Animal Behavior and Adaptation

NC Standard:  1.01

Activity:  Weathering the Storm

Question: Do animals and humans share similar needs during stormy weather?

Vocabulary: Weather

Materials: Sound effects tape or CD

Procedures: This activity will allow your students to assume the role of an animal or themselves as they visualize the feelings and images associated with a storm. You will lead the students on this adventure by describing in your own words a series of vivid images associated with the beginning, middle and end of a thunderstorm. This activity can be enhanced through the use of a background tape or CD of a thunderstorm or nature sounds.
Tell the students that today they are going to try and imagine the things that they will be hearing described.
Tell the students that before we begin the visualization we must decide what character or role we will assume throughout the activity. Allow the children to choose to be either themselves or an animal that they might see on a drive through the countryside. Tell them that they will need to see things from the point of view of their character while you lead them on their listening adventure.
Ask the students to close their eyes and visualize what their character might be seeing or feeling as you begin.
Leave gaps of time between phrases allowing students to conjure up the images you are suggesting.
The wind begins to blow as you go for a walk on a hot, humid summer's evening...
In the distance you hear a dog bark and the sound of a car driving down the highway...
You smell the last scents of the neighbor's cookout...
The wind blows stronger now and you hear the branches of the trees creak beneath the weight of their rustling leaves...
In the distance you see the darkness broken by a flash of lightning...
The light is far away...
A rumble of thunder can barely be heard over the sound of the wind...
Without warning a sharp crack of lightning strikes almost overhead and lights up the whole sky followed by an immediate crash of thunder which shakes the ground...
You need to find a safe place, a shelter from the storm...
There are no longer gaps of time between the strikes of lightning and thunder...
Thw wind blows harder and you hear a branch crack and fall to the ground...
The rain pounds against your skin and soaks you to the bone...you must find shelter...
You smell a new scent in the air and feel a coolness...
After what seems like forever, you feel the wind change direction and begin to slow...
The lightning and the rumble of the thunder is distant...the storm has passed.

Ask students to share what they saw or felt during the storm. Ask them to share as if they were the character they assumed during the storm. Make sure that they include in their sharing what shelter, if any, they found.

In summary, lead the students in a discussion of the idea that all creatures share a common environment whether it is in a city, in the coutryside, on a mountain or in a valley. People are not the ONLY living creatures that inhabit the earth. Snow, hurricanes and other severe storms affect all things in different ways as we all share the same basic needs. Tell the students to recall other animals within their environment during the next storm and think how they must be feeling.

Evaluation: Have the students draw pictures of their visual imagery.
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Line of Learning:  This line is drawn to provide students with a space to share their experimental learning in words or pictures.
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