Lesson Summary This lesson reviews the fundamental needs of plants and animals with the creation of a bulletin board.  This lesson lays the foundation for developing the concept that a habitat is the place that provides essential resources for an organism to meet its needs.  Students break up into small groups, choose an organism (draw or cut out its picture from a magazine), and come up with a list of things that it needs to survive.  You will introduce the basic needs categories (food, water, shelter, space, light, and air) and have students place their lists into these categories. Teacher Background This introductory lesson gives you an idea of what students already know about basic needs and habitats.  It introduces students to the term organism, which they will use throughout this unit. Set-up/Management Tips This lesson can be taught in one or two 45-minute sessions. This lesson has student groups looking through magazines to choose an organism to focus on for the lesson.  You might want to cut out several pictures in advance and have groups choose from the pictures you provide.  This can be a time saver and helps keep groups on approximately the same timeline.  Sticky notes are a great way for students to list the needs they think are required by their organism. They should write one need per sticky, that way they can be reorganized if needed later in the lesson. Be sure to make sets of the basic needs cards found at the end of the lesson for each student group.  It is also best to have these cut our and ready to go in advance. If you do not have bulletin board space available for this activity is works well to have groups compile their data on a large piece of construction paper that they can hold up to share with the class. Be sure to model the activity first for students with either a picture of a plant or a human. Literacy Support The book Box Turtle at Long Pond by William T. George is an excellent one to read at the end of this lesson.  As you read it have students signal each time the turtle in the book is meeting one of its basic needs in and around the pond habitat.   This book helps students begin to identify how needs are met. Scientific Vocabulary The following words are key vocabulary words that will be introduced in this lesson and reinforced throughout the unit: Organism Need Survival