Animal Adaptations

•  adaptation, hibernate, camouflage, mimicry
• Adaptations are traits of behaviors that help living things survive or continue to live
• adaptations help animals move, get food, and protect themselves
• a sandgrouse is a desert bird whose feathers soak up water
• a fennec fox has large ears that help it cool off, and it's fur is very thin
• camels can close their nostrils to keep out sand.
• they store far in humps and wide hooves help them walk on the sand
• hibernate-to live off of it's own bodyfat and use very little energy
• migrate- to change location as needed
• camouflage-to blend in with the environment
• arctic fox and arctic hare change color with the seasons
• mimicry-when one kind of thing looks like another 
• the honeybee has a dangerous stinger, while a hoover fly does not; the hoover fly looks like the honeybee to avoid predators
• some snakes and lizards have poison in their jaws, hedgehogs are covered with spines, these help protect them or help them kill food
• fleas make their home in animals fur, while the mammal gives the flea a home and food, the flea hurts the mammal by making its skin red and itchy
• some fish eat the algae off of sea turtles, this is helpful as the sea turtle gets a clean shell and the fish get food
• certain birds clean the leeches off of crocodiles teeth, the bird gets food and the crocodile gets clean gums!

Relationships in Ecosystems

• Producers are organisms that make their own food using sunlight energy
• these include green plants on land, and algae in the ocean, lakes and ponds
• consumers are organisms that cannot make their own food
• herbivores eat only plants, or producers (plant eaters)
• omnivores eat producers and consumers (bears, raccoons, opossums) (plant and meat eaters)
• carnivores eat herbivores and omnivores (cats, tigers, lions, sharks) (meat eaters)
• decomposers break down dead decaying matter into wastes (worms, bacteria, fungi)
• they return substances to the ecosystem as nutrients
• they are called "recyclers"
• energy in an ecosystem comes from the sun
• food chain-energy passes from on organism to another (one animal eats another for food)
• energy in a good chain moves from producers to consumers to decomposers
• food web- shows how all food chains in an ecosystem are connected
• predator-carnivore that hunts for food (eats other animals)
• prey-animal that is hunted for food (gets eaten)
• competition-struggle between organisms for food, water
• small plants and flowers compete with larger trees for sunlight, water, and nutrients
• earth is one giant food web

 

 

 

 

 

Food Chain Game 

Food Chain Game 2 

Mighty Jackie

• The setting: Chatanooga Tennesee, 1931, USA.
• The baseball game is the NY Yankees against the Chatanooga Lookouts.
• Jackie Mitchell was a girl on the Chatanooga team.
• She was 17 years old.
• girls did not play major league baseball
• the newspaper said that she would "swing a mean lipstick" instead of a bat, and that she was no better than a "trained seal" behind the plate
• Jackie was a pitcher (throws the ball)
• Jackie played ball with her father since she was young
• throwing balls like a girl was an insult
• when she was eight, Dazzy Vance from the Brooklyn Dodgers taught her how to pitch
• when she was pitching at the game, the crowd was waiting for her to make a mistake
• Jackie strikes out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two of the best baseball players
• Babe Ruth says he'll never play with a woman again
• the crowd cheers for Jackie

Questions for Biomes due Friday 10/28

1. What biome has trees that lose it's leaves each year?
2. What does the word "taiga" mean?
3. What language does "taiga" come from?
4. In the _______________ the ground is frozen all year.
5. A ___________ has extreme temperatures.
6. A __________________ has burnt grass, which makes the soil good for farming.
7. A ________________ has it's own kind of ________________, __________________, and ________________.
8. A ________________ also has it's own ___________________ and patterns of _______________.
9. A _________ __________________ is hot and humid with tall leafy trees.
10. A __________________ is a mild climate ____________________.

Questions for the Raft due Teusday 10/25

1. What did the otters play for Nicky?
2. Nicky liked to ____________ the animals he saw.
3. What did Nicky see in the moonlight while sleeping on the raft?
4. What does Grandma mean when she says "What a herd of wild animals we were!"?
5. What kind of animal is Grandma working on carving out of wood?

Biomes

• A biome has it's own kinds of plants, animals, and soil.  It also has it's own patterns of temperature and rainfall.
• Grassland-main plants are grass, not much rainfall.

 

• Prairie-mild climate grassland. Sun burns grass in the summer which makes rich soil good for farming.

 

• Savanna-grassland with shrubs and few trees, warm all year, less fertile soil.

