Ecosystem Dioramas

We've been working on ecosystems in my classroom.  LOVE the energy that the students have when they are learning about the different places.  Every year I have them create a diorama to "showcase" their special choice.  This year I decided to make it a formal project, and added clip art to help them with their thinking.

They were first allowed to choose an ecosystem from 4 choices (Ocean, Arctic, Forest, and Rainforest).  I gave them a piece of construction paper that had been precut and they decorated their background.  I put some options on the board as ideas, but being the copy cheapskate that I am, I didn't print them off for them.  :)

I did print out the specific ecosystem animal and grid sheets so they could focus on details for their dioramas.  The sheets are filled with animals on the top, and the grid on the bottom portion.  

Students filled in the grid and then glued it onto the back of their diorama.  They had to identify producers, consumers, prey, predator, living, and nonliving parts of the ecosystem.  It was then easy for me to use the included rubric to give a grade - did they really understand the concepts?

I loved all the unique ecosystems that they created.  I also loved that I didn't get a headache, and that the project didn't take forever to accomplish.  :)  Little things people!  

Check it out!  Hope you had a great day!

Food Chain Turkeys

This year I decided to have some fun using turkeys to have the kids wrap up our Ecosystem unit.  We are done.  Really done.  

Don't you love assembly line projects?  I cut up 6 colors of construction paper, making 2 inch strips. Kids went down the line and grabbed one of each color, a turkey head (similar to a bowling pin), a black piece of construction paper, and a bottle of glue.  

The kids took each one of the construction paper strips and labeled them with what they mean.  

Purple = Prey

Yellow = Sun

Orange = Scavenger

Green = Producer

Brown = Decomposer

Red = Predator

Of course I didn't write it in order on the board.  It's not my first rodeo.  :)  The kids had to put them in order from beginning to end.  I did tell them the beginning and end steps - well really they told me, and I wrote it on the board with the numbers.  Then they got to work.  

We had to have a talk about what direction the feathers needed to point, but then they were off to prove to me that they knew which order to put them in.  

Here's my example (which I didn't show them when they were creating theirs).  I had to show them how to turn the construction paper into feathers, not really a big deal though.  

Do you keep papers on the ground to dry?  Then do you have to step over them until the glue dries?  Gotta love glue projects!

I think they came out so well, the kids really understood it!  Before they could glue it down, they had to show me their feather and the color order.  I was able to check it and tell them if they needed to try again.  I will definitely be doing this again!