Erase It! Endangered Animals

1. Ask students why animals become endangered? Discuss changes in the environment, poachers, chemicals and toxic materials, human overpopulation, and demands for certain species and just some of the reasons animals become endangered or extinct.
2. Students research how they can help to erase the problem of endangered animals. Brainstorm with students about what can be done locally. What changes need to happen in the world? While the ideas are flowing, students draw a picture with Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils showing what they learned on construction paper.
3. Show part of the rainforest being chopped down and taking away habitats for many animals. How about drawing houses being built on farmland or in a forest, causing animals to lose their homes and nesting sites? Include a way to stop this destruction to save precious animals, insects, and birds.
4. Erase words from large areas of color. Or add dimension, shading, and texture by removing some color. After erasing, add another color in that spot to form stripes, dots, or textured feathers or fur.
5. Hang posters where lots of people will see the message! Libraries, Extension Services, and other groups often welcome student displays.

LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

LA: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing one's own clearly.

SCI: Ask questions about the natural and human-built worlds.

SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.

SS: Examine the interaction of human beings and their physical environment, the use of land, building of cities, and ecosystem changes in selected locales and regions.

SS: Identify and describe factors that contribute to cooperation and cause disputes within and among groups and nations.

SS: Explore causes, consequences, and possible solutions to persistent, contemporary, and emerging global issues, such as pollution and endangered species.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Possible classroom resources: Gone Wild by David McLimans; The Best Book of Endangered and Extinct Animals by Christiane Gunzi; Endangered Zebras by Kelley MacAulay & Bobbie Kalman

Students research the efforts being made to protect endangered animals such as the African elephant and the humpback whale. Students discover the names of environmental groups that help solve these problems and find out what they do.

Students identify individual animals that are on the endangered species list. Students sketch the animals and write a summary of the animal, its habitat, etc., which is posted with the illustration.