Nocturnal Animals

Hello! It's Cyndie again from Chalk One Up for the Teacher and now that we've finally made it to October, I'm here to talk to you about one of my students' favorite all-time topics...nocturnal animals.

Who doesn't love things that go bump (and "hoo", and "caaa", and "eek") in the night?

As a teacher, I love this unit, too, because you can work so much into it!

Plus, if you do Genius Hour or PBLs this fits in so nicely.

Here is a list of nocturnal animals from Buzzle that you could study.

Here are some great ways that you could integrate nocturnal animals into your curriculum. 

• Informational - Have your students research a nocturnal animal and create an informative piece.
• Narrative - Have any or maybe several of your students had an encounter with a nocturnal animal?
• Opinion - I'll bet your students have plenty of opinions about at least one nocturnal animal!

• Compare the weight and size of various nocturnal animals.
• Graph various nocturnal animals found in different regions.
• Graph the class' favorite nocturnal animal.
• Compare the various species of nocturnal animals with others using <, >, and =.
• Measure how far nocturnal animals travel in a night.
• Create pie charts that show how much time each animal spends doing various activities.

Here is a list of fabulous books about nocturnal animals.

Where Are the Night Animals by Mary Ann Fraser
Nocturnal Animals by Kelli L. Hicks
Raccoons by J. Angelique Jackson (There are several nocturnal animals in this series.)
Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies
Owls by Valerie Bodden
The Pebble First Guide to Nocturnal Animals by Joanne Mattern
Night Creatures by Wade Cooper

Science is my favorite part of the day!

• You can order and dissect owl pellets.
• Sort nocturnal, diurnal, and crepuscular animals.
• Conduct echolocation experiments.
• Include a phases of the moon study.
• Create a can, have, are anchor chart for the various nocturnal animals based on research.

As  you can see, nocturnal animals can lend themselves to a great deal of learning and loads of engagement!

If you are looking for products based on nocturnal animals, here are a few of my favorites.
(Just click on the picture to take you to the product.)

 

So that's it! I hope you'll try it out and watch your kids light up as they learn about this super cool topic!