Caribou Activities

Hi! Today I wanted to share a few of my favorite activities for learning about caribou. All of these activities can be found in my Caribou unit.

I love studying arctic animals during the winter! Because we live in Dallas, most of my students don’t have much schema (background knowledge) about winter animals (or even winter, hah!)

It’s so important to me that my class is inclusive, so we don’t spend much time talking about Christmas or Christmas themes. Talking about Caribou and other arctic animals is a fun way to bring some fun and novelty into our reading, writing, and science blocks without making it about Christmas!

Vocabulary

Teaching thematic vocabulary words is a great way to help students begin to learn context clues, and other text clues to solve new words. We can also talk about prefixes, suffixes, and words that sound the same during these studies. My caribou unit includes posters important vocabulary words when discussing and learning about caribou.

Some words you might want to consider teaching include:
-paddle
-ungulate
-herbivore
-lichen
-bull
-cow
-calf
-velvet
-herd
-domestic

Directed Drawings

I LOVE doing directed drawings with my students. They’re such a fun way to wrap up a unit study, but they offer so many other benefits! They increase student confidence, and give them skills to use during their writing/illustrating time. They also help students practice listening, watching and following directions. Many students are able to do a lot more if they see HOW you draw something. Even my daughter, Everly, struggles to draw a circle. However, if I draw a circle in front of her and then show her the circle, she is much more successful.

You can see I’m certainly not going to be selling my art anytime, soon! But when we break illustrations down for students, they’re more likely to add detail to their illustrations and grow in confidence.

Nonfiction Book

Having students create their own non-fiction book is one of the best ways to assess their learning, while also helping them practice their writing skills. I love to bind my student books, because they feel so “official,” and my students are SO proud.

Comprehension and Illustration

Typically when we start a new thematic unit, I give them these little readers. Each page shares a fact or two, and then they illustrate it. These books are a great way to practice the new vocabulary, as well as show their understanding.

Here are a few other activities we do during our caribou unit! Using these activities, my students practice main idea and details, activating their schema, and more writing!

All of these activities are included in my Caribou unit…it’s simple to use and low prep! Click here for your copy.