Animal Habitats Text

Set
Second Grade
Science SOL 2.5
By: Amber Archer

Science SOL for Text Set

Living Systems
2.5 The student will investigate and understand
that living things are part of a system. Key concepts
include
a) living organisms are interdependent with their
living and nonliving surroundings;
b) an animals habitat includes adequate food,
water, shelter or cover, and space;
c) habitats change over time due to many
influences

Rationale

I chose to do my text set based on science SOL 2. 5 because it dealt

with animal habitats. I always loved learning about animals and their
different habitats in school, and I knew that there were a lot of great
books out there to help students better understand different animal
habitats. I think that in second grade the students also have a little
bit of background knowledge on animals and their homes, but this
text set allows them to go deeper into the topic. There are also so
many activities that could go along with animal habitats, and I
thought it would be a great fit for second graders. I hope that by
showing habitats in different areas it will help students connect to
their daily lives and they will be able to spot an animal in nature and
know about where they live. The texts not only helps students see
where they live, but also why they live where they do. In the text set
the books I have chosen look at both ocean habitats and also land
habitats to help students see the difference between the two. The
books I have selected range from animals as babies, different types
of habitats for the same animal, having to move habitats, different
biomes as habitats, animals that make their habitats, and animals in
different seasons and what their habitats are like. I also decided to
use both fiction and non- fiction texts so that students could see that
they both serve as great resources with factual information. This text
set was carefully selected so that students had lots of resources to

Anchor Text
Moyer, R. (2002). McGraw-Hill science (Virginia ed.).
New York, NY: Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.
This is a second grade textbook, but the readability
of this text based on readability calculators
averaged to be on a third grade reading level.
Chapters 3 and 4
are land and water
habitats and are used
to go along with the
text set.

Linguistic Texts Below Grade

Level

Ocean Babies
Home for a Bunny
Are you a Bee?
Animal Homes

Ocean Babies (Below Grade

Level)
Rose, D., & Nakata, H. (2004). Ocean babies.
Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Ocean Babies (below level)

This book is a guided reading level H or about a 300L lexile. This
book is great for students who are below grade level because there
is very little text on each page, and the pictures help students
comprehend what the text is saying. I chose this book to help
students who are below grade level see baby animals under the
ocean and how they adapt to their new homes under the sea. The
book talks about how some babies are born on land and then move
to sea. It talked about how when they are born they already know
how to swim and they swim around to lots of places and some
animals have many homes. It also talked about how some animals
change homes such as hermit crabs. It also talked about clown fish
who stay in their habitat their entire lives. In the back of the book it
goes deeper in depth about certain animals and their habitats. This
provides a great resource to go deeper into the simple text. This is
a wonderful text to show students what habitats under the see are
like.

Home for a Bunny (Below

Grade Level)
Brown, M., & Williams, G. (2003). Home for a bunny.
New York: Random House.

Home for a Bunny (below

level)
This book is a guided reading level F or G with a lexile of about 200250L. I chose this book because although it is a fiction text it
provides below grade level readers a look into why some habitats
arent suitable for all animals. It follows a bunny who is looking for a
home. The bunny finds a bird and asks about its home, and then the
bunny says that wouldnt work for him to live in. Then the bunny
goes to a frog in the pond and figures out he would drown. Then
finds a groundhog, but realizes that wont work. Then he runs into
another bunny and the other bunny explains that bunny homes are
under rocks under the ground. So then the bunny lives with another
bunny in the proper habitat. I think this book would be great to
explain that some habitats arent suitable for their life styles. It helps
students see the reason for why there are lots of different habitats on
Earth. I know that it is a fiction story, but I think it would really get
their gears going and get them thinking about all animals and why
they may live where they live.

Are you a Bee? (Below Reading

Level)
Allen, J., & Humphries, T. (2001). Are you a bee?
New York: Kingfisher.

Are you a Bee? (below level)

This book is a level G for guided reading and it has a lexile of
250L. This is a great text with wonderful pictures that shows
not only different bee habitats but also goes though where
bees live throughout their life cycle. I chose this book because
it is all about bees to show one animal an its habitat, but it
talks about how bees live in different habitats as well. Some
bees live in nests, hollow tress, or hives. It also talked about
how humans provide habitats for bees. Then it talked about
how humans and their habitats are different from bees. At the
end of the book there are fun facts all about bees and their
habitats. This book is a great resource to show students that
an animal may be a bee, but that doesnt mean that their
habitats will all look the same. The book has great pictures to
show what different bee habitats look like.

