March 2023

Taking Care Of Baby

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Academic Standards

Reading Objective:

Children will identify ways that orangutan mothers help their babies find and eat food.

Next Generation Science Standards:

K-LS1-1: What animals need to survive
K-ESS3-1: Animal needs/relationship to where they live
1-LS1-2: Behavior that helps offspring survive

Vocabulary:

orangutan, forest

Check comprehension and inspire discussion.

 

1. Where do orangutans live?
(in the forest)

2. What does Mom share with her baby when it is little?
(She shares fruit she picked from a tree.)

3. What does Mom teach the baby to climb?
(a tree)

4. What could a baby orangutan find to eat in a tree?
(leaves, fruit, bark, insects, etc.)

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

  • Orangutans have very long arms. This helps them climb trees and reach for food.
  • Orangutans can eat with their feet too!
  • They love to eat a fruit called durian that smells like stinky socks.
  • They make nests in trees to sleep in. Every night, they make a new nest.

Materials: clipboards, pencils, copies of the skill sheet

Overview: Children will pretend they are orangutan moms and babies as they head outside to try to spot things orangutans eat!

Directions:

  1. Before you leave the classroom, ask kids if they remember some foods that orangutan moms teach their babies to find in nature. (fruit, leaves, flowers, tree bark, insects, soil)
  2. Tell kids they will head outside, pretending to be orangutans looking for food! How many orangutan foods will they be able to spot (but not eat)?
  3. Give each student a clipboard, a pencil, and a copy of the skill sheet. Review the items on the skill sheet. Then head outside.
  4. Remind kids that orangutans live in forests, which are full of trees. Can they spot a tree? What food could the tree offer an orangutan? For fun you can pretend to have long orangutan arms to reach food.
  5. Record findings on the skill sheets.