For hands-on activities about animal and plant life in grasslands, forests, deserts, and bodies of water that connect science with real life, choose Habitats. This book, designed with good science and easy teaching in mind, covers these concepts: a habitat is a place where plants and animals naturally live, a desert habitat has very little rainfall, a forest is a tree-covered habitat, a pond is a fresh-water habitat, an ocean is a salt-water habitat, a savanna is a grassland habitat, a polar habitat is very cold. Activities help children practice skills in: observation, analysis, communication, making comparisons, prediction, critical thinking, and recording. Areas of study address major themes such as: change, structure, function, cycles, diversity, and cause and effect. Samples of the hands-on learning experiences: observe and record characteristics and changes in a small area near the school, experiment with sponges to learn about how cactus store water, make a rainforest in a jar, write an "Ocean ABC" book, investigate how polar animals stay warm using a fan and lots of ice cubes. Contains many reproducible, ready-to-go resources, such as record sheets, logbook forms, minibooks, and picture cards. Illustrated throughout with fun, yet accurate line art. All 80 pages perforated for easy removal.