Happy
Hump Day !!! Welcome to another edition of my Wait for it Wednesday!
I’m here to talk to you about teaching on the desert habitat. When
I taught first grade we taught about all the habitats, I enjoyed all of them
for different reasons. Today I want to share about the desert habitat ~
ideas and crafts that we incorporate to make it engaging and memorable for our
students.
One of the crafts we always did was the desert scene
with a coyote! First we had the kids paint a beautiful, desert sunset
after talking about the colors that would be found in the sky. I loved
how they all turned out so differently. Some with lots of orange, others
with more red or purple. These always stood out hanging up in our
classroom! Next they would add a black silhouette that we prepared
beforehand so all they had to do was glue it down.
The cactus was always a fun touch, the kids enjoyed
making it but it also added texture to our display. The cactus was made
with Epsom salt mixed into the
tempura which created a bumpy texture that the kids loved. They painted
that right onto card stock which was pre cut and then when all dry we added a
tissue flower to the side.
We also made snakes and camels. The pictures haven’t been added yet to this pic but we would have the kids pose like they were riding the camel and wave with sunglasses and a big hat on. We then cut them out carefully and had them ‘wave’ at the camera. Here’s a sample:
It’s hard to tell from the desert scene photo above but on the snakes we had pre cute triangles and we had them make patterns with the triangles on their snakes too.
Another idea for the cactus is breaking pieces of toothpick and sticking them on the cactus or using a plastic fork which would give it this type of look:
Of course sprinkle in some writingm comprehension, studying lots of different types of animals and their adaptions and brace maps and you are all set to have a special unit on deserts. You can check mine out here if you want an easy to use pack: You can get it ( here )
Hope you can use some of these ideas when you teach on deserts.
Happy teaching,
xo,
