Mammal Scavenger Hunt
Grade Level(s): 3-5
By: Heather Frey

Students go to various websites to answer questions about mammals.

Objectives:

Students will read and research information on mammals to further develop their understanding of their characteristics.

Materials:

1. Access to the Internet for each student.
2. Scavenger Hunt sheet with questions from each website.

Plan:

1. The teacher will review with the class what they already know about mammals.
2. The teacher will explain that today the class will be going on a scavenger hunt to discover more information about the characteristics of mammals.
3. Each student will then recieve a handout with questions to answer and the websites the answer can be found on
4. If the students finish early, they can look further at areas of interest on the websites.

These are the websites and questions I used, but you can come up with any number of questions or websites:

1. Go to www.kidzone.ws/animals/mammals.htm and look at the four pages concerning mammals. Find the answers to the following questions:
   • How many kinds of mammals are there?
   • Are mammals warm or cold blooded?
   • Do dolphins have hair?
   • Which mammal does not have any teeth?
   • What does it mean to be a vertebrate?
2. Go to www.allaboutmammals.com and look for:
   • What is the fastest mammal?
   • How fast does it go?
   • What is the slowest mammal?
   • How slow is it?
   • Click on any of the mammals listed on this website and list three facts that you find interesting about that animal.
3. Go to www.bear-tracker.com and print out the tracks of two mammals
4. Go to http://natzoo.si.edu/Animals/SmallMammals/ Click on Meet some small mammals. Click on tiger quoll facts. See if you can find:
   • What is the home range of the tiger quoll?
   • What is its diet?

Comments:

This lesson is a fun way to get kids more familiar with mammals and their characteristics. They can also get more familiar with Internet research.