First grade students have begun studying animal classifications, learning all about mammals.  We have found that mammals are vertebrates, have lungs, breathe air, are warm blooded, give birth to live young, feed their babies with milk, and have hair or fur.  Students have read several guided reading books focusing on mammals including Marvelous Mammals and Horse Life Cycle. After reading Marvelous Mammals, students practiced factual recall by answering mammal riddles.  They categorized a variety of mammals as herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores.  After reading Horse Life Cycle, students defined key terms matching words to their definitions and practiced factual recall by creating a menu for horses.

Although we are currently focusing on mammals of North America, specifically those living in the arctic tundra, students will discover mammals from all over the world as we explore each biome.  Tomorrow we will begin creating animal and habitat books.  Students will begin by completing the mammal and arctic portions of the books.  They will be asked to identify key features and examples of mammals, writing about what they can, what they have, and what they are.  They will determine the location of the arctic, describing its climate, weather, and other characteristics.   They will identify plants and animals of the arctic and draw an arctic habitat.