Animal Adaptations or Bust

My fifth graders are starting work on biomes, ecosystems and animal adaptations. I developed a biome packet for students with significant cognitive disabilities . . . over at TpT. I also created a Farm unit to focus on food chains and animal resources. But the topic of animal adaptations was untouched. I was stretching myself - trying to think how to make this relevant for my two students who require extensive modifications to the curriculum. Every year, I go back and forth with myself . . . one of those philosophical struggles you have with yourself . . . how should I utilize the instructional time I have with these students. Hitting all of the curricular standards spelled out in the Extended Standards does provide these students access to the general education curriculum. It does hold all teachers more accountable to expose ALL students to this rich content and material. It does allow for more opportunities for "inclusive" teaching that is connected to peers' work and topics. BUT . . . I still think life skills need a place. I want to make sure my students can hang up their coats, follow a visual schedule to brush their teeth, find the specials classes in the building and identify their teachers, as well as many other skills not directly listed in the Extended Standards. I can stretch some of the standards to include some of these skills, but you catch my drift . . . I am talking about the basic skills - grooming, bathrooming, eating, greeting, even walking and sitting and requesting . . . the list goes on and on. These real life skills are SOOOOO important.
I am a huge advocate for balance . . . hit all of this and make the teaching meaningful. Embed these basic life skills within the curriculum. And I do believe that most of the time I can manage this . . . with a lot of planning, creating, searching & borrowing and resourcing. But, I get stuck once in awhile ...

Here's some of the wording:
Most Complex: 
LS.35.1a Describe how an animal’s
behavior helps it to survive (e.g., a cat will
stalk its prey so it can go undetected in the
hunt).
LS.35.2a List two or more survival
behaviors that parents teach their offspring.

Middle Complexity: 
LS.35.1b Given a physical trait, match the
trait to its specific function (e.g., birds have
wings to fly).
LS.35.2b Recognize one survival behavior a
parent teaches his or her offspring.

Least Complex:
LS.35.1c Match animal babies to their
parents.
LS.35.2c Identify a survival behavior.

To think through all of this and plan for how to meet each student at his or her learning level, well, it's hard!
I know many of you are out there trying to do it every week  - planning and prepare your lessons, your "stuff" - buying, making, borrowing.
Here are a couple things I made to go with some books I have access to . . . hoping to hit some of these ideas. I am posting them here, hoping some others can get use.

        

LLI book The Baby Animals - here are some activities for reading the book AND a animal baby/parent match (ABOVE)

Reading A-Z book Legs, Wings & Fins - two sorting activities (identify animals with wings and animals with fins) (ABOVE)

And, for those of you that made it all the way down here . . . I am posting my Farm Fun Unit - Extended Standards free - just download from google docs for a limited time! Hope it helps!

This freebie is no longer available - you can purchase at Teachers Pay Teachers.

                      

LLI - Leveled Literacy Intervention

I have been using LLI for about 2 years and I LOVE IT! I have students all over the board, in terms of their reading levels. the fact that this intervention resource lays out the word work, the book lesson, comprehension skills and running records allows for teachers to plan more individualized things for students. I know I have the framework when i sit down and teach a guided reading intervention session. But, I usually want to dig deeper and add specific IEP objectives to the lesson. LLI allows me to do that without planning for hours each night.
I have a student who is a non-reader. I started using the Orange Kit with him to expose him to basic, patterned books. I have created some activities to go with the first few books. I thought I would share one of these activity packs and see if they could help someone else. Click here to download.

 

A writing activity to go with the story and includes icons to student selection.

A sorting activity for awake and asleep . . .

And icons to sort onto each mat
There is a teacher instruction sheet at the end with a brief explanation of each piece of this mini-packet. If you have LLI and you try this, let me know what you think.


Okay - a few more links to some of the other books:
At the Market
Rex
Frog Food