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Learning Objectives 

Students will: 

• Identify animals and their habitats.
• Identify and use common organizational structures, such as chronological order.
• Demonstrate the relationship between numbers and quantities using sign language.
• Enhance communication through volume, facial expression, body movement, and American Sign Language.
• Identify rhyming words, patterns, and rhythms in a text.
• Use music to accompany the text in a story.
• Create a story page using moldable material.

Standards Alignment

National Core Arts StandardsNational Core Arts Standards

Common Core State StandardsCommon Core State Standards

Next Generation Science StandardsNext Generation Science Standards

Recommended Student Materials 

Editable Documents: Before sharing these resources with students, you must first save them to your Google account by opening them, and selecting “Make a copy” from the File menu. Check out Sharing Tips or Instructional Benefits when implementing Google Docs and Google Slides with students.

Websites

Additional Materials

• Camera or smartphone (optional) 
• (optional)

Teacher Background 

Teachers should obtain and review each of the following resources: 

• and , by Marianne Berkes and Jeanette Canyon. Review the artist’s notes in the back of Over in the Ocean/Jungle to learn more about the artist’s use of polymer clay to make and capture her images.
• (Jim Arnosky) or another more traditionally-illustrated animal book.
• Review
• Familiarize yourself with (the ability to deal explicitly and segmentally with sound units smaller than the syllable) (Stanovich, 1993).
• Familiarize yourself with the original song, “Over in the Meadow,” which is the basis for these two stories. If you wish to hear the music, go to . You may also create your own tune or perform the story in a rap style.
• Make (or purchase) enough modeling clay for the class. There are many, many recipes --use your favorite, or find a new favorite at the Family Education page.

Student Prerequisites 

Students should be able to count from 1 to 10 and be familiar with basic phonics and rhyme.

Accessibility Notes

Modify movements and allow extra time as needed.

Engage 

1. Read the book Over in the Jungle and share the illustrations. Discuss the animals in the illustrations. Explain what a jungle is (a dense forest in a hot climate).

1. Sing the story in an “echo format,” singing one line at a time and asking listeners to sing it back to you.

2. Re-Sing the story in an “echo format,” adding sign language, .

3. Sing the story in an “echo format,” using dramatization to act out the actions of the mother and her little ones. Choose a student or yourself to take on the role of the mother and have students act as the animal children.

Build 

1. Display or print the pages around the classroom.

2. Introduce the rhyming words from the story Over in the Ocean. Repeat the story process using Over in the Ocean. (An ocean is a large body of water.) Add the rhyming words from “Ocean” to the rhyming words from “Jungle.” 

3. Introduce the concept of habitat (the environment in which an organism or group normally lives) by reading Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing Animal Habitats by Jim Arnosky, or a similar book.

4. Brainstorm with the class different habitats and the animals that make it their home (ocean, desert, grassland, forest, polar/arctic). Encourage students to share and document their responses on chart paper or an interactive board.

Apply 

1. Introduce the role of a book illustrator by showing . Explain that a book illustrator tells one half of the story using pictures. (The author tells the other half using words.) The pictures can be made in many ways (pencil drawings, paintings, markers, photographs, etc.) Use Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing Animal Habitats to show a traditional type of book illustration.

2. Examine the illustrations of Over in the Jungle and Over in the Ocean. Ask students to guess what the illustrator used to make her pictures (polymer clay). Explain that for these books, after Canyon created her non-flat pictures, she took photographs to place them into the book (because pages of a book are flat) like this .

3. Create non-flat story picture pages. Using clay or other moldable material, ask each student to create a character in their habitat from one of the stories. (They can be very simple!) The dough figures should be placed on the cardboard stock. (Revisit Over in the Jungle and Over in the Ocean, if necessary.)

4. Photograph the story picture pages (optional, but highly encouraged) or use the . Arrange the photographs in a presentation software or document. (Bonus: If you photograph the pages, you can then re-use the clay for another project!)

5. Share the presentation with students and have students write their own stories using the clay illustrations in the photographs. 

Reflect 

1. For reinforcement, read and sing Over in the Jungle and/or Over in the Ocean. Incorporate sign language and dramatic play.

2. Create an original story/song called “Over in the Classroom.” Allow the students to find items in the classroom that correspond to the various numbers. Use teacher and classroom items to replace the mother and little ones in the story. (Pencils can write. Chairs can sit still. Dry-erase boards can erase. Etc.!)

3. Assess students’ knowledge with a performance. Have students use sign language and dramatic play to recreate the original story/song they created.