Submitted by Kay Edberg

Objectives:

Content:
Students will...
· identify animals found in tropical rain forests
· classify rain forest animals as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, or birds
· describe three animals found in the rainforest by identifying habitat, lifestyle, diet, locomotion and physical characteristics

Cultural:
Students will...
· provide examples of the cultural importance of one of the animals they have chosen (ex. animal products, religious significance)

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will...
· use third person present tense of the following verbs: tener, vivir, comer, poner, etc.
· use animal characteristics to differentiate between class or species: piel, pelo, sangre, corazón, huevos, plumas, reptil, mamífero, etc.
· demonstrate adjective agreement in describing animals

Language: Content Compatible
Students will...
· use "de" constructions to describe animal lifestyles and habitats: de día, de noche, del aire, del río, de los arboles, de la tierra
· create questions about the animals that are discussed
· use vocabulary related to animal products in the culture: productos, carne, hueso, piel, veneno, plumas, usos ceremonials

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:

Time Frame:

approximately seven sixty-minute class sessions

Materials Needed:

(most of these can be found in the "Attachments" below)
· PowerPoint presentation
· List of rainforest animals and websites
· Cut-out animal pictures, pictures of body parts
· Rubric for assessment
· Listening activity recording sheet (for use during presentations)

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

Day 1

1. Prepare to introduce animal types. Establish a background vocabulary of animal body parts and related words such as:

pulmones, sangre (fría/caliente), esqueleto, corazón, piel, pelo, plumas, alas, escamas, metamorfosis, huevos. You may want to make posters of each body part to teach and practice with. Students will also need to conjugate the verbs tener, comer, vivir, and poner in the third person.

2. Show the PowerPoint presentation on animal types (or have students go through it on their own). This which will help students differentiate among the followng types of animals:

mamíferos, reptiles, anfibios, insectos, aves The PowerPoint presentation will also introduce students to several animal parts and additional terms which will help them determine which type of animal they are seeing. These include: poner huevos, alas, corazón, sangre fría, escamas , plumas, piel, pelo, en la tierra, en el agua, vivir, comer Students should be allowed to take notes and should be instructed to view each animal link they see.

3. Write the name of each animal on a large card and have students practice pronunciation. You may also cut out animal pictures from a magazine or print off pictures from the internet and put them on cards for a matching activity with animals and their animal names by handing names to half of the class and pictures to the other. Students should find their partner and then identify the type of animal they have (mamífero, reptil, anfibio, etc.). The activity can be repeated several times until students are comfortable with animal names and have practiced classifying them.

Day 2

4. Review animal part vocabulary from day one. Using the animal characteristics in the powerpoint presentation and any additional characteristics the teacher would like to add, create a list of characteristics on a transarency or chalkboard and ask students to which groups animals with these characteristics may belong. Example: ponen huevos; students should be able to say los reptiles, los anfibios, los insectos, las aves

5. Have students practice in pairs orally with the list of characteristics and then make practice quizzes for their partners to review with the next day. They can also include some animals for classification in their quiz as practice.

Day 3

6. Students should pair up and take practice tests. The rest of the hour can be spent in the computer lab. Provide students with the list of rainforest links and animals that is provided with this lesson. Have them visit some of the websites and view some of the animals. Students will then select three animals of those they have viewed, making sure they belong to different animal groups. They will research these animals using the sites listed and any additional sites they find. They will need to gather the following information on each: Habitat, Características Físicas, Dieta, Reproducción, Manera de Vivir, Importancia Cultural (optional depending on available information).

Day 4

7. Continue research.

Day 5

8. Using the information they have gathered, students create a poster to attractively display what they have learned, including a picture of each animal.

Day 6

9. Students finish their posters and practice answering the following questions that will be posed to them by the teacher the next day:

¿Cómo se llama el animal?
¿Cuáles son algunas características físicas?/¿Cómo es?
¿Dónde vive?
¿Qué come?
¿Cuántos niños tiene a la vez?/¿Pone huevos?
¿Vive en grupos o es solitario?
¿Está en peligro de extincción?
¿Cuál es su importancia cultural? (if information is available)

Day 7

10. Students present posters. During the presentations, observing students should fill in information on the enclosed listening sheet.

Assessment:

1. Students create a poster for the classroom that displays pictures or drawings of 3 different animals that live in the rain forest. Vital stats should be included for each animal such as type, habitat, size, food, etc. Students will then answer 5 questions about each of the animals and one additional question "Describe la importancia cultural de uno de los animals". (Answering the additional question will rely on availability of information.)

2. Students will also be listening to the oral presentations their classmates give and will be classifying and writing notes on each of the animals they hear about.

References and Resources:

Web references are listed at the end of the PowerPoint presentation and on a separate webpage entitled "Los Animales de la Selva: Recursos del Web" (see "Attachments")

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

Animal poster rubric
Oral Recording Sheet
List of animals
List of web site resources (as a webpage)
PowerPoint on animals - web version - download PowerPoint version

A Lesson from the CoBaLTT Project
/cobaltt
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota