Types of Organisms

For science, we started out unit on organisms. First, we talked about what organisms are and what makes something an organism. We looked at various pictures and decided if they were organisms or not. Then I had them talk to a partner to come up with one thing that is an organism and one thing that is not. We created a long list on the board. Next, I gave each student a picture card and they had to tell me if it was an organism or not. Finally, students went to their seats and cut out and sorted pictures to decide if they were an organism or not.

Now that the kiddies know what organisms are, I told them there are lots of different kind of organisms and we are going to learn about each one. Every day, we focused on a different kind of organism (mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, amphibians, insects, and plants). I read a book about each one and we talked about examples of that kind of organism.  Then students went to their seat and wrote 2 facts and drew a picture of the organism we were focusing on that day. Once we finished learning about all of the different kinds, I gave the students all sorts of pictures. I also had the different groups written on their tables. Their goal was to work as a team to put the pictures on the correct tables.

To finish out our unit on organisms, we made cute little explorers! I gave each student 6 index cards to fold in half. They wrote mammal, reptile, fish, bird, amphibian, and insect on the outside of the cards. Then they wrote 2 facts and a picture on the inside of the card. They glued the cards to the vest of their explorer. Next, they colored their hat, face, hands, and shoes. They also had to draw examples of the various organisms that would go on the inside of their vests. Once everything was ready to go, they glued it all together and here's how they turned out!