Animal Homes (Below Grade

Level)
Wildsmith, B. (1980). Animal homes. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Animal Homes (below level)

This book is a level H for guided reading with a
lexile of 300L. This is a great book for lower level
readers. It talks about so many different types of
animals. It has great illustrations of the animal in
its very own habitat. On each page there is a new
animal and habitat. It has great vocabulary with
explanations of what the word is such as burrows,
lairs, dens, and lodges. It also gives locations of
where some animals live, and what their habitats
are made out of. I chose this book because it
provides diverse animals and habitats which is
good for the students to see that there are all
kinds of habitats out there.

Linguistic Texts On Grade

Level

Its Moving Day

Beneath the Sun
Hide-and-Seek Visual Adventures Uncover
Nature
Look at Homes, Holes, and Hives
Animals that Build their Homes

Its Moving Day (On Grade

Level)
Hickman, P., & Rio, G. (2008). It's moving day!
Toronto: Kids Can Press.

Its Moving Day (on level)

This book is a guided reading level of L and it has a lexile level
of 500L. I chose this book for on grade level readers because
it is a great book all about animals who have to move their
habitats. It talks about how some animals move during
different seasons to have better food supply. Some animals
find new habitats in winter to hibernate. It talked about how
natural disasters mess up animal homes so they have to find
new ones. Some animals take over other habitats when they
leave. The book also talked about how the babies leave their
homes to make families of their own. This book did a great job
with explaining that sometimes a habitat has to move in order
for the animal to survive. The back of the book talks deeper
about each of the animals in the book and talks more about
how they live and their habitats.

Beneath the Sun (On Grade

Level)
Stewart, M., & Bergum, C. (n.d.). Beneath the sun.
Peachtree Publishers.

Beneath the Sun (on level)

This book is a guided reading level M with a lexile
of 599L. I chose this book because it talks about
animals who need habitats that escape the hot
sun. This is a great book that shows that different
animals need different temperatures to survive. It
talked about how some animals come out in the
morning when it is cool and then it burrows to
escape the hot sun. Some animals put a foam
over their habitat to block rays. It also mentioned
animals that arent affected by the sun. The book
talked about both land and ocean animals who
hide from the sun which is good for the students
to read about water and land habitats. The book
also had great vocabulary such as biome words

Hide-and-Seek Visual Adventures

Uncover Nature (On Grade Level)
Brookes, O. (2010). Uncover nature. New York:
Alphabet Soup.

Hide-and Seek Visual Adventures

Uncover Nature (on level)
This book is a guided reading level J with a lexile of 350L. This
book is fantastic! The book is split up into the different biomes
such as the rain forest, desert, savanna, coral reef, Antartica,
forest, woodland, and woodland floor. It tells you all about
animals in certain environments and why it is suitable for the
animal. The illustrations are wonderful. It is a picture of for
example the rain forest. Then it has animals found there that
are labeled and in their habitat. It talks about the climate of
the habitat, types of plants found in the habitats, and
predators and prey of the habitat. At the bottom of every page
it explain more about specific animals found in the different
environments. The book is also a hid and seek book so it is fun
for students to look for the object throughout the book. I think
that this is the best text resource that I found for the text set.

Look at Homes, Holes, and

Hives (On Grade Level)
Pluckrose, H. (1990). Homes, holes, and hives.
New York: F. Watts.

Look at Homes, Holes, and

Hives (on level)
This book is a guided reading level M with a 599L
lexile. I chose this book because it focuses on
three types of habitats. The book starts out with
the most familiar habitat to the child which is a
house. This is great so the students realizes that
they also live in a habitat, but that there are many
different types of houses just like the many
different types of animal habitats. Then the book
talks about different animals and what habitats
they call home. The book has actual pictures of
the habitats instead of illustrations which provide
the students with a real life look so that they may
identify the habitats in their backyards. The book
also goes over land and water habitats.

Animals that Build their Homes

(On Grade Level)
McClung, R. (1976). Animals that Build their
Homes. National Geographic Society.

Animals that Build their Homes

(on level)
This book is a guided reading level L with a lexile
of 500L. I chose this book to show that some
animals build their own habitats. This book has
great photographs instead of illustrations for the
children to look at. The book talks about what the
animals use to build the habitat, how they build it,
how long it takes them, where the habitats are
typically located, and what they look like. The
book also talks about how it helps the animals
survive. This is a great resource for students to
learn more about animals that build their own
houses instead of the animals who find their
habitats in nature.

