Release week Feb. 5, 2007: Lions

Standards

·        Social Studies: Students will discuss how members of a group assign tasks to their members.

·        Science: Students will chart and compare the daily diets of several kinds of animals.

·        Science: Students will create a Web quest to learn about lions and challenge their classmates.

Activities

1.     Use the News: Male and female lions have specific jobs to perform within their pride. What kinds of different jobs do people perform within an organization or social group? Find examples of how people divide up jobs as they’re reported in the newspaper.

2.     If a 300-pound lion ate 75 pounds of meat, that would equal 25 percent of its weight. If a 180-pound human ate a meal equaling 25 percent of its weight, the meal would weigh 45 pounds! Make a chart listing animals, their weight, the weight of their daily diet and the percentage compared to its body weight. The Internet should have some of this information. You’ll have to calculate the percentage weight. Example: “How much do elephants eat?”

3.     Learn about lions by teaching your classmates about them. Create a Web quest in which you make a quiz or list of words to define from an interesting Web page. First locate a good lion Web site, such as nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GreatCats/lionfacts.cfm). Next, examine the site and write down the questions, answers and definitions you want to use in your Web quest. Then publish (print or create a Web page) the quiz. The answers can be provided separately.

World of Wonder meets many state educational standards. This guide helps teachers identify standards and related activities generally intended for grade 6, but teachers can modify activities to the appropriate grade level.