A Teacher’s Guide to Animal Habitats
Grades Pre-K–2
Description: Food, water, shelter, and space––all creatures need a habitat that provides these things.
Meet several animals from different habitats and discover how these needs are met. Also explore how
animals depend upon and relate to one another within a habitat.
Outcomes: Students will understand that all animals need food, a source of water, a safe shelter, and
space in which to live in their habitats. Students will examine several different habitats and will
recognize that animals need the same things humans do to live in their habitats.
Suggested Activities Before Your Visit:
• Have the students brainstorm a list of habitats from around the
world. Compare and contrast the habitats. Discuss the animals that
Vocabulary
live in the habitats. How are the animals alike and different?
• Compare the students’ habitats with those of animals. Create a Adaptation
Venn diagram that compares and contrasts the needs of the students
and the needs of animals. Then, as a class look at how those needs
Habitat
are met. For example, how do the students fulfill their need for Food Web
food, and how is it different from how animals find food? Populations
• Research different types of human habitats. Examine homes from Biodiversity
all around the world. How are the homes alike and how are they
different? How does the environment or the culture affect the type
of home?
Suggested Activities After Your Visit:
Classroom Activities:
• Discuss the lesson with your students. What new ideas or information did they learn? Was
anything confusing? What did they like best?
• See the attached activity Everybody Needs a Home Activities: Oh, Deer! for a game that
illustrates an animal’s basic needs for survival and how populations of animals in a habitat
change based on how those needs are met.
• Explore your backyard habitats. As a class, decide on a habitat to observe. Choose a habitat that
would be easy to visit on several different occasions, such as the school yard, a local park, or a
backyard pond. Keep a nature journal on the animal life in that habitat––don’t forget insects
and spiders when you observe your habitat! Where do the animals find food and water? How
are their shelter and space needs being met? How do the animals depend on each other and on
the plant life in the habitat? Try to observe the habitat during different seasons. For a great
resource on helping students to create nature journals, check out Claire Walker Leslie and
Charles E. Roth’s Keeping a Nature Journal: Discovering a Whole New Way of Seeing the
World Around You.
• Observe––but do not disturb––nests in your area. Discuss with your students the purpose of
nest building among birds. Why do birds build nests? At what point in a bird’s life is the nest
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actually considered a shelter? Do birds always sleep in nests? Talk about how different types of
birds construct different types of nests. Compare the types of materials birds use as well as how
some birds use nests constructed by other birds and others build no nest at all. Challenge the
students to build a nest from found materials in their environments. For a complete resource on
nests, use Peterson’s Field Guides: Eastern Birds’ Nests.
Homework Assignments:
• See Everybody Needs a Home Activities: Disappearing Habitats for a math graphing
activity examining the shrinking rainforests of the world.
Interdisciplinary Activities:
• Discuss the impact of non-native species on various habitats. See Everybody Needs a Home
Activities: Invasive Species for discussion points and activities.
Writing/Drawing Prompts:
• Create an animal that is well adapted to a particular habitat. Discuss as a class how different
animals survive in different environments. For example, what features or behaviors allow a
duck to live in a watery habitat while a hawk may be better suited for surviving in the desert?
Choose a habitat and create an animal with adaptations that allow it to successfully meet all its
needs in that habitat. Write a description of the animal highlighting its adaptations and draw an
illustration. Write a story about a typical day in the life of your animal. For an extra challenge,
choose an urban habitat. Discuss as a class the possible difficulties for an animal that needs to
find food, water, shelter, or space in a city.
Class Project Ideas:
• Build a classroom aquarium. As a class, decide what you would need to build and maintain a
watery habitat. Research appropriate practices. A great resource for building a successful
aquarium habitat is You & Your Aquarium: A Complete Guide to Collecting and Keeping
Aquarium Fishes from Dorling Kindersly Limited. After the construction of the aquarium, take
turns monitoring the animals and plants that make up the habitat. This is a valuable activity not
only for determining how animals find food, water, shelter, and space in a habitat but also
wonderful for showing students the hard work and general satisfaction with maintaining a
living space.
• Get involved! As a class, take action and help save some of the amazing habitats all around the
world. Talk about how sometimes space is the hardest thing for animals to find in their habitats.
As a class, choose an endangered habitat. Then, agree on a way to raise money to donate to an
environmental foundation. Some suggested foundations are the World Wildlife Fund
(worldwildlife.org) and the Rainforest Alliance (rainforest-alliance.org) for habitats around the
world. Also, check out the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (njconservation.org), the
Pennsylvania Land Trust Association (conserveland.org), or the Delaware Department of
Natural Resources & Environmental Control (dnrec.delaware.gov) for habitat conservation
closer to home.
Resources for Students
• Ocean (DK Eyewitness Books) by Miranda MacQuitty
• Desert (DK Eyewitness Books) by Miranda MacQuitty
• Pond & River (DK Eyewitness Books) by Steve Parker
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• Visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s website to play neat games and learn about a tide pool
habitat. See how different fish find food in their habitats and watch some very cool videos of
fish actually doing just that in the ocean: montereybayaquarium.org and search under
“Activities, Games, and Music.”
