Introducing deserts to my 1st-grade son
The hardest thing for me to teach my son about the habitats was letting him imagine or picture what kind of place it is. He was 6 years old, and he has never experienced deserts, so we needed to watch many videos to introduce what it looks like.
What We Used
- Books and videos about deserts
- Animals in desert images from the internet or your drawings
- Color pencils, crayons or markers for drawing
- Letter size paper for drawing desert scenery
- Scissors for cutting out the animal images
I recommend using actual animal images, not clip-art, because most kids have never seen these animals except at the zoo.
Activity Ideas
Idea 1: Drawing scenery
After learning about the desert from videos and books, draw desert scenery.
Idea 2: Adding animals
Print out the small size of animal images from the internet, and cut them out. Place on the desert scenery drawing.
Resources for Learning Topics
Videos (Deserts)
Great introducing video for 1st graders.
This video is more difficult for 1st graders, but it has very educational info and high-resolution images.
Videos (Animals in deserts)
Camel eats cacti!!
Gila Monster (Amazing Animals series are funny and silly! My son loved them.)
Websites
Desert Habitat (National Geographic Kids)
San Diego Zoo: Habitats (Desert)
San Diego Zoo introduces animals and plants living in deserts. Very helpful!
Books
Desert related books list on epic! (Available on epic! Book)
Happy learning!
Spongy Kids 
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