Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals Activities ...a hard time swimming without its webbed feet or tail; if its teeth didn’t keep growing it wouldn’t be able to cut down

Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals Activities for Grades K-2

amnh.org/nammals© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.

Animal Adaptations

OVERVIEWStudents will learn that animals’ adaptations help them survive in their environments.

• Before Your Visit: Students will engage in hands-on activities in order to explore animal adaptations.

• During Your Visit: o In the Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals, students, with

the help of chaperones, will observe animals in dioramas to find a variety of adaptations.

o Students will visit the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life to observe marine mammals. • Back in the Classroom: Students will create animal puppets and put on a play about adaptations.

BACKGROUND FOR EDUCATORPhysical and behavioral traits help animals obtain food, defend themselves, communicate, stay cool or warm, and attract mates. These characteristics, called adaptations, improve the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in a given environment. Adaptation is a result of natural selection.

BEFORE YOUR VISITActivity: Explore AdaptationsThrough a reading, a discussion, and a hands-on activity, students will explore animal adaptations.

Read aloud to the class a short article about the North American beaver (see Appendix) and its adaptations, such as webbed hind feet, closeable ears, and a paddle-like tail.

Follow the reading with a class discussion on adaptations. Questions can include:

• What do we call body parts that help an animal survive? (Answer: adaptations)• Can you name a body part that helped the beaver and tell us how or why it was

helpful? (Answers may include: fur for staying warm, sharp teeth for cutting trees and building a home, webbed feet and a tail that acts like a rudder for swimming)

• How might it be hard for the beaver to survive if it did not have these adaptations? (Answers may include: It might get cold without its waterproof fur; it might have a hard time swimming without its webbed feet or tail; if its teeth didn’t keep growing it wouldn’t be able to cut down trees and eat.)

Then have students each select an animal and create paper cutouts of its physical adaptations. First have them choose a trait (claws, shells, quills, teeth, hooves, horns, antlers, etc.). Students should then draw them on paper, cut them out, and wear them. Bring the class together for show and tell: have students take turns explaining why they chose that adaptation and how they think it could help the animal survive.

Materials: • Paper • Tape• Crayons • Hole punch• Safety scissors • Cardboard tubes from paper towels• Glue sticks • Yarn (so that the kids can wear what they make)

NYS Living Environment Core Curriculum:

3.1a: Each animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival and reproduction.

Plan how your students will explore the Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals using the three different group worksheets.

Divide your class into three teams. Further divide each team into small groups of three to four and assign each to a teacher/parent chaperone who will facilitate their exploration of the dioramas.

If possible, distribute and review copies of the map and worksheets to chaperones beforehand.

Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals Activities for Grades K-2

amnh.org/nammals© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.

DURING YOUR VISITBernard Family Hall of North American Mammals 1st floor (45-60 minutes)Students will visit dioramas to observe, identify, and describe adaptations. Using the Group Worksheet, chaperones will guide small groups of students through a tour of the hall and record student observations that will be shared back in the classroom.

Milstein Hall of Ocean Life 1st floor (30 minutes)Students will visit marine mammals dioramas to observe, identify, and describe adaptations. Divided in the same three groups, have chaperones guide students to marine mammals dioramas on the lower level: Polar bear (Team 1: finding food), walrus (Team 2: keeping safe), northern elephant seal (Team 3: withstanding weather). Chaperones can use the same prompts from the Group Worksheet and record student observations on the back.

BACK IN THE CLASSROOMActivity: Create a Puppet As a class, students will review their findings from their Museum visit. Transfer student observations from the three group worksheets onto the board, so that they can be viewed by the entire class. Ask students from each of the three groups to share what adaptations they found to be most interesting. Then have each student create an animal puppet that includes its adaptations to its environment. Students can use these to put on a class play about adaptations.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS Mammal by Steve ParkerAn introduction to the natural history of mammal behavior and anatomy. Topics range from how newborn mice develop to how camels walk on sand and why some mammals have spines instead of fur. DK Publishing, 2004. ISBN: 0-7566-0703-5

What is a Mammal? by Robert SneddenThis lavishly illustrated exploration of the question “What makes a mammal a mammal?” includes intriguing examples like marsupials and platypuses. Sierra Club Books for Children, 1993. ISBN: 0-87156-468-8

Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by J. Barrett NY: Scholastic Inc., 1970. ISBN: 0-590-44739-4

Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals Grades K-2

amnh.org/namammals© 2012 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.

