Today I want each of you to design miniature children's books on ecology that you could share with 2nd grade classes. Your challenge is to take definitions that you learned in 7th grade (and I am providing for you) and change them so that a 2nd grader could understand it. You must add color to make it more interesting for a 2nd grader, unless you are super experienced with details and shading with a pencil.
First, take a blank piece of paper and fold it into fourths like this. Folded up, you see the front and back. Opening just one fold are pages 2 and 3.
Page 1
- The title of this book will be Ecology, then you need to put the definition into terms a 2nd grader could understand. I will do this one for you.
The definition from your notes says that ecology is "the study of interactions between organisms and their environment".
I would rewrite this to say, "the study of how living things work with the places where they live".
Now draw a picture that demonstrates a living thing interacting with its environment. For example a fish swimming in a pond would illustrate this.
Page 2
- Write the word Population, a kid friendly definition, and draw a picture to show a population on the top half of the page.
7th Grade Definition of Population - all the organisms of one species living in the same place at the same time
-Write the word Community, a kid friendly definition, and draw a picture to show a community on the bottom half of the page.
7th Grade Definition of Community - all of the organisms of all species living in the same place at the same time.
Page 3
- Write the word Ecosystem, a kid friendly definition, and draw a picture to show an ecosystem on the top half of the page.
7th Grade Definition of Community - all the biotic and abiotic factors together in the same place at the same time.
-Write the words Food Chain, a kid friendly definition, and draw a food chain with labeled pictures for each link.
7th Grade Definition of Food Chain - a series of organisms linked by a flow of energy as one organism eats another, always starting with a producer
Page 4
- Write the word Food Web, a kid friendly definition, and draw a food web that fills the rest of the page. Please draw pictures of the organisms in the web and label them.
7th Grade Definition of Food Web - a series of overlapping food chains that show the complex feeding relationships in an ecosystem