4th Grade:
Diving into Hudson River Environments
The 4th Grade classes decided to explore the ecosystems and animals present around the Hudson River in coordination with their unit on New York State.
For their first lesson, all the 4th graders gathered together to first talk about the Hudson River. Groups of students were each given a bag representing one of the environments present along the Hudson River, inside of which held clues to different animals, plants and towns that were found in this environment. Students were then given time to use physical and online resources to solve their clues and locate their town and practiced their public speaking skills to the rest of the class.
In following visits, fourth graders learned about adaptations in relation to these environments. Based on their observations, each fourth grader designed their own imaginary animal that has developed adaptations that help it live near the Hudson River.