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 participated in a guided reading of Marvelous Mammals and then practiced factual recall by answering mammal riddles. They categorized a variety of mammals as herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores.
Although we are currently focusing on arctic habitat, students will discover mammals from all over the world as we explore each biome. As we learn about each habitat and classification, students are building animal and habitat books. They will be asked to identify key features and examples of each classification. They will determine the location of each habitat, describing its climate, weather, and other characteristics. They will identify plants and animals of each.