Third grade students chose to study endangered animals. Each student researched one critically endangered, threatened, or endangered animal, learning about its physical appearance, habitat, and other experts involved in its conservation like poachers, researchers, and photographers. Students created dioramas of animal habitats and puppets of their animals. After learning they could help by adopting animals, the class raised money through bake sales and crafts to adopt three emperor penguin chicks through the World Wildlife Fund.

1. Endangered Animal Project
Third Grade at CNCS
2012

2. Third grade decided that they wanted to study animals.
Upon further discussion, they were most concerned about
the animals that might not be around very much longer.

3. Students determined what they would need to know about
an animal to deem them an expert on that animal. Each
student chose an endangered, threatened, or critically
endangered animal to research. They became experts on
those animals.

4. Students used the circle of view points thinking strategy to
determine all the people who would be involved with their
particular animal. These people included poachers, poachers’
families, fashion designers, the public, conservationists,
researchers, photographers, zoologists, et. Al. Students
discuss these people’s points of view and wrote poems from
their perspectives.

5. Students also researched and became
experts on the habitats. They created
dioramas to show others what their
animal’s habitat would look like.
Students used
realistic
materials to
create an image
of a habitat.

6. Students studied their animal’s physical appearance.
They became familiar with the profile and structure
of the face. They also studied the color scheme of
their animal. They began working with color matching.
Using newspaper
forms and paper
mache, students
also created animal
puppets so that
they could become
their animal when
they shared
information about
it.

8. Students became so involved and concerned about their
animals that they began to wonder what they could do to help.
After some research, they learned that they could adopt an
animal through the World Wildlife Fund to assist with their
conservation efforts. As a class they decided to adopt an
emperor penguin chick.

9. Third graders organized a bake sale and shrinky dink jewelry sale to
raise money for the emperor penguin chick. The students created
penguin jewelry that might appeal to the public. Upon further discussion,
they also decided to plan an endangered animal evening for their families.
They wanted their families to be as informed as possible. Altogether,
the third graders raised enough to adopt three emperor penguin chicks!