Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Desert People and the Saguaro
The saguaro is the focus of an examination of the importance of this stately cactus to the indigenous people in the Sonoran Desert.
Desert Discovery
Saguaro Parts
Young biologists identify the basic structures of a saguaro cactus. They study the functions of each of the structures, and label them on a picture of a saguaro cactus embedded in the plan. This simple, and easy-to-implement lesson would...
Desert Discoveries
Who Depends on the Saguaro?
Young scientists design a picture of a saguaro cactus that shows the cactus and some of the animals and plants that interact with it. There are many of these special relationships between plants and animals of the Sonoran Desert. Your...
Desert Discovery
Saguaro Seasons
Elementary schoolers take a look at how the saguaro cactus adapts to the four seasons of the year. This amazing plant has distinct flowering and fruiting cycles within the summer season, and other cycles during the other seasons. Your...
Desert Discovery
Life Cycle of the Saguaro
Third graders make books which illustrate the growth and development of a saguaro cactus from its beginnings as a seed all the way through its death. They trace the life cycle of the saguaro, identify each of the stages in its life, and...
Desert Discoveries
Built for the Desert
The saguaro cactus has an amazing ability to survive in a harsh environment. Learners identify the many adaptations for desert life that the saguaro employs. They look at each part of the saguaro and determine what role it plays in the...
Curated OER
Desert Habitat
Students examine how desert plants and animals are adapted to life in the desert. They listen to the book, "Seasons of Saguaro," conduct experiments to demonstrate plant succulence, and create and draw an animal or plant that...
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Ecosystems Lesson Plan
Students research ecosystems (rainforest, desert, grassland, woodland, and arctic tundra). Students compare the seven continents and the importance of proximaty to the equator.
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Deserts
Learners do various activities to explain where the United States' desert region lies in relationship to the state in which they live, become familiar with plants and animals in the Sonoran desert, and make a story map of Roadrunner...
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Bats: Need Nectar, Will Travel
Beginning wildlife biologists become adult bats, baby bats, snakes, owls, bobcats, or land-clearing developers in a grand role-playing activity. In a large open space, they play a game in which they move to designated areas based on what...
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Desert Plant Adaptations in the Sonoran Desert
Students are able to identify adaptations that plants have developed to deal with harsh desert conditions, as well as explain how these adaptations help to protect these plants.
US Mint
Desert Dwellers
What can a quarter possibly teach young learners about desert ecosystems? More than you might think. After displaying and discussing the included picture of the Arizona state quarter, the class participates in a series of shared reading...
Curated OER
Desert Plants
In this desert plants worksheet, students read five passages about desert plants and answer the five comprehension questions that follow each one.
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Sonoran Desert
In this Sonoran Desert worksheet, learners read and analyze a letter that Jeremy wrote to his grandmother and then complete the picture that follows using information about the desert they learned from the letter.
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Quiz: Animals of the Desert
In this science worksheet, students complete a 10 question multiple choice quiz about desert animals. The answers are provided with explanations upside down on the page.
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BATS: NEED NECTAR, WILL TRAVEL
Young scholars play the role of nectar feeding bats on their annual migration
and try to avoid the different hazards that hinder their progress. They describe the annual migration of long-nosed bats including key elements such as:...
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Bats
Learners examine the migration patterns of the long-nosed bat. They identify threats to the animal and the plants bats help pollinate. They participate in a game to help them with the information.