My Habitat Report

One habitat fills the top of this 2nd grade page as a wide, empty picture, and the rest is a report for the child to complete. On the sheet shown the habitat is the ocean: a wavy surface, seaweed rising from a sandy floor and a few bubbles, with plenty of open water to draw in. Under the picture are three writing lines headed Animals that live here, one line headed A plant that grows here, and two word buttons, wet and dry. The child draws three animals into the ocean picture, writes their names, names a plant and circles the right word.

A report is the first time a child in this family produces the knowledge instead of choosing it. Three animals is enough to show real understanding and not so many that the drawing takes the whole lesson. The plant line is the stretch: few children think about plants when they think about the ocean, and seaweed is right there in the picture to discover. The word button is set so there is always an honest answer for the habitat shown.

One sheet, one habitat, three drawings and a few words. The ocean page offers one word pair, wet or dry, and the instruction asks for the one word that fits this habitat. Children can use a book or a class chart of ocean animals as a word bank. The report makes a good ending for the animal habitats family and a good display: pin the finished pages around a map of the world.