• Jungle (DK Eyewitness Books) by Theresa Greenaway
• Seashore (DK Eyewitness Books) by Steve Parker
Additional Resources for Educators
• Visit www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create-a-Habitat.aspx for helpful info on
creating your own backyard habitat
• For great information on different habitats around the world complete with wonderful pictures
and examples of some common questions about each habitat, go to mbgnet.net.
• Janice Van Cleave’s Animals: Mind-Boggling Experiments You Can Turn into Science Fair
Projects by Janice Van Cleave
• How Nature Works (How It Works) by David Burnie
• A Dictionary of Nature: 2,000 Key Words Arranged Thematically by David Burnie
Pennsylvania PreK and K Standards
o 3.1.A, 3.3.A, 4.1
Pennsylvania Academic Standards in Environment and Ecology
o 4.1
Pennsylvania Academic Standards in Science and Technology
o 3.1.A, 3.1.C
New Jersey Standards
o 5.1, 5.3.A, 5.3.B, 5.3.C, 5.3.E, 5.4.G
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Everybody Needs a Home Activities: Oh Deer!
How do deer populations change as their habitats change? Play a game to determine how an animal
finds food, water, and shelter in its habitat.
• First, discuss with the class the needs of any animal. Discuss how animals need to find food, water,
shelter, and space in order for the animal to survive. Talk about the concept of populations of
animals (all of the individuals of one species living in one specific area). Tell the students that they
are going to be playing a game that simulates how a population of deer finds food, water, and shelter
in a habitat. Ask them to assume, for this activity, that the deer have enough space.
• Take the class to a large, safe space such as a gym, lunch room, or field. Divide the class into two
groups. One group will represent the habitat and the other will represent the deer. If one group is
smaller than the other, the smaller group should be the deer.
• Put the deer group at one end of the room or space and the habitat group at the other. Group should
turn away from each other. Students in both groups should put their hands into a position that stands
for something that a deer needs from its habitat: food (hands over stomach), water (hands over
mouth), or shelter (hands over the head like a roof).
• At a signal from the instructor, groups should turn to face each other and the deer group should
walk to the habitats group. They need to find a habitat player that is making the same hand signal as
they are. The next round, both players will be deer. When they have found a match, they bring that
player back to the deer side of the space. Each habitat may only have one deer. Students may not
change the sign during the round.
• If a deer cannot find what it needs––other members representing food, water, or shelter––the player
becomes a habitat player for the next round. Play three to four rounds.
Follow-up discussion:
1. Ask the deer group if at any point during the game it was hard to find what they needed. Why
was it hard? What happened if they didn’t find what they needed? Explain that when the deer
didn’t find what it needed, it died and became part of the habitat. When a deer dies in the wild,
decomposers go to work, and the deer is now part of the resources for the rest of the population.
2. Ask the habitat players to describe what happened when they were taken by the deer. Explain
that when they helped the deer to survive, they became a deer themselves. If a deer successfully
finds food, water, shelter, and space in the wild, they survive to reproduce. If all the needs of
the individuals of a population are met, the population grows as the healthy deer reproduce.
3. Discuss as a class how the population changed throughout the course of the game.
(Adapted from “Oh, Deer!” found in Project Wild: K–12 Curriculum and Activity Guide)
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Everybody Needs a Home Activities: Invasive Species
When we introduce new species to a habitat, what happens to the species that already call that habitat
home?
• First, hand out the attached exit slips to students and collect them without discussion of their
answers. Tell the students to answer the questions thoroughly and honestly. Collect the slips and
save them for the conclusion of the lesson.
• Then, as a class examine cases of invasive species that have had incredible impacts on their various
habitats. Look closely at the iguana population throughout Florida, the worldwide red-eared slider
explosion, and the Burmese python problems in the Everglades.
Talk about the impact these non-native species have had on the habitats into which they have been
introduced. Discuss with the students some possible reasons why these former pets were released
into various parts of Florida and other countries and habitats. Have these animals affected other
species’ abilities to survive? Discuss the economic problems that the iguanas have caused, the
aggressive nature that has caused the red-eared sliders to eat other freshwater turtles out of house and
home, and the species clashes as a result of Burmese pythons being introduced into a new habitat.
Have any other species in their habitat been unable to find food, water, shelter, or space because of
these invaders? Who is ultimately responsible for this habitat disturbance? In small groups,
brainstorm possible preventive or treatment actions that could have or could still address this
problem.
• Lead a discussion about any pets the students may have or have had. Is having that pet exactly what
they expected? What sort of problems have they run into with their pets? Have the students
brainstorm ways to make sure that pets do not end up reintroduced into the wild. Make sure that the
idea that not all released pets become invasive species is discussed. Stress that most pets that are
released die in the habitats into which they are released. Why would that be? Ask the students to
think about what a pet’s habitat consists of. What is its source of food, water, shelter, and space?
