The Habitat of a Termite

Grade Levels: 3 - 5

Objectives

• Students will use vocabulary related to termites.
  
• Students will learn about the habitat of termites.

Materials

• The Habitat of a Termite Crossword Puzzle
  (This printable is a PDF. Click here for help with PDFs.)
• Access to an educational website about termites

Procedures

1. Introduce key vocabulary: architectures, diversity, environment, fungus, insulators, organism.
2. Have students visit an educational website about termites. Give them time to read the text and view pictures, and then encourage students to write one or two questions they have about termites and termite mounds.
3. Ask students to complete the The Habitat of a Termite Crossword Puzzle using the information found on the website.
4. Students may complete this activity individually or in pairs.
5. Set up a time when students can come together to share their questions and activity sheets.
6. Invite students to suggest where they might find answers to their questions.
7. You might wish to collect the questions and have students work on finding answers during their scheduled computer time.

Assessment

Find a variety of assessment techniques to use with this lesson.

Extension Activities

• Choose from a large collection of cross-curricular activities for all grade levels.
• Have student explore websites about bees so they can learn about the physical and social infrastructure of a bee's hive – another example of an amazing insect home.
  
• Another interesting insect is the ant. Tell students to explore websites about ants to find what an ant's habitat looks like and to learn what these insects actually do besides invade your picnic basket! Have students illustrate a job that both an ant and a human perform. Using a sheet of paper folded in half, ask students to show an ant performing the job on one half and a human doing the same job on the other half.
• Students can work together to create a chart or diagram that shows how a termite mound, a beehive, and an ant nest are alike and how they are different.

Standards Correlations

National Science Education Standards
http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/index.html

Students develop an understanding that:

• each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.
• an organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of the organism's environment.

National Educational Technology Standards
http://cnets.iste.org/index2.html

Students:

• use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
• demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.