Watch a Video: Wildlife Crossings
Discuss: What is the purpose of animal crossings like the ones shown in the video?
Lesson Plan - Crossing Over Danger
Learning Objective
Students will understand how special pathways built for wildlife are helping to save the lives of animals and humans.
Text Structure
Problem and Solution
Content-Area Connections
Life Science
Standards Correlations
CCSS: RI.3.1, RI.3.2, RI.3.3, RI.3.4, RI.3.5, RI.3.6, RI.3.7, RI.3.8, RI.3.10, L.3.4, SL.3.1
NGSS: Ecosystems, Engineering Design
TEKS: Science 3.9
1. Preparing to Read
Watch a Video: Wildlife Crossings
Discuss: What is the purpose of animal crossings like the ones shown in the video?
Preview Words to Know
Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.
Set a Purpose for Reading
Note the As You Read question, and have students identify the problem that Washington State is trying to solve.
2. Close-Reading Questions
1. Based on the article, what are some reasons a wild animal might try to cross a highway? Like the mountain lion described in the article, an animal might try to cross a highway to get prey, or food. Or, like the deer that the mountain lion is chasing, an animal might cross to escape a predator, or enemy.
(RI.3.1 TEXT EVIDENCE)
2. How did scientists in Washington State guide wildlife to use the animal crossings they built along the I-90 highway? The article states that scientists put up fencing along the highway to guide animals to the crossings.
(RI.3.2 KEY DETAILS)
3. What is the purpose of the sidebar, “Keeping Critters Safe”? The purpose is to show that the animal crossings on I-90 help small animals, like pocket gophers and pine martens, in addition to large animals.
(RI.3.5 TEXT FEATURES)
3. Skill Building
FEATURED SKILL: Making Connections
Use the skill builder “What’s the Problem?” to have students analyze the main problem and solution described in the article. Download it as Google Slides or a PDF.
(RI.3.8 PROBLEM/SOLUTION)