Know Your Cousins - Monotremas, Marsupials, and Placentals

Wilma Haynes                   Ruggles School
                               7831 S. Prairie
                               Chicago IL 60619
                               (312)535-3085

Objectives:

This lesson is designed for primary students.  It identifies some mammals.
Students should be able to recognize characteristics of mammals.  Students
should be able to categorize mammal groupings.  Students should be able to
describe how mammals grow inside the mother's body and resemble their parents
at birth.

Materials Needed:

     chalkboard                          chalk
     feely box                           hair
     fur                                 eggs
     milk                                bones
     writing paper                       pencils
     glue                                crayons
     markers                             scissors
     construction paper                  animal flashcards
     animal pictures                     dice
     game board

Strategy:

The activities I devised to carry out my objectives are as follows:
     1.  brainstorming
     2.  use of a feely box
     3.  place mammal vocabulary words into ABC order
     4.  unscramble mammal vocabulary words
     5.  make as many words as possible from one vocabulary word
     6.  write Teasing Tongue Twisters about specific mammals
     7.  make a Strange Mammal Booklet by putting together parts of mammal 
         pictures
     8.  make a shadow box with a favorite mammal
     9.  play Win Lose or Draw
     10. play Password
     11. play Concentration
     12. play Know Your Mammal!  (game)  Make a game board using poster board
         and pictures of mammals.  A student will start at START and move around 
         the board by throwing a dice and landing on an animal picture.  Next, 
         the student will state if the animal is a mammal or not.  If the answer 
         is correct, the student will remain on the mammal picture.  If the 
         answer is wrong, the student will go back to start. 
     13. write poems
     14. write stories
     15. write songs

     
Performance Assessment:

The students should be able to identify two mammals from the three categories  
of mammals which are monotremas, marsupials, and placental mammals.  The 
students should be able to state the main characteristics of mammals which are 
warm blooded, have back bones, have fur or hair, produce their own milk and 
have live births.  The students should be able to identify ten mammals. The 
students should be able to state that mammals grow inside the mother's body, in 
the uterus, and are surrounded by the placenta, and resemble their parents at 
birth.