Living in the School Yard

Begin the activity by drawing an outline of the classroom on the blackboard. Develop a key to one side of the outline to be used to represent the plants, animals and special features which exist in the classroom. 

“Let’s see if we can make a map of all the living things in our classroom. Does anyone see a plant?" 

Ask a student to come up and mark the plants on our map. Then provide a map of the schoolyard for groups of students (or for individual students depending on skills at map making). Take children outside and let them map all the living things that they see. Remind them that they have to look hard to see some of the things that are there. 

After students have completed their maps, gather them together for discussion about the roles of the living things they found.