Reading Lesson: Animal Adaptations to Hot Weather
Lesson Plan
45 minutesGradesKEnglish Language Arts
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Written by Martha Friend, Sustainable Jersey for Schools
About this lesson
In this lesson, students learn how humans and New Jersey animals adapt to extreme weather.
Inquire: Students predict animal and human adaptations to hot weather.
Investigate: Students listen and respond to the text A Cool Summer Tail by Carrie A. Pearson to learn about animal adaptations.
Inspire: Students apply what they learned in the text and write about or draw an animal to show how it stays cool when the weather is hot.
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Suggestions
- This lesson can be used anytime throughout the year, but especially in the fall to connect to students’ summer experiences with heat.
- This lesson can be taught in conjunction with a unit on weather or animal habitats.
- This lesson provides an opportunity for students to think about how extreme heat affects their lives and the lives of New Jersey animals.
- Although the lesson does not explicitly explain that climate change is causing the increase in hot days, this discussion may bring up anxiety for some students. Consider using the resources in this Climate Anxiety: SEL Resource for Teachers, including the template for informing caregivers of the topics discussed in the unit and sentence frames for discussions.
Prerequisites
- This is lesson 1 of 3 in our Kindergarten Stay Cool ELA Unit.
- Teacher will need a digital or print copy of A Cool Summer Tail by Carrie A. Pearson.
Differentiation
- In the winter, the teacher can use the partner book. A Warm Winter Tail by Carrie A. Pearson to explore animal adaptations to cold temperatures.
- Students can be partnered heterogeneously to support students with varied abilities during the written tasks.
- The writing templates in the Student Document allow for writing or drawing.
- To challenge students, the teacher can ask them to explain how the cooling strategy they chose for their new animal allows it to cool off.
- The teacher can make the text available for independent readers to do a word study around homophones and homographs in the story (tail/tale, spring, lie, etc.) or identify new vocabulary words like awnings, jade, or hue.
From the scientist review
This lesson covers the fundamentals of how animals and people are affected by excessive heat and offers strategies for adaptation. The lesson was examined, and our science review team found it to be satisfactory.
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About the teacher writers
Martha Friend
Martha Friend holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a minor in Marine Ecology from Rider University. She has 32 years of experience teaching elementary education, including 17 years as a K–5 STEAM Lab teacher and earlier experience as a fifth-grade teacher.
Sustainable Jersey for Schools
Sustainable Jersey is a network and movement of municipalities, schools and school districts working collectively to bring about a sustainable New Jersey. Acting with state agencies, non-profit organizations, foundations, academia and industry, Sustainable Jersey researches best practices for what communities could and should do to contribute to a sustainable future.
