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Shakey Snake
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Purpose
To read a story and learn that stories may attribute fictional features to animals. To learn about ways that heredity influences animal features, and about relationships between animal features and their environments.
Context
By the end of second grade, children seem to understand that representations of organisms are based on true biological principles, rather than just on perceptual and behavioral features. Children at this time also tend to understand that species can be similar and have similar internal structures and offspring. (Benchmarks for Science Literacy, p. 340.)
In this lesson, students will read an online story, The Adventures of Shakey Snake. In addition to discussing Shakey Snake’s life and environment, students will analyze the representation of the snake in terms of fact and fiction. It’ll be important to use words appropriate for your students, such as fact, fiction, real, make-believe, or imaginary.
Ideas in this lesson are also related to concepts found in the following benchmarks:
- 5B The Living Environment: Heredity (K-2) # 2
- 5D The Living Environment: Interdependence of Life (K-2) # 1
Planning Ahead
Materials:
Preview the story used in this lesson, The Adventures of Shakey Snake. If all students can’t be online at once, print the pages of the story ahead of time.
Motivation
Have students discuss their favorite animal stories. Ask them to name their favorite animal characters and answer questions such as the following:
- What does this character look like?
- How does this character behave?
- What does it eat?
- Where does it live?
- Who are its family and friends and what are they like?
- What do you like best about this character?
Help students begin to think about fact versus fiction by asking questions such as:
- Do you think that a real animal would look or behave this way?
- Does a real animal live in the same kind of place?
- Does a real animal have the same kind of family and friends?
- How do the make-believe traits make the story more fun?
- Why do you think that stories make animal characters different from real life animals?
Development
Begin with a general discussion of snakes, asking questions such as:
- What do you think of when you think of snakes?
- Have you ever held one? What was it like?
- Do you like snakes, or are you afraid of them?
- Are snakes always dangerous?
- Have you ever read a story about snakes?
Be sure to point out that many snakes are harmless to humans and that all snakes should be left alone to play their part in nature.
Next, have students read The Adventures of Shakey Snake. Direct students through the story, stopping as you go to focus on particular aspects of the story that address the benchmarks for this lesson (Shakey's character vs. a real snake, his features compared to other snakes, his environment, animals’ eating others, etc.).
Ask students the following questions:
- Who is Shakey? (He is a gentle, curious, sneaky, but always funny, little rattlesnake.)
- Where does he live? (In a farmer's field.)
- What physical features does Shakey have? (He is larger than others, has a different pattern, and has a noisy rattle.)
- Is he like his brothers and sisters? (No. They're garden snakes; he's a rattlesnake.)
- What does the cat want to do? (Play with and then eat Shakey's sister.)
- What helps Shakey stop the cat? (He acts threatening and shakes his rattle.)
Remind students that fiction, or make-believe stories, can be very different from fact.
Ask questions such as:
- Why are stories written as fiction?
- What kinds of things make a fictional story fun?
- What's wrong with believing a fictional story?
- What's a true story?
Now draw the students back to Shakey the Snake, asking them to consider how he would compare to a real snake.
Ask students:
- What kind of snake would Shakey be in real life? (A rattlesnake.)
- Do you think rattlesnakes normally live in farmer's fields? (No. They usually live in dry environments like deserts. Point out that Shakey dreams of a desert and cool rocks.)
- Do you think a rattlesnake could be born with garden snakes as brothers and sisters? Why or why not? (In real life, animal offspring are very much like parents and siblings. However, note that while there might be many snakes in an environment, they can still be individually different.)
- Do you think an animal might try to eat a snake in real life? Why might an animal do that? (Yes, many animals eat other animals or plants for food. As in the story, cats have been known to kill smaller animals in the area around their homes. They may kill for food or to rid the area of smaller animals.)
- What features would a rattlesnake use to survive in real life if another animal (like a cat) were threatening him? (He would do much what Shakey did--rise up, shake his rattle, and look dangerous to frighten predators.)
Assessment
Have students complete the Shakey Snake: Fact or Fiction student sheet. They should use words and/or pictures to represent fact and fiction in the story. You could use a similar student sheet for discussions of other books, such as:
- Fish Is Fish by Leo Lionni
- Marsh Music by Robert Noreika
- The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hork
- Disney’s Animal Stories by Sarah E. Heller
Extensions
For a Science NetLinks lesson in which students investigate the habitats of local plants and animals and explore ways in which animals depend on plants and each other, see Investigating Local Ecosystems.
National Geographic Kids offers a lot of animal-based fun for this age level, such as "Creature Feature," with information about animals and animal coloring.
Created :05/26/2002
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