Ecologist Field Guide: Due October 4

Directions: You are an ecologist. Your job is to create a field guide of the living things you
find in their natural habitat around your home. Your field guide must include four pages:
three animals and one plant, plus a cover.

Field Guide Cover

Title: Fill in the blank with the city you live in (Kalamazoo, Portage, etc.).
Your Name: Write your name at the bottom of the cover neatly.
Picture: Create a cover that will make people want to read your field guide. Use a lot of
color! Crayons and colored pencils will look the neatest.

Inside Pages
Title: The name of the plant or animal at the top. Write neatly!
Picture: A colorful hand-drawn picture of the living thing. You have a big space to draw
your picture, so use all of that space for your living things and the background.
Facts: Use your best handwriting!
• Animal pages: Include the type of animal (mammal, reptile, bird, etc.), body
covering (fur, scales, feathers, etc.), and color. Then write two ways the animal
can survive around your house. (Examples: What does it eat? How does it escape
from predators? Does it stay around your house year-round or go south?)
• Plant page: Include the size and color of the plant, plus two ways it survives.
(Examples: Does it have large leaves for getting water? Does it lose its leaves
each winter or keep them? Is it colorful to attract insects to spread its pollen?)

Grading Rubric (Points are listed in parenthesis.)

Cover: Animal 2: Plant:

____ Title (1) ____ Title (1) ____ Title (1)

____ Name (1) ____ Picture (2) ____ Picture (2)

____ Picture (2) ____ Facts (5) ____ Facts (4)

Animal 1: Animal 3:

____ Title (1) ____ Title (1) ____ TOTAL (35)

____ Picture (2) ____ Picture (2)

____ Facts (5) ____ Facts (5)