Animals and the Environment Informational Text Bundle {NGSS and CCSS Aligned}

Great for distance learning!

Three amazing informational texts bundled into one! Each informational text comes with comprehension questions. Also included in the texts are activities for students to apply their knowledge;

• Graphic organizers
• Graphing data
• Finding a solution
• Sketching pictures

Your students will enjoy reading each of these high interest informational texts!

Yellowstone Wolves -

During the 1930's, people viewed wolves as dangerous and destructive animals and sought to remove them from Yellowstone National Park. This three part informational text takes students on a journey from the wolves removal in the 1930's to their amazing return in the 1990's and the subsequent transformation of Yellowstone's present day ecosystem. The ecological changes after their removal were widespread and evident. An excellent lesson about the power of nature's interconnections and the cascade of events that can occur when a species is removed from an ecosystem.

Part One - Students read about the removal of the grey wolf from Yellowstone National Park in the 1930's. Comprehension questions and predictions are required before moving to part two.

Part Two - Students next read about the cascade of ecosystem changes after the wolves disappeared from Yellowstone. After the reading, students complete a graphic organizer regarding the changes that occurred and answer comprehension questions.

Part Three - Finally, students read about the exciting return of the grey wolf and how the ecosystem changed once again. Students then answer comprehension questions and higher order questions at the end of the activity.

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❤ This resource covers standards in Science and Language Arts! ❤

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The Amazing Story of the Peppered Moths!

Introduce your students to the amazing scientific phenomena of the peppered moths in England during the 19th and 20th centuries as the Industrial Revolution drastically changed their environment! Students are first introduced to what natural selection is and what it is not using a diagram and explanation. Next, students read an informational text about the story of the peppered moths and how natural selection changed the population over the course of 100 years. Finally, students create a bar graph using data provided to find patterns in the populations of light and dark colored moths before analyzing their graphs and answering questions. This resource is included in Natural Selection and Adaptation; Full Unit with Reading Passages.

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❤ This resource covers standards in Science, Math and Language Arts! ❤

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Woolly Mammoth -

Engaging informational text about the woolly mammoth! Students discover where the woolly mammoth lived, how it was perfectly adapted to its environment and what lead to the mammoths demise. After reading the text, students answer comprehension questions before developing and sketching a possible solution that could have saved the woolly mammoth from extinction.

This resource is part of the full unit Natural Selection and Adaptations: Full Unit with Reading Passages.

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❤ This resource covers standards in Science and Language Arts! ❤

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NGSS aligned with 3-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) changes the paradigm of how science is taught. NGSS employs three dimensions when examining scientific phenomena; scientific practices, core ideas and crosscutting concepts. This lesson is aligned with NGSS and is designed with three distinct dimensions in place.

NGSS alignment for this activity –

Yellowstone Wolves

Supports 5-LS2 and MS-LS2 - Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy and Dynamics with cross cutting concepts of cause and effect as well as systems and system models.

The Amazing Story of the Peppered Moths

3-LS4-2 – Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

Woolly Mammoths

LS4-2 – Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

Scientific Practice – Students will analyze and interpret data regarding the peppered moths and how natural selection changed the population over time

Core Idea –

• LS4.B Natural Selection
• LS4.C Adaptation
• LS4.D Biodiversity and Humans

Cross Cutting Concepts – Scale, proportion and quantity, patterns

Language Arts alignment for this activity -

RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

RI.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.