Lesson Plans
Kindergarten
Grades K – 3
Grades K – 8
Grades 3 – 6
Grades 3 – 8
Kindergarten
Bat Crafts, Alphabet Letter B Theme, Printable Activities and Worksheets
From First-School
http://www.first-school.ws/activities/animals/wild/bat1.htm
Bats are fascinating and this lesson helps children have an appreciation for how wonderful and important this animal is!
Grades K - 3
Bats at Enchanted Learning
From Enchanted Learning
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/bat.shtml
Enchanted Learning has a worksheet on bat anatomy, printouts, quiz, and other worksheets.
“Batty” about Bats!
From Alabama Learning Exchange
http://alex.state.al.us/lesson_view.php?id=4942
As a part of a week-long unit about bats, students will identify the characteristics of a bat and write an essay about bats. Student understanding will be enhanced through the use of books, poems, lectures, discussions, individual “flip books”, an art project, and the Internet.
Stellaluna Literature Guide
From TeacherVision
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/fiction/activity/1738.html
This teacher's guide provides ideas for the exploration of Jannell Cannon's Stellaluna. Separated from her mother before she is old enough to fly, Stellaluna, an adorable baby fruit bat, finds her world turned literally upside down when she's adopted by a family of birds.
The Teacher’s Guide: Bats
From The Teacher’s Guide
http://www.theteachersguide.com/batslessonplans.htm
This web page includes bat activities, lesson plans, printable, writing prompts, math pages and more.
Grades K - 8
Bats in the Classroom: Activities Across the Curriculum
From Education World
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson031.shtml
This web site includes activities involving listening, maps, literature, and science.
Night Friends – American Bats: Online Activity Guide
From National Wildlife Federation and Bat Conservation International
CLICK HERE for a pdf copy.
This 32-page instructional guide includes basic information about bats as well as lessons plans:
- Investigating Bat Adaptations - Students investigate adaptations that increase a bat’s chance of finding food and surviving in a particular habitat.
- Bats: Maligned or Malicious -- Students explore their views of a threatened bat and present their findings.
- Build a Bat House -- Students build a bat house for their Backyard Wildlife HabitatTM or Schoolyard Habitats® Site.
Grades 3 – 6
Frankie the Free-tailed Bat
From Texas Parks and Wildlife
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_1423.pdf
Frankie the Free-tailed Bat is a story about a Brazilian Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) that was born in a cave located in the Texas Hill Country, but each year migrates to and from Mexico with thousands to millions of other members of its kind.
Guided Reading Lesson using Bats
From Teachers.Net
http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1345.html
This lesson uses three books to teach about bats.
Hanging Around with Bats
From Texas Parks and Wildlife
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/learning/resources/keeptexaswild/bats/activities.phtml
This web page contains lots of links, activities, and ideas for teaching about bats.
Grades 3 – 8
Discover Bats!
From Bat Conservation International ($23.95)
http://www.batgoods.com/category/BCI-Publications-46
The accompanying teacher's activity book offers more than 220 pages of creative lessons that teach bat behavior, habitat, ecology and conservation in conjunction with the video. Students use essential skills such as reading comprehension, mathematics, written and verbal communication and more to learn key facts about bats while gaining an appreciation for global conservation concerns. The kit contains the award-winning 47-minute DVD and teacher's guidebook complete with reference information, bibliography, appendices and glossary. Students can participate in Internet-based learning activities for additional study.
Indiana Bat, Kids, and Caves – Oh MY!: An Activity Book for Teachers
From the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Education Department of Evansville’s Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered/mammals/inba/curriculum/index.html
This curriculum offers a wide range of activities about bats, karst topography, and caves. Lessons include:
1. Karst for the Classroom - Bulletin Board Set-Up
2. Spelunker Speak - Cave Vocabulary
3. Sanctuary of Stone – Reading Comprehension
4. Caves & Bats in Indiana – Mapping Activity
5. In The Caves Where We Live – Cave Communities
6. Caves Under Construction –The Science of Cave Formation
7. Caves & Humans – So Happy Together? - Impact of Human Use
8. Cave Conservation - Why Care? - Research and Role Play
9. Bravo, Bats! - Why Bats Deserve Our Thanks
10. Pest Control - It All Adds Up – Word problems
11. Chiroptera Chat - Bat Vocabulary
12. The Wing’s the Thing - Bat Anatomy
13. Bats of Indiana - Playing Card Activity
14. Plotting Populations – Graph Drawing Activity
15. Indiana Bats And Me – Measurement Activity
16. Bats at Risk – Threats facing Indiana bats
17. Decades of Decline - Graph Interpretation
18. How Many Indiana Bats Can Sleep in a Shoe Box? – Spatial reasoning
19. Voices In The Night – Story Starters
20. Web of Decay - Cave Food Web Game
Plant a Bat Garden
From Organization for Bat Conservation
CLICK HERE for a pdf
Bats eat night flying insects. If you would like to attract bats to your garden, you may want to plant flowers that are late day blooming or night-scented. These plants will attract night pollinators, like moths, which bats like to eat.
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