Monday	Students will form pairs. Each dyad will choose and research an animal and then complete an animal study recording sheet found at http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson286/animalstudy_chart.pdf after completing an interactive graphic organizer found at http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/animal-inquiry/. Recording sheet can be taken home for homework. Research sites: http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsitesanimals.htm http://www.panda.org/ http://lsb.syr.edu/projects/cyberzoo/index.html http://natzoo.si.edu/default.cfm http://animal.discovery.com/
Tuesday	Students will make a picture book of their animal and its habitat, using ideas from Monday’s graphic organizer. Students may choose to create illustrations at http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/games/bugs/index.htm. Students will finish for homework. Visit http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/index.html as a class. Teacher will read aloud pausing to allow students to supply many of the words while teaching and modeling word attack strategies.
Wednesday	Class will visit http://www.darwinfoundation.org/. Students will read a short article about animals on the Galapagos Islands (written at third grade level) and write a hamburger paragraph summarizing the main idea of the article and listing at least three details the author gave to support the main idea. Links: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574327/Charles_Darwin.html http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/
Thursday	Class will visit http://www.darwinfoundation.org/. The teacher will use the “Just for Kids” game as a whole class assessment. Links: http://www.thebigzoo.com/Animals/Galapagos_Giant_Tortoise.asp http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/Endangered/tortoise/tortoise.html
Friday	Students will use comprehension strategies when buddy reading a segment of One Hundred Hungry Ants by Bonnie MacKain or Armies of Ants by Walter Retan. Each dyad will verbally summarize their reading and verbally answer at least 90% of recall questions correctly (verbal quiz). Links: http://interactives.mped.org/quiz80.aspx http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/ant/ http://research.amnh.org/entomology/social_insects/ants/ant_colony_cycle.html http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/ants.htm http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/About/WCAnt.htm