Group Worksheet • Team 1: Finding Food

Instructions for the adult facilitator:

1. Ask students to identify and describe what they see. 2. Encourage students to be as descriptive as possible, and solicit contributions from all students. 3. Record as many of their observations as possible.

Diorama

1. Grizzly bear

2. White-tailed deer

3. American bison & pronghorn

What body parts are the animals using to find food?

What kind of food are they looking for?

If you have extra time, explore these dioramas:

• Alaska brown bear• Canada lynx and snowshoe hare



Group Worksheet • Team 2: Keeping Safe



Diorama

1. Fisher & porcupine

2. Black bear

3. Moose

What body parts are the animals using to defend or protect themselves?

What might they need protection from?


• Nine-banded armadillo• Spotted skunk and ringtail (cacomistle)



Group Worksheet • Team 3: Withstand Weather



Diorama

1. Musk ox

2. North American beaver

3. Black-tailed jackrabbit & antelope jackrabbit

What body parts is the animal using to help it withstand weather?

What kind of environment is it adapted to?



Group Worksheet • Team 1: Finding Food



Diorama

1. Grizzly bear (Eyes, paws, claws, snout, mouth/teeth)

(Eyes, nose, mouth/teeth)

(Eyes, nose, mouth/teeth)

(Fish, rodents, carrion, grasses, mosses, roots, tubers, bulbs, berries, insects, larvae, fungi, carrion)

ANSWER KEY

(Leaves from blackgum trees, twigs, dried leaves and evergreen needles)

(Shrubs, small plants, grasses, cacti)

2. White-tailed deer

3. American bison & pronghorn

What body parts are the animals using to find food?

What kind of food are they looking for?


• Alaska brown bear• Canada lynx and snowshoe hare



Group Worksheet • Team 2: Keeping Safe



Diorama

1. Fisher & porcupine

2. Black bear

3. Moose

What body parts are the animals using to defend or protect themselves?

What might they need protection from?


• Nine-banded armadillo• Spotted skunk and ringtail (cacomistle)

(Porcupine uses its legs/claws to climb high into tree so fisher can’t reach it. Sharp quills on its body also serve as protection.)

(The cottonmouth snake exposes its fangs in threat.)

(The Moose uses its antlers to defend itself. Fighting moose roll their eyes to see better and send signals. The bull’s downward cast eyes mean that he is holding his ground.)

(The fisher and other predators would like to eat the porcupine.)

(The encounter between the snake and the bear is accidental. The bear can eat a varied diet that requires less risk of injury and the snake would probably prefer smaller prey that would be more easily captured.)

(The combat in this diorama is a clash for the right to mate with a female. Males evaluate antler size when deciding whether to fight over a female.)

ANSWER KEY



Group Worksheet • Team 3: Withstand Weather



Diorama

1. Musk ox

2. North American beaver

3. Black-tailed jackrabbit & antelope jackrabbit

What body parts is the animal using to help it withstand weather?

What kind of environment is it adapted to?

(Squat, woolly bodies limit heat loss)

(The beaver has a dense, oily fur coat to help maintain its body temperature in the water)

(The jackrabbits long ears and high legs help keep it cool)

(Arctic tundra, where temperatures can plunge bellow -40 F)

(Beavers are semi-aquatic)

(Desert, scarce water and hot days)

ANSWER KEY



Appendix 1

NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERJuly eveningBeaver Pond, Hoister Creek, Michigan

The beaver is not your typical rodent. It’s the largest one on the

continent, and the only one that can cut down mature trees. Beavers

use the timber to build large, elaborate nests—dome-shaped lodges

with underwater entrances—inside ponds. If there is no pond, beavers

will create one by building a dam to block a stream. The resulting moat

around their lodges keeps wolves, coyotes and other predators at bay.

As semiaquatic rodents, beavers have closeable ears and nostrils,

webbed hind feet and very dense fur coats. Their paddlelike tails ap-

pear to be covered in scales like a fish, but they aren’t. Rather, the skin is

grooved in a scaly pattern, which makes the thick tail more flexible.

Beavers can drastically alter landscapes. Working in family groups of

four to eight, a beaver colony can cut down more than a ton of trees per

year. This colony has dammed a stream with logs, mud and stones to

make a pond. The land is so newly flooded that some trees have not yet

drowned.



Appendix 1

NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERJuly eveningBeaver Pond, Hoister Creek, Michigan

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Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals Activities ...a hard time swimming without its webbed feet or tail; if its teeth didn’t keep growing it wouldn’t be able to cut down