Life in the Desert

Color Overheads Included!! The information and activities in this resource book enhance children's knowledge and awareness about the components of a desert environment, including geography, soil and other geological characteristics, weather, plants, and animals. Students will discover where deserts are located in the world. They will find out what characteristics these deserts have in common, what lives there, and how the living things survive. As they explore desert plant adaptations, students will discover similarities and differences between plants growing in desert and non-desert environments. Activities that emphasize plant and animal interdependence, food chains, and protection will enable students to relate the structure of the animal's body to functions necessary for its survival. Students will also begin to discover how they, as humans, would react to living conditions in a desert environment. The material follows a learning cycle that includes: a) free exploration by the children; b) expanding the exploration through activities that allow children to test, integrate, and sort out their discoveries; and c) application of concepts through individual and group projects. Emphasis is placed on the curricular areas of science, math, art, social studies, reading, writing, drama, and movement. Activities involve skills in observing, classifying, measuring, recording, predicting, listening, writing, brainstorming, constructing, explaining, describing, comparing, contrasting, organizing, sharing, inventing, and designing.