 

• Deciduous forests-trees lose leaves each year. Cold winters, warm summers, trees broad leaves keep sunlight from reaching ground.  Ground is covered with leaves that decay to make the soil rich, covered with flowers and ferns.

 

• Tropical Rain Forest- hot humid, much rain, tall leafy trees.

 

• Parts of a Forest-

1. Canopy-tops of trees spread over the forest like an umbrella, receive most light
2. understory-dense layers of damp leaves
3. floor- too dark for many plants to grow

• Desert-sandy or rocky, little rain, extreme temperatures

 

• Taiga-Russian word for "forest", cool forests in upper regions of the north, lakes and ponds, formed by glaciers, conifers grow here, winters long and cold, animals have thick fur to protect them from cold, melting snow provides water for animals.

 

• Tundra-cold dry, no trees, ground frozen all year, little rain, long icy winters, summers short and cool, plants grow close to the ground and use shallow roots to get water, animals have extra layers of fat to stay warm, some birds fly south to find warm weather in winter.

 

• Freshwater Ecosystem-streams and rivers have flowing water.  Lakes and ponds have still water which makes it easier for algae and plants to grow.
• Wetland-ecosystem where roots of plants grow below water.
• Estuary-ecosystem where ocean and freshwater meet
• Algae can grow in the ocean on the surface where there is plenty of sunlight to grow.

Questions for The Raft Due Friday 10/21

1. Is Nicky happy about going to Grandmas?
2. Why is Grandma called a "river rat"?
3. What does Nicky find that floated down the river?
4. What does Nicky find on the raft?
5. What do Nicky and Grandma like to do together?
6. What does Nicky do after he helps the baby deer?

The Raft

• Nicky is left by his father at his Grandma's for the summer
• Nicky is not happy about going
• Grandma calls herself a "river rat" because she loves living by the river
• Grandma's house is cluttered
• Grandma keeps Nicky very busy with work
• Nicky discovers a raft that floated down the river
• there are drawings of different animals on the raft
• Grandma shows Nicky how to use the raft
• Nicky begins to love the raft and even sleeps on the raft in a tent
• Nicky likes to draw on the raft
• Grandma and Nicky like to go swimming in the river
• One day Nicky helps a baby deer get back to it's mother on the riverbank
• Nicky draws a picture of the baby deer on the raft, this way he is always a part of the river, just like Grandma

Introduction to Ecosystems

• biotic factors-living things in an environment
• abiotic factors-non living things in an environment
• climate-typical weather pattern in an environment

 

• biotic and abiotic factors make up an ecosystem
• an ecosystem can be small like a log, or large like a desert
• all the living things depend on the nonliving things to survive in an ecosystem

 

• living things also depend on one another
• habitat-each organism has it's own place to live in the ecosystem
• population-all the members of a species that live in an ecosystem
• community-all the populations in an ecosystem
• the size of a community depends on factors such as food, shelter, light
• a change in population can affect the community, and a change in the community can affect populations.

Systems in Animals

• Animals have different organ systems, a system is a group of parts that work together
• A vertebrate's bones make up it's skeletal system

 

• it is a frame that supports the body and protects organs
• the muscular system works with the skeletal system.  it is made of strong tissues.
• the muscles shorten and pull on the bones to make the animal move
• invertebrates move by muscular systems alone

 

• the master control system of the body is the nervous system, it is made of nerve cells
• invertebrates have simple nervous systems, vertebrates have complicated ones, mammals are the most complex.
• millions of nerve cells join together in mammals to form nerves
• the brain and sense organs help animals see, hear, taste, touch, and smell

 

• all animal cells need oxygen
• the respiratory system brings oxygen to the blood and removes wastes like CO2
• larger animals use gills or lungs to exchange gasses with the water or air
• the circulatory sustem moves blood through the body.
• blood carries oxygen, food, and water to body cells and removes wastes.
• the heart is the main organ of the circulatory system
• an amphibian heart has 3 chambers, a fish has 2, mammals and birds have 4, sponges and cnidarians have no heart or circulatory system

 

• the excretory system removes waste (kidney, liver, bladder, skin, lungs)
• Animals take in food for energy
• the digestive system breaks food down
• segmented worms have digestive systems with 2 openings. Food enters the mouth, and wastes exit through the tail end
• Mammals stomach's churn and mix food, digestive juices break it down.  The food bits travel to the small intestine where they are absorbed by the blood to carry to the body.