EYE SPY AN ADVENTURE!

It's story time!  Have you read WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES!? Level 2 Reader yet?

Children can either pick their own animal from the book or put the names of the featured animals on slips of paper and let them pick one to claim their animal eyes. The challenge is to imagine waking up one day and having that animal's eyes for one whole day. 

ASK THEM TO THINK AND IMAGINE: 

What adventure did you have? 

Did your animal eyes help you solve a mystery? 

Did those eyes help you be a hero? 

Did those animal eyes cause you any problems?

Then have them tackle this challenge: Write a story about having those animal eyes for a day in three short paragraphs: 
1. One to launch what happens. 
2. One for the action in the middle.
3. One for the conclusion. 

Even better if they draw a picture of themselves with those eyes.

Teachers: Why not wrap this activity up by building a class bar graph for favorite animal eyes.  You could color in bars on paper. Or have everyone line up and physically be part of a favorite animal eye graph. 

Put me in your graph as voting for my favorite animal eyes which are on pages 18-19.

I'd love to know your student-graph winners!
Please post in the comments.

I'LL READ TO YOU: RACE THE WILD WIND

 Relax and enjoy as I read to you.

Click to start RACE THE WILD WIND (Bloomsbury)

And enjoy your own copy from Amazon

GO BATTY FOR BATS!

 

Reading BATS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST! is the perfect way to start getting to know these amazing animals.  Then keep on exploring and learning about bats as you have fun with these activities.

Visit My Cave

What's it like to live like a bat?  

Cover a table on three sides with a blanket or paper to create a cave.  Have your family or a group of friends crawl inside your pretend cave with you.  While you're there with this group, think about these questions.

1. Why is a cave a good home for small bats, like Mexican Free-tailed Bats? 
2. Why do you think big bats, like Grey-Headed Flying Foxes, camp in the open in trees instead?
3. What are some problems to sharing a cave with other bats?

What Good Are Bats?

Check out the hand-like structure of a bat's wings.

Try this to find out.  
Take a large bowl of popcorn kernels to the gym or outdoors to a paved area of the playground.  Work with friends to scatter 50 popped kernels on the floor or ground.  Count to ten. Then have people place two more popcorn kernels next to each original kernel.  This is as if the insect pests have multiplied.  

Now pretend you are an insect-hunting bat. Have four others pretend they are too.  While someone counts to five, have each “bat” pick up all of the insects they can carry.  Then have other children place two popcorn kernels next to each remaining kernel.  

Repeat these steps two more times, having “bats” collect “insects”.   Then have any remaining “insects” multiply.  

Now look at the results.

• How much of an affect did the “bats” have on the “insect” population?
• What limited how much of an effect the bats could have on the insects? 
• What do you think would happen to populations of insect pests if there weren’t any bats?

Bats for Good Measure

Again, here's a good chance to see the arm and hand-like structure of a bat's wing.

The wingspan of the largest flying foxes can be up to 6 feet (about 2 meters).  Take string that length. Find at least 5 things about the same length.  What are they?  

Now, measure each of these things.  Find out how longer or shorter each is compared to a large flying fox’s wingspan. 

• The teacher’s desk
• The class’s two shortest students lying head to feet on the floor.
• The classes two tallest students lying head to feet on the floor.
• Your teacher’s armspan (from fingertip to fingertip with both arms stretched out)

The wingspan of the Bumblebee bat is 6 inches (15 centimeters).  Take a piece of string that length.  Find at least 5 things about the same length.  What are they?

Now, measure each of these things.  Find out how much longer or shorter each is compared to a Bumblebee Bat’s wingspan.

• The smallest book in the classroom
• Your pencil
• The shoe of the student with the littlest foot
• Your right hand span (from thumb to little finger with your hand spread wide).  Draw around your hand span on a piece of paper. Then compare to your bat wing measuring string.

I hope you've enjoyed this chance to dig deeper into BATS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!  Check out the other books in this series from Boyds Mills:

SHARKS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!

SNAKES: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!

INSECTS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!

SPIDERS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!

TAKE A BITE WITH GREAT WHITE SHARKS!

Size Matters to these hunters!

An adult Great White Shark never stops growing.  So it gets a little longer every year of its life.  They're born alive and about four feet (1.2 meters) long at birth.  One of the biggest kinds of sharks, adults often grow to be 20 feet (6 meters) long. Measure off a piece of string that length. Stretch it out on the floor and lie down next to it with your feet at one end of the string. Set something, like a pencil, across the string next to your head. Use a measuring tape to find out how many feet/meters shorter you are than a Great White Shark.

Now, find at least 3 things about the same length as a Great White Shark.  What are they?  Now find out how much longer or shorter each of the following things is compared to a Great White Shark.

*The class's two tallest students lying head to feet on the floor
*Your teacher 

Now peek inside my Scholastic book that features great white sharks to discover more.

READ AND DISCOVER!

How does a great white shark sense smells underwater?

click on image to make larger and read.

When would having a super sense of smell be GREAT?

When would having such a good sense of smell be BAD?

NOW CHECK OUT MORE

BONUS FACTS ABOUT GREAT WHITES:

Pups are on their own immediately after they are born.

Great White Sharks swim while sleeping. They breath through gills and need to move to push water through their gills.

Their bodies are not designed to let them swim backwards. So they can't backed up.