Description
In this series of fun and playful activities, young children meet the only North American marsupial, learning a lot about opossums, marsupials, and animal behavior. Drama, role-playing, and art are interwoven with science, math, and language arts as students make model opossum pouches, create baby opossums with pipe cleaner tails, and sniff out and munch on opossum snacks. Throughout the unit, children gain practice measuring, estimating, and counting, and, in the culminating activity, they make a book of drawings and writings about opossums. The activities can be done in classrooms, day care centers, or at home, and are ment for anyone who works with children. Complete information on opossums is provided for adults, along with lists of resources and children's literature. The activities have been extensively tested by educators across the country. A fascinating nocturnal creature, the opossum is close to the imaginations of many children. These creative, teacher-tested Opossum activities provide a wealth of meaningful and positive learning experiences. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Introduction Activity 1 Getting to Know Opossums Session 1 Introducing Opossums Session 2 Young Opossum Snacks Session 3 Mother Opossum and Me Session 4 Measuring Mother Opossum with Common Objects Session 5 An Opossum's Paws Activity 2 Mother Opossum's Pouch Session 1 What's Inside the Pouch? Session 2 How Many Babies in Mother Opossum's Pouch? Session 3 Counting Our Pockets Activity 3 Young Opossums Session 1 Little Opossums Grow Up Session 2 A Young Opossum's Tricks Session 3 Measuring Young Opossums Session 4 A Class Book BackgroundInformation Assessment Suggestions Resources Literature Connections Summary Outlines
