ScienceVocabulary
Students will learn these words throughout
the year. Our classroom discussions will be more interesting as we "sprinkle"
them throughout our talks about the deciduous forest, rain forest, arctic, and
ocean habitats and weather unit.
water cycle: Did you know we drink
and use the same water the dinosaurs did millions of years ago? Yup! That's
because our water continuously recycles itself through evaporation,
condensation, and precipitation!
Evaporation - water on earth is warmed, turns into
water vapor and rises up into the sky.
Condensation - the warm water
vapor turns back into liquid water drops when it gets cold high up in the sky.
Those water droplets attach to bits of dust and form clouds.
Precipitation - when the water drops become too heavy
they fall to earth as snow, sleet, hail, or rain. Then the cycle begins all
over again!
anthropologist: a scientist who
studies people, their culture, beliefs, and habits. We will become
anthropologists when we learn about the Huli people who live in the Papua, New
Guinea rain forest.
camouflage: color or pattern that
makes an animal or plant blend in with the environment, hiding it from
predators. How does a jaguar camouflage itself from its prey?
predator: an animal that hunts and
kills other animals for food. Which animals in the rain forest are predators?
Can you name a mammal, insect, and bird who is one?
prey: an animal that is hunted and
killed for food. We will play a game called "What's for Lunch?" and you will
learn which animals are predators and which are prey!
carnivore: a meat-eating animal.
Are you a carnivore?
herbivore: an animal that eats
plants. Which is an herbivore - a sloth or a butterfly?
omnivore: an animal that eats
plants and animals. We are omnivores.
naturalist: a person who studies
plants and animals. We will be naturalists when we study the plants and
animals of the rain forest, ocean, desert, arctic and antarctic.
canopy: upper part of trees in the
rain forest and home to much animal and insect life.
producer: plants that make their
own food without eating - they use energy from the sun or chemicals in their
bodies to make their own food!
consumer: a living thing that eats
other living things to survive. We are consumers because we eat other living
things such as animals and plants! We cannot make our own food within our
bodies to survive!