Habitats

A Music, Reading, and Science Lesson for Grades 3-6

Overview

The class will sing the Habitat Song by Jim Oliver, from lyric sheets, and add verses and hand jives.

Materials: Youtube video, Lyric sheets, Writing materials

Standards

Music (singing and body percussion)

Reading-Informational Text (comprehension)

Reading-Foundational Skills (fluency)

Science (habitats)

Process

• Have students listen to Amy Carlson’s youtube video with her version of Jim Oliver’s song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAqNeEYPw7Y&feature=related
• Ask the students to list the habitats in the song and what is in each habitat.
• Listen to the song again in order to add to the lists.
• Ask the students questions about the lyrics to check for understanding
• Hand out lyric sheets
• Invite the students to sing along while tracking (two or three times)
• Lightly drum the beat of the song on desks while singing
• Add a hand jive while singing (pat legs twice, clap twice, right-hand-over-left twice, left-hand-over-right twice)
• Invite students to create their own 8-count hand jives while singing
• Sing the ocean verse without accompaniment
• Discuss other possible habits as a class
• Divide into groups and research habitats (from handouts, encyclopedias, internet, textbooks). List characteristics of each specific habitat.
• Have each group create a new verse for the habitat song following the general pattern of the other verses. 
• Invite groups to share their verse with the rest of the class (with hand jives)

Habitats

By Jim Oliver (with added farm verse)

Performed by Amy Carleson

Chorus:
Habitat, Habitat, Have to Have a Habitat
Habitat, Habitat, Have to Have a Habitat
Habitat, Habitat, Have to Have a Habitat
You have to have a Habitat to carry on!

The forest is a habitat, a very special habitat
It's where the tallest trees are at
It's where a bear can scratch her back
It keeps the ground from rolling back
Renews the oxygen, in fact
The forest is a habitat we depend on! (Chorus)

The farm is a habitat, a very special habitat.

It’s where the freshest food is at

It’s where the richest soil’s at

Farmers create habitats for owls, snakes, and brown bats

The farm is a habitat that we depend on! (Chorus)

The river is a habitat, a very special habitat
It's where the freshest water's at
For people, fish, and muskrat
But when people dump their trash
Rivers take the biggest rap
The river is a habitat we depend on! (Chorus)

People are different than foxes and rabbits
Affect the whole world with their bad habits
Better to love it while we still have it
Or rat ta-tat-tat, our habitat's gone! (Chorus)

Additional Verse:

The ocean is a habitat, a very special habitat
It's where the deepest water's at
It's where the biggest mammal's at
It's where out future food is at
It keeps the atmosphere intact
The ocean is a habitat we depend on! (Chorus)