Linguistic Texts Above Grade

Level
And so They Build
Animal Homes: Jungles
Animals in Summer
Fur, Feathers, and Flippers

And so They Build (Above

Grade Level)
Kitchen, B. (1993). And so they build. Cambridge,
Mass.: Candlewick Press.

And so They Build (above

level)
This text is on a guided reading level N with a lexile of 625L.
This is another text about animals that build their habitats, but
it is on a higher level. This book is great because it talks about
where the habitats are located in the world and the types of
climates that are located there. It helps students think deeper
into animal habitats and why they may be located where they
are and why the animal must build the habitat. This would be a
great resource for a student to use for a report on an animal
and their habitat. There are great illustrations to go along with
the text. The book also tells why the animal must build the
habitat. In some cases it is to protect babies and others it is to
protect their selves from temperatures or predators. This book
would be good to use to look at the other books on the other
levels about animals that build their homes, and get the
students to note similarities and differences in the texts.

Animal Homes: Jungles (Above

Grade Level)
Greenway, S. (1991). Animal homes: Jungles.
Brookfield, Conn.: Newington Press.

Animal Homes: Jungles (above

level)
This book is a guided reading level U and it has a lexile of
800L. I chose this text to show students that even when
you focus on one biome like the jungle there is still so
much diversity between the different habitats. This text
has bolded words throughout the text and then it has a
glossary with in depth definitions which is a great way to
help students figure out the harder vocabulary. The book
has great pictures of actual jungle animals and their
habitats. By including a book just on jungles it may spark
interest in the students and they may look for another
biome to continue their reading about specific habitats.
The book does a great job with showing how all the
animals live in the jungle, but the habitats in which each
animal lives looks much different from the rest.

Animals in Summer (Above

Grade Level)
McCauley, J. (1988). Animals in Summer. National
Geographic Society.

Animals in Summer (above

level)
This book is a guided reading level of a T and a
lexile level of 775L. I chose this book to help
students understand that animals have different
habitats in different seasons. It talked about how
some animals hibernate, but then in the spring
and summer they finish hibernating and find new
habitats. The book had great photographs to
match the text. At the end of the book it had a
section that went deeper into animals in summer
and would be good to further challenge the
reader. This book is a great resource so that
students see how habitats for certain animals may
changed based on the current season.

Fur, Feathers, and Flippers: How Animals

Live Where They Do (Above Grade Level)
Lauber, P. (1994). Fur, feathers, and flippers: How
animals live where they do. New York: Scholastic.

Fur, Feathers, and Flippers: How Animals

Live Where They Do (above level)
This book is a guided reading level T book with a
lexile level of 775L. I chose this book because it
also separates habitats by the biomes and
continents. It has habitats from Antarctica, Africa,
New England, the Desert, and Tundra. This book is
full of in depth information. There is a lot of text
and would be a great resource on habitats for a
strong reader. The photographs on every page
have great captions that explain the picture to
help you understand the habitat. The text is set
up into chapter of the different types of biomes,
but it goes farther into depth than the other text
in the set that also split by biomes. Students
would get a lot out of habitats around the world.

Nonlinguistic Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjZsKiZZ6dQ

Animals and their Habitats. (n.d.). Retrieved June

24, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=kjZsKiZZ6dQ

Nonlinguistic Resources
For some reason it wont let me type on the
youtube link page. However, the link on the
previous slide is a video about all of the different
types of habitats such as arctic habitats, ocean
habitats, desert habitats, tropical forest habitats,
mountain habitats, and savanna habitats. The
video is full of wonderful photographs that would
hold the attention of a second grader. The
information in the video also backs up what they
have been learning about in the textbook and also
in the text set books. The video helps student
better see the difference between all of the
habitats in certain areas of the world.

Nonlinguistic Resources
http://
www.scholastic.com/magicSchoolBus/games/habitat
/index.htm
The Magic School Bus . (n.d.). Retrieved June 24,
2015, from
http://www.scholastic.com/magicSchoolBus/games/h
abitat/index.htm
This is a matching game. This would be great from a
review to put their habitat matching skills to the
test. It is fun and interactive for second graders. In
the game you match 5 animals to their habitat and
then if you get it right it gives you information of
that animal and its habitat. There are also other
great activities on The Magic School Bus website for