Teaching with Technology: Build Your Wild Self!

I'm always looking for ways to integrate technology into my teaching.  I recently came across a great website run by New York Zoos and Aquarium.  Children can create their own "wild self" using all sorts of animal parts.  They can then print or email the picture.  We are using the pictures for descriptive writing and to talk about animal adaptations during our Science unit.  Here is my sample picture I used to get the kids excited about the project:

 

Then I had my students write about their picture using the following prompts:

What are you?  ____________________________________________________________________

1.      What’s "wild" about you?  Describe each “wild” part, including the part, the animal it comes from, and how it is used.

2.     What habitat are you ideally suited for?  Why?

3.     Look at the other pictures created by students in the class.  What other animal might be a predator to your animal?  Why?

4.     Look at the other picture created by students in the class. What other animal might be prey for your animal.  Why? 

5.     Email your picture to your teacher.