Grade Level: Three, Four, Five

This book is a blend of folklore and fact about the Southwestern U.S. desert and the Papagos, told in poetic form. Students will have a greater understanding of the desert and the Native American after experiencing this beautiful book.

After reading this book, the students will create a Southwest Desert Guidebook of Plants and Animals using the desert plants and animals referred to in The Desert is Theirs by Byrd Baylor. This guide book will describe the physical appearance of the plant/animal, habitat and their method of survival. The research for this guidebook can be done online if your classroom has access to the internet, using trade books and reference books from the library or using a combination of both sources.

This book is excellent for a unit of study in other areas such as:

1. Poetry

2. Native Americans (Papago)

2. Deserts

3. Animal and Plant Adaptation

About Our State Arizona……..www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/Mariposa/RSTATE.HTM

 Arizona Plants and Animals…..www.arizonaguide.com/clients/MARIZO/000019/005.html

 Deserts………………………nylabs.kcts.org/nyeverse/episode/e72.html

 Desert Dwellers………………www.azstarnet.com/~desertd/

 Desert Plants and Animals……www.afternet.com/~ray/canimals.html

 What is a Desert?…………….www.desertUSA.com/desert.html

Trade Books for Desert Plant and Animal Research:

Arnold. Watching Desert Life. Carolrhoda Books, 1994

 Bank. Strange Creatures of the Desert. Contemporary Perspectives, 1982

 Bash. Desert Giant: The World of the Saguaro Cactus. Sierra Club Books, 1989

 Dewey. The Creatures Underneath. Red Crane Books, 1994

 Lerner. A Desert Year. Morrow Junior Books, 1991

 MacQuitty. Eyewitness Books: Desert. Knopf Publishers, 1994

 Spencer. A Living Desert. Troll Associates, 1988

 Taylor. Desert Life. Dorling Kindersley, 1992

 Taylor. Endangered Desert Animals. Crabtree Publishers, 1993

 Wallace. America's Deserts: Guide to Plants. Fulcrum Kids, 1996

 The class will work in small research teams. Each team will develop a field guide for the desert plants and animals mentioned in Byrd Baylor's The Desert is Theirs.

Each research team will need:

1. List of plants and animals mentioned in The Desert is Theirs.

Animals: ant, badger, buzzard, coyote, deer, dove, fox, gopher, hawk, jack rabbit, kangaroo rat, lizard, pack rat, rattlesnake, tarantula spider, toad

Plants: greasewood, mesquite, saguaro, yucca

2. List of sites on the internet for conducting research (see teacher information)

3. Various trade books and reference books on desert plants and animals (see teacher information)

4. Ten copies of the guidebook page outline (included with this lesson)

5. Paper for cover of the guidebook

6. Crayons, markers and/or colored pencils

1. Teacher should model the procedure for doing one page of the guidebook using the accompanying guidebook page.

2. Divide the class into teams. (There are twenty plants and animals. Teams of five will give four research topics per student.)

3. Have students divide the research topics among their group.

4. Students should research their plants and animals (including picture) and write their guidebook entry putting the final copy on the guidebook page after the group has helped to edit it.

5. Students who have completed their guidebook pages first will create the cover of the guidebook for their group.

6. When every member of the team has completed his/her research, the guidebook can be assembled.

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