bug Larvae Grows Up by Katie Marsico, and others in the "Grows Up" series are good choices.
  • World Book Kids – World of Animals provides information, pictures and videos about animals. Selecting “Go to Exhibit” provides facts about the animal.  Clicking on “View Article” links to a brief overview of the animal, in a more student friendly writing style. Users can also select two animals to compare facts about the animals (length, life span, foods, etc.)
  • Early World of Learning – “Know It” provides students with interactive texts about animals and plants. Students can select a category of living things, then select a specific plant or animal.

 

• ReadWorks – “Busy Bees,” “Spiders” and other passages could be used with the First Impressions activity. While question sets are provided for each passage, teachers should decide if the questions are appropriate for use with this activity, could be used later at a center or as part of allocated reading time, or are not aligned.