Or
Exit Full Screen
DISCUSS:
Why do you think the bighorn sheep come to the playground?
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
DISCUSS:
Why do the sheep climb up into the dry mountains every night? Why don’t they just stay in the park? Any ideas?
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
Exit Full Screen
These Common-Core-aligned readings are free with registration on ReadWorks. With the information in these readings, students can compare different habitats and discuss which organisms live in each one:
Exit Full Screen
At the end of this lesson, we asked students to think about animals that show up in surprising places. You can challenge your students to use what they learned in the lesson and check out these two examples from Atlas Obscura.
Show students the pictures in these articles and ask:
Reveal answer
The answers are in the articles.
Exit Full Screen
You or your students may have noticed that some bighorn sheep were wearing collars. Why would anyone put a collar on a wild sheep? Ask your students if they have any ideas.
Reveal answer
Scientists put collars on the bighorn sheep to help keep track of the animals. These collars help scientists count how many different sheep there are in the mountains, figure out which sheep regularly visit the park, and note which sheep are healthy.
Exit Full Screen
You and your students can go on your very own Habitat Scavenger Hunt. All you need to do is select two different places that you can explore and compare at your school site.
Print out the instructions here.
Exit Full Screen
In this lesson, students solve the mystery of why a group of wild bighorn sheep would leave their usual desert habitat to visit a second, very different habitat: a local playground. In the activity, Habitat Scavenger Hunt, students record observations of the diversity of life found in the desert and the playground, as well as the physical characteristics of each location. Students combine these observations to create an understanding of how the living and non-living parts of a habitat support the animals that live there.
Preview activity| Habitat Journal printout | Print 30 copies |
| Habitat Journal Answer Key teacher-only resource | 1 copy |
There is no activity prep for this lesson.
Since there’s so little prep for this lesson, we suggest you consider extending this lesson by having your students perform their own Habitat Scavenger Hunt in two different locations at your school site.
Instructions for this extension can be found here.
Thanks for your feedback! If you have a question or need help, please contact us. Please consider sharing your review:
Sorry the lesson didn’t go well. We read every single review in an effort to improve our Mysteries.
Thanks for letting us know. We’ll wait to ask you for feedback until after you've actually taught it.
Thanks for the feedback! We read every single review in an effort to improve our Mysteries.
Please follow these steps:
Locked
6:10
Why is the sky blue?
Locked
4:41
Why do we call them doughnuts?
Locked
5:16
Could a turtle live outside its shell?
Your membership is expired. The archive of past Mini Lessons is not included in your limited access.
View pricing