Does that source exist outside in the wild? Discuss how knowledge about these pets prior to
purchase can prevent pets being released into habitats. As a service to the school, create owner’s
guides for popular pets. Research appropriate care for each pet. Include information about adult size,
space needs, life span, special requirements, and social and emotional needs for each pet. Make these
guides available to all students in the school in an effort to avoid human-introduced invasive species.
• At the conclusion of the activity, allow the students to revisit the exit slips from the beginning of the
lesson. After having examined human-introduced invasive species, would any of the students change
their previous answers? For an extension activity, allow students to look into how nonanimal
invasive species become introduced and the subsequent problems they cause.
Resources for invasive species and pet care:
invasivespecies.gov
issg.org
Invasive Species Series by Suellen May
The ASPCA Complete Guide to Pet Care by David L. Carroll and Stephen Zawistowski
Ultimate Encyclopedia of Small Pets & Pet Care by David Alderton
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Exit Slip:
You have just brought home a baby turtle. You have a tank set up, and everything seems
to be going well. For the first few weeks, you make sure your turtle has all the things it
needs. Soon, you realize your turtle is hiding all day. You stop playing with your turtle
because he simply will not learn any tricks. You still continue to feed your turtle and
clean its tank, but you now notice that the tank looks too small for the turtle. You didn’t
realize that the turtle would get so big because he was so small and cute when you got
him. You’re no longer happy with your pet that hides all day and stays perfectly still
when you take him out to play. You’re also pretty sure he’s not too happy either in his
small tank.
What do you do now?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Exit Slip:
You have just brought home a baby turtle. You have a tank set up, and everything seems
to be going well. For the first few weeks, you make sure your turtle has all the things it
needs. Soon, you realize your turtle is hiding all day. You stop playing with your turtle
because he simply will not learn any tricks. You still continue to feed your turtle and
clean its tank, but you now notice that the tank looks too small for the turtle. You didn’t
realize that the turtle would get so big because he was so small and cute when you got
him. You’re no longer happy with your pet that hides all day and stays perfectly still
when you take him out to play. You’re also pretty sure he’s not too happy either in his
small tank.
What do you do now?
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Everybody Needs a Home Activities: Disappearing Habitats
Explore the effects of deforestation on the size and species of the world’s rainforests.
The following worksheet is designed to introduce students to the idea of deforestation and its effect on
the world’s oldest habitat––the rainforest. It is also intended as a review of plotting line graphs. Be
sure to copy the pages front-to-back for each student.
Answer Key:
1. Hint: Remind students to read the directions carefully. The directions say that 55 million acres are
lost per year. The chart that follows asks for the size of the rainforest every two years.
Year Millions of Year Millions of
Acres Acres
2006 2,500 2018 1,840
2008 2,390 2020 1,730
2010 2,280 2022 1,620
2012 2,170 2024 1,510
2014 2,060 2026 1,400
2016 1,950 Total 1,100
Loss
2. Answers may vary.
Bonus question: If deforestation continues at this rate, by the year 2051 all of the rainforests of the
world will be gone.
Many of the figures used for this worksheet can be found at rainforest-alliance.org.
*The activity can be extended to include a map skills and geography lesson. Using a blank map like
those found at eduplace.com/ss/maps, have students outline the areas which used to be rainforest.
Then, allow them to map out the areas that are currently covered by rainforests. Some wonderful
resources for this project can be found at the following websites:
rainforest-alliance.org
worldwildlife.org
rain-tree.com
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Name:_________________________ Date:_______________
Disappearing Habitats
Food, water, shelter and space. By now you know that all animals need these four things
in their habitats to survive. What happens when “space” is suddenly hard for an animal
to find in its habitat? Investigate this question by studying the world’s most amazing
and most endangered habitats.
1. At one time, there were 6 billion acres of rainforest on the earth. In 2006, that
number was somewhere around 2.5 billion. That may still seem like a very large amount
of land, but every single year, we are losing about 55 million acres of land to
deforestation. That is more than the area covered by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Delaware combined! What does the future hold for the rainforests if we continue to cut
them down at this rate? Find out. Fill in the following chart that projects how big the
rainforest will be in the future if we continue to lose 55 million acres of rainforest
every year.
Year Millions of Year Millions of
Acres Acres
2006 2,500 2018
2008 2020
2010 2022
2012 2024
2014 2026
2016 Total
Loss
Record this information on the graph on the back of this page.
2. Some scientists believe that, in addition to the shrinking space in the rainforest, on
average four species of living things (plants and animals) go extinct every hour in the
rainforest. How many species could go extinct during your math class? ___________
How many species could go extinct during a school day? ___________
How many species could go extinct while you sleep? ___________
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For a bonus challenge, if we continue deforestation at the rate of 55 million acres a
year, what year will the rainforests completely disappear?___________ How old will
you be then? ___________ All the rainforests of the world could disappear in your
lifetime … what will you do?
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