Diana Luna and Melissa Rosenthal

rd

Surviving in the Desert

Grade: 3
Unit: Animal Habitats
Topic: Desert
Science Standard(s): (NGSS)
3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the
environment.
3-LS4-3.Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can
survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Crosscutting Concept: Patterns
Scientific Practice(s):
1. Analyzing and interpreting data
Core Idea: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
LS4.B: Natural Selection
LS4.C: Adaptation
LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans
(National Research Council. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting
Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2012.)
Learning Performance: Students will analyze and interpret information about survival needs of
animals to determine if they can survive in a desert.
Driving Question: We learned that Mexicatl and the people could not survive in the desert in
Mexico because they could not meetwithout their survival needs, so how are plants and animals
in the desert able to survive?
*Prior to this lesson, students would have already read The
Legend of Mexicatl by Jo Harper which takes place in a
desert in Mexico. Mexicatl was chosen to lead the people
out of the desert where they would find food, water, clothes
and shelter to survive. Mexicatl is where the Mexican
people received the name of Mexicans.
Students would have already learned the five building
blocks of habitats (latitude, elevation, climate, land, water,
plants and animals)

Engage: To introduce the lesson, begin by refreshing the students knowledge on The Legend of
Mexicatl and how Mexicatl and the people lived in the desert, but were unable to survive due to
the inability to meet their survival needs. (Italics = potential vocabulary words) Activate prior
knowledge and get students attention with a discussion on Mexico and what the students think
the climate is like. (Note that Mexico has several different climates depending on the location.
For this specific lesson, we will focus on the Sonoran Desert, which is located in Northern
Mexico).
Possible questions to guide the discussion and begin the pre-activity:
Do you remember the story of Mexicatl? Where did the story happen?
Why was Mexicatl and the other people unable to live in the desert?
Why did they need those things to survive, or stay alive?
Thumbs up if you know the desert habitat?
Who has ever been to Mexico?
What was the climate like where you were?
Does Mexico have deserts?
During this discussion, it is important to review the building blocks of animal habitats (elevation,
latitude, climate, plants and animals. Reviewing these building blocks will be a good way to have
students think about what the desert habitat is potentially like. The best way to do this is ask
students to list the building blocks and then provide a characteristic for each building block that
is a prediction on the desert habitat.
Explore: Do a read aloud of a non-fiction informational text, A Desert Habitat by Kelley
MacAulay and Bobbie Kalman. This text focuses specifically on the Sonoran Desert which is
part in the United States and part in Mexico. There are six parts of the text that we will mainly
focus on: what is a desert, desert weather, plants and animals of the desert and homes and food.
Before the read aloud, have students locate where this desert is so that students can familiarize
themselves with the location. (Figure 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3) Show on the map.
Another great way to engage students in the beginning of this is to bring in cacti and allow time
for students to explore the cacti. This should be done before reading A Desert Habitat. These
questions are great starting points for students to think about how do cacti and other plants really
survive to hot and dry climates of the desert Some questions you might raise is:
Do you know what this plant is called?
What are you observing about the cacti?
What do you think the cacti need to survive?
How do you think the cacti survive in the desert?
Have an anchor chart (See Worksheet 1) to fill in while doing the read
aloud. Students will have a sheet for themselves to write down information
we find about the desert. During the read aloud of the parts of the text
listed above, stop and ask questions as well as write information on the
anchor chart. Filling out both the anchor chart and having students fill in
their worksheets too, will be useful for students to remember information
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about the Sonoran Desert. The worksheet will be a great reference when students do the
Explain activity, the Elaborate activity, as well as help with worksheet 3. This will also
ensure that students follow along and pay close attention to the read aloud. The
information will include what a desert is, the weather of the desert, how plants live and
store water, how animals keep cool, foods animals eat, and where animals live. This will
allow students to begin to get insight on how animals survive such hot climates of the
desert.
Possible steps to follow for the anchor chart:
1. Read pages 4-9. Stop and fill in the first two building blocks of a habitat, latitude and
elevation. Teacher should ask students to name the building blocks. The purpose is to
review the building blocks as well as learn the first two building blocks of the Sonoran
Desert (low elevation, close to the equator, located in southern part of the United States
and northern part of Mexico).
2. Read pages 10-11. Stop and fill in the third building block, climate. (Hot during the day,
cold at night, very dry, sometimes it rains in the spring and the end of summer).
3. Read pages 12 -15. Stop and fill in the fourth building block, plants. Discuss how plants
of the Sonoran Desert survive. Students can write down examples of plants in the book.
This will be helpful for the Explain portion of the lesson. (Cacti store water in stems,
flowers grow on cacti, fruits are eaten by animals, plants create own food from sunlight,
air and water).
4. Read pages 16-22. Stop and fill in the final building block, animals. Discuss how animals
of the Sonoran Desert survive and where they live. Students can write down examples of
plants in the book. This will be helpful for the Explain portion of the lesson. (Some
animals eat plants and/or other animals, live in burrows to keep cool, some animals live
in nests).
*Alternative activity to follow up this activity or in place of: Setting up a field trip to the
Chicago Botanic Garden. The Chicago Botanic Garden has twenty-five display gardens and four
natural habitats. Greenhouses are one of the display gardens. Chicago Botanic Garden has four
greenhouses, one of them is a desert greenhouse. The desert greenhouse will be what we will
take the students to look at to help them get a better understanding of the desert habitat plants.
(Field trips are scheduled Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and are available yearround for students and groups of all ages. Fee is $30 per each classroom or group consisting of
up to 30 people. Book 3 weeks prior by calling (847) 835-5440 or visiting www.
Chicagobotanic.org)
Explain: The teacher will ask the class do you think the people in Mexicatl and Mexicatl will be
able to survive in this desert? Why or Why not? Organize students into groups. The groups will
be the groups that they sit in, so the students who need the help will have their group to help
them. The teacher will say, Now in your groups you are going to describe why an animal or
plant can survive in the desert by making a poster. The students will be provided a paper book
on the Sonoran desert (See book 1), their notes from the read aloud and they will have access to
the read aloud book A Desert Habitat. In these groups, students will choose an animal or plant
discussed from the read aloud book A Desert Habitat or an animal or plant from the paper book
provided. Each group will get a worksheet to fill out (See Worksheet 2). This worksheet will
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guide the students in creating a poster/graphic organizer on the desert animal/plant they chose.
The worksheet will consist of four out of the five building blocks of a habitat and the adaptations
of their animal in order to survive in the Sonoran desert. After filling out the worksheet, the
students will design the animal/plant poster of either the animal or plant with their answers to the
questions on the worksheet and with pictures that they will draw. (See Example 1). The students
can be creative with it as long as they have they include everything on the worksheet: four out of
the five building blocks of a habitat and the adaptations of their animal in order to survive in the
Sonoran desert and pictures. Each group will present their animal/plant webs to the class. The
poster and worksheet areis opportunities fora formative assessment to monitor assess the
students progress in their knowledge construction of the building blocks of a habitat and
adaptations.
Before the groups start working on their posters the teacher will show her example of her
animal/plant poster. So the students can get an idea of what it could look like.
The teacher will walk around and assist any group that needs help or is stuck and needs
guidance.
Potential questions the teacher can ask:
Why is the latitude this? What does this tell you about the weather?
What kind of elevation does it have? What does this tell you about the weather?
What adaptations does this animal or plant have? So, how does it survive?

