Adaptations - Thorns and Threats

Focus: In order to protect themselves, plants and animals have developed many different defenses.

Puppets (Willie Worm, Benjy Bear, Penelope Porcupine, Todd Turtle, Bonnie Bee, Teddy Toad)

Materials Checklist
Slide Show (Slide show, projector, screen)
Puppet Show (puppets, script)
Defense Puzzles (Defense Strategy puzzle pieces, touchable samples of defense strategies)
Eat Me Not (paper plates, tape, scissors, pencils)
Pantomime Parade (cards describing different scenarios)
Monster Mouthful (paper, pencils, crayons, markers)
Perilous Plants Flash Cards (5/6 ELF) (poison plant cards, "Some Poisonous Plants of New England" Chart, plant name labels, removable tape)
Perilous Plants Memory Game (5/6 ELF) ("Some Poisonous Plants of New England" Chart, poster board or heavy paper, duplicate pictures of 10-12 local poisonous plants)

Supplementary Reference Materials (Slide show scripts: Grades K-2, Grades 3-6, Defense Puzzles, Pantomime Parade prompts, 5/6 ELF Activity: Perilous Plants, Some Poisonous Plants of New England)

Additional Reading/Resources
"The Beginning of Armadillos" from Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling.
Plant Tricksters, by Janet Halfmann, Franklin-Watts, 2004.
Animal Defenses: How Animals Protect Themselves, by Etta Kaner, Pat Stephens (illustrator), and Pamela Hickman, Kids Can Press, 1999.

ELF Notes - Template for newsletter on Thorns and Threats
* Word document * pdf file

Teaching suggestions

Defense Puzzles
Volunteers may want to add a few fresh samples to VINS's thorns kit: a cherry branch for the kids to smell, raspberry and blackberry canes to compare color and size of thorns, furry mullein leaves.

You could place 3-4 puzzles per station and have the children rotate through to do them all.

After the puzzles have been put together, the whole group could discuss and sort the examples in the Thorns and Threats kits to match the puzzle categories.

Thorns and Threats Kits
You might place objects from the kit at 5 or 6 different tables around the room with a paper bag, pencils, and slips of paper at each station. Divide children into 5 or 6 groups, one to each object. Start by having each child write down one word or phrase about their object on a slip of paper and place it in the paper bag. Rotate to the next station and write a word or phrase about that object; and continue until all groups have examined all objects and returned to their original stations. Now, groups must create a poem describing their object using ALL the words and phrases in the bag!

You might give each child an item from the kit and have him/her match it to one of the puzzle strategies.

Eat Me Not
Before going outside, have the whole group make a comprehensive list of possible plant defenses on the board. Have students pick four defenses they think they'll find samples of outside, and write these on a paper plate they've divided into four sections.

If you want to include animals in the outside search (e.g. caterpillars), they should draw what they see outside rather than collecting live critters.

Make sure one adult in each group brings along a pair of scissors for cutting samples.

Pantomime Parade
Additional city scenarios: A flock of pigeons/ sparrows/chickadees is startled by a cat/ hawk at the birdfeeder . . . A squirrel or bird has trouble opening a stubborn, prickly nut . . . . A squirrel darts rapidly back and forth when chased . . . .

Monster Mouthful
Students may want to name their monster mouthfuls so they can introduce them to the group as a closure activity (e.g. common name is Foul Lily, Latin name is Stinkus fetacheesus).

Extensions
Read aloud Steve Jenkins' What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You?

– excerpts from Heinrich's Winter World:
“When touched, [the woolly bear] caterpillar characteristically curls up into a defensive posture with stout bristles sticking out in all directions, much like the European hedgehog...in the last week of March, they [encase] themselves in lightly spun cocoons (that incorporate their short shedding spiny bristly hairs).”

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas

• Animals and plants have particular physical adaptations or defense strategies that protect them from predation or other threat.
• Plants are often adapted to be inedible or distasteful.
• Animals may have physical and/or behavioral adaptations that protect them from predators.
• Despite the different defense strategies, some creatures are able to circumvent these defenses, evolving new behaviors and adaptations to exploit the food source.

Vocabulary: adaptation, defense strategy, predation, thorn, threat, inedible, distasteful, venom, toxin, poison (definitions)

Skills

• Active listening to understand some defense strategies used by animals
• Observing and identifying different defense strategies used by plants and animals
• Observing outdoors and recording the variety of ways plants make themselves inedible or distasteful
• Expressing through role-playing the ways some animal and plant defenses work
• Creating a model using paper, pencils, crayons or markers to show some defense adaptations that could outdo those occurring in nature

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30) Living plants and animals have ways of protecting themselves from things that may hurt or eat them.

Grades 1-2 (S30) Animals and plants have body parts that enable them to defend protect themselves and to survive in the particular places they live.

Grades 3-4 (S30) Animals and plants have physical and behavioral characteristics that help them to defend and protect themselves in their environment.

Grades 5-6 (S30, S38) Plants may have very effective defenses that keep them from being eaten. Some of these defenses make them toxic or irritating to humans. These plants may be grouped according to similarities in appearance and structure and identified by specific unique characteristics.

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