Students will be able to reproduce images of the happenings in a rotting log, and show how it will change over time.
Grades: 2-3
Time: about 1/2 hour
Subjects: Visual arts, life science
Materials:
- Butcher paper
- Crayons and markers
- Lifetimes, by Bryan Mellonie and Robert R. Ingpen
- Overhead of log changes example.
Procedure:
- Have students draw a large mural of the rotting log they studied in the previous lesson. Include the different organisms they found.
- Have them draw a second mural of what the decomposers will leave behind when they are done. Use the example drawing of how a rotting log might change to give them some ideas.
- Draw a third mural showing what the area of the log will look like in a few years. Do you think that dying things help other living things? Why?
- Read them the story Lifetimes, and discuss how the "endings" of some things may help the living things.
Assessment:
Self-contained in activity.