Tardigrades On the Moon: Gr.4-5 (7-day Unit)

Grades 4 & 5 spend one week investigating tough little Tardigrades, animals with a power of adaptation, endurance, and tolerance for change that can be seen nowhere else on Earth, plus Invasive species, and animals that never stop growing. Put those three topics together and what do you get? Giant Tardigrades loose in Outer Space! What can we learn from these persistent animals, and should part of that study include sending them to the Moon?

Buy a small set of live specimens, find them outside yourself, or use the Tardigrade illustrations included. This product provides everything you'll need for hands-on, real-life Science, adding unlike fractions (an important science skill), comprehensive, nonfiction Close Reading, and Opinion Writing.

Each activity in the unit can stand alone, or combine them using the easy-to-follow lesson plans that culminate with an opinion paragraph/essay about Tardigrades invading uncharted outer space environments, bringing that all-important writing into your science curriculum. The unit is fun, fast-paced, real-life, and complete.

This 7-day lesson plan includes:

•18-Slide Tardigrade Intro PPT

•Complete, detailed lesson plans for 7 days of learning

•Directions for How to Collect Live Tardigrades at home or to purchase

•Who Am I? Original Poem

•Tardigrade Life Cycle Wheel Craft

•30 Introduced Species Gone Wrong Cards & Pick 6 Activity

•Invasive Species 3-page Original Close Reading Passage with Comprehension Questions and Answer Key

•Invasive Species Word Search and Crossword Puzzle with Answer Keys

•Tardi-Growth: Animals That Never Stop Growing (Indeterminate Growth) Close Read with Comprehension Questions and Answer Key

•Tardi-Measure Board Game (Add Unlike Fractions), Game Cards, Worksheets

•Tardigrades on the Moon Flip Book

•Tardigrade Bingo (39 words with definitions), Bingo Card Template

•Tardigrade Acrostic Poem Template

•Opinion Writing Organizers (for 1-Paragraph or 5-Paragraph Essay)

•11 Bulletin Board Images to Print

•EASEL digital Assessment and (similar) paper-pencil Assessment w/Key

Note: Remember with Easel, you can turn off Immediate Feedback in Easel under Settings.

Join the topics of animal adaptations, invasive species, and indeterminate growth together to show students how all things are connected, and see how the natural world they all live in works as a cohesive unit. All things are connected!