Hands-on Mangroves

In Scott Foresman Reading Unit 2, one of the nonfiction texts is about mangrove forests. The text is modeled after a magazine article. The correlating main selection story was called, "Life in the Forest." After reading the two texts students were asked to compare the different types of forests. We actually finished this Unit weeks ago, but pulled the books back out this week to revisit the article about the Mangrove Forests. Through our Florida Black Bear Community Service Learning Project our class has made some connections with resource people around the State of Florida. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Resource team from Fort Myers came to our town for a Community Education Night at our local Ag Center. The team asked if our class would be interested in learning about mangroves, since they were in town. My students were very excited about this opportunity and waited in anticipation for the team's visit. .

 

Several years ago, I met the author of this book, The Sea, The Storm and The Mangrove Tangle. I pulled it off the shelf and blew the dust off the cover. What a great opportunity to incorporate a rich piece of literature that is not part of the core reading program. Lynne Cherry is an author, illustrator and naturalist. All of her books have a common theme of protecting animals and the environment. I purchased several of her books and had her sign them. The message she wrote in this one was, "For Sheli, Please help protect the mangrove and the natural places near where you live, Lynne Cherry 5/2007" You can bet I shared this with my students.

 

Can't believe I was able to find this photograph of me with the author Lynne Cherry from May 2007.

 

 

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Resource Team came to our classroom to teach us about mangroves on Thursday, February 27th.

 

 

Megan had the students engaged right away by giving each student a propagule (mangrove seed) to hold and explore.

Next, Megan introduced the students to three types of mangroves red, white and black, while Tim and Ariel put branch samples of each type of mangrove at the students' seats.

The students observed salt crystals on the leaves on this mangrove branch.

Here Arielle was assisting a student in identifying each of the three different mangrove branches.

 

Megan did the same.

This student found a propagule still attached to her branch.

 

This student tasted the salt deposited on this leaf.

Once the students had an opportunity to get to know their branches. Megan quized them by naming a type of mangrove and the students had to hold up their branch for that type of mangrove.

 

For a culminating activity, the students colored pictures of different animals that live in and around a mangrove. Once they were done coloring they brought their picture up to the Smartboard, named their animal, told the class where the animal lives and taped it on the mangrove habitat projected on the Smartboard.

 

The children also wrote one thing they learned about mangroves on an Exit Ticket (sticky note) and shared what they learned with their classmates.

 

What a great hands-on real world experience!