nocturnal animals?

I am working with the 1st gr in my building and met with the teachers today to find out what they would like to work on for 6 sessions of enrichment. They came back to me with the idea of "nocturnal animals/bats" .. I am stumped on what a 1st gr will be capable of achieving at this point in the year and how I can make this hands on/exciting and FUN.... I'm hoping some experts on here can give me some ideas!

Re: nocturnal animals?

what about making a project like a world traveling zoologist/photographer?

set up stations - a non-fiction (rookie reader type) book; the computer (enchanted learning dictionary?); draw a picture (their photograph) of their animal; atlas, color the countries where they live


you can stamp their "passport" each time they finish a station

you can have them cut and paste their station (the map, a fact from the book and computer, their drawing) work into a manila (or colored) folder and transform it into a suitcase. make them cut out a handle and glue it in. Have them write their name on a luggage tag and tie it onto the handle

Re: nocturnal animals?

I did a project with bats and sense of smell. Basically mommy bats can find their babies in a cave covered with thousands of bats using sense of smell. You would have to check regarding allergies, but I used different food extracts (banana, vanilla, almond, orange, cinnamon, etc.) I made two necklaces for each (posterboad squares with a yarn necklace with a few cotton balls glued to it) and put a couple of drops on a cotton ball. Be careful though, because when I did this, the extract kind of soaked through, so you may want to modify it. The blindfolded kids had to find their babies by smelling their necklace and then smelling the necklace of their classmate's that matched.

The kids totally got into it! I HTH!!!

Re: nocturnal animals?

thanks for the great ideas! :) keep them coming!! :)

Re: nocturnal animals?

I bought a classroom pet and have been unable to bring her to school because she had babies. She's noctural! She's a hamster! Interested in a baby in a couple of weeks as a classroom pet? It doesn't get more hands on than that!