At-Home Activities: Desert Adventures - Finding New Creatures

Heather Martinson
Jan 16, 2021
3 min read

January 18-22

Workshop Class Activities:

Craft – Animal Tracks
Key Points - Roadrunner's Day in the Desert
Collaborative – Desert Web of Life
Language Arts - Write Captions
Math/Logic – Discover the Dichotomous Key
Prepare for Adventure – Bush Tucker: Outback Survival
Big Activity – Bug Study
Movement - Echolocation Game

At-Home Activities

See a suggested week schedule at https://www.celebrationeducation.com/single-post/free-curriculum

Materials

• various fiction and non-fiction books that relate to deserts

• notebook or lined paper

• art paper

• a cup of pocket change

• bowl

• deck of cards

• bug jar

Reading

Various fiction and non-fiction books that relate to deserts

Writing

Copywork

“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” - Charles Addams

“Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?

Polonius: By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.” - William Shakespeare

Language arts lesson

Photo captions are a few lines of text that explain photographs.

Writing Activity

Find some interesting desert animal photos to write your own captions about.

Journaling

When I’m old, I want to...

Math

Math Concept

A tessellation is a tiling on a flat surface with no overlaps and no gaps. See https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/tessellation.html .

Math Project

Make some tessellations of your own. Here’s a video that can help you get you started: https://youtu.be/WBVzoaFi90E

Math Concept

There are two different ways to multiply two-digit numbers. You can see the two ways in these videos:

https://youtu.be/PZjIT9CH6bM

https://youtu.be/635vtL_zmMQ

https://youtu.be/N9vJHUTXK80

Math Project

Which way is the best to multiply two-digit numbers? Can you prove it? Show someone the two methods and explain why the one is better than the other.

Mental math

Put some pocket change in a cup, about ten coins of various denominations. Set up a bowl about 6 feet away from you. Toss the coins into the bowl. Some will make it in, others will not. Count up the value of the coins that made it in. Write this amount down. Throw all the coins again, adding the value of the coins that make it into the bowl to the previous amount. Continue in this way until all the amounts add up to $10.00 or more.

Math games

Play a game of “I Spy” with a friend. Use a deck of cards with the face cards removed. Lay the cards face -up in rows on a table. Announce the sum of two adjacent cards that you see. For example, you see a 2 and a 6 next to each other and you say, “I spy with my little eye two cards that add to make 8.” Now your friend looks for 2 cards that add up to 8. If he guesses the correct cards, he gets to keep them. If he guesses incorrectly, you get to take them. Take turns, following this format until all the cards have been claimed. Whoever has the most cards at the end is the winner. To make the game harder, you could change use subtraction or multiplication or you can add three numbers together.

Projects

Research and Report

Go outside to find a bug. Try to find one that you’re not familiar with. Safely catch the bug and bring it inside to examine it. Figure out what kind of bug it is, & draw a diagram of your bug, and label the parts. You can release the bug back outside.

Themed Fireworks Project

Draw a desert web of life to show what eats what in the desert.

6-week project

• Using the outline or mind map you made last week, write the first draft of your written report.

• Work on your display.

Outings

Visit the Living Desert.

Other Ideas

Make desert animals out of clay.
Complete the Wilderness Explorer activity book: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/documents/files/Wilderness_jr_ranger_Explorer_Book_0.pdf
Do some basket-weaving.
Do an Ecosystems Project from Build-A-Project. Use promo code “celebration15” to get 15% off: https://www.buildaproject.net/product-page/ecosystems-project
Divide a paper into 4 squares. Each section represents a different microhabitat in the desert. Draw plants and animals into each square.
Try eating some insects: https://www.edibleinsects.com/why-eat-bugs/
Visit an outdoor area. Write the things you see, hear, feel, taste, smell.
Choose an insect of the desert. Make an illustrated flow chart showing its life cycle.
Write names of desert plants and animals on index cards. Don't forget insects. Find out how each of these animals and plants are able to live in the desert. Write some descriptive adjectives on the cards.