Elaborate: Show students the following video about a new desert region in Africa called the
Sahara Desert: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7XrabWYHSg). This video has
information about the Sahara Desert; animals, climate, plants and where it is located. The
students will be provided with a paper book about the Sahara Desert (See book 1), the Sonoran
Desert paper book from the day before, their notes on Sonoran desert and Sahara Desert video
notes. The students will make a Venn diagram (Differences v. similarities) about the Sahara
Desert and Sonoran Desert using the information from the Sahara Desert video, the paper books,
notes on deserts, and A Desert Habitat. (See Example 2). The students will be given a paper with
a Venn diagram on it with the lines in it, to make it easier for the students to write in the
diagram.
The teacher will stop the video at certain times to write the information on the anchor charts.
Stop point 1: 0.12 seconds to write down where the Sahara desert is located
Stop point 2: 0.36 seconds what countries have the Sahara desert-12 countries
Stop point 3: 1:03 Regs
Stop point 4: 1:13 Ergs
Stop point 5: 1:27 Hamadas
Stop point 6: 1:37 Wadis
Stop point 7: 1:48 Chotts
Stop point 8: 1:58 Oasis
Stop point 9: each animal listed
Stop point 10: each plant listed

After the video the teacher will ask the class If Mexicatl and the people were to be in the Sahara
Desert, would they be able to survive in this desert? Why or Why not?

Evaluate: To assess and check that students have constructed knowledge on what a desert is and
how the climate affects the survival needs of the plants and animals, give students a worksheet
for homework (See Worksheet 3). This worksheet will ask students to describe the climate in a
desert, provide them with pictures of examples and counter examples of animals and plants and
have students determine if the animal/plant can or cannot survive in the desert and explain why.
This form of assessment is beneficial for the teacher to evaluate students to see if students are
able to analyze information about animals and determine if they can or cannot survive in the
desert. Having students explain their answers is another good assessment because it allows for
students to interpret the information they have gathered throughout the lesson and develop
reasoning to their answers.