Getting Started with
City Life for Wildlife

1. Read the Background for Teachers essay. It contains more in-depth information that will help you answer questions and guide students’ exploration.
2. Familiarize yourself with the For Kids content for “City Life for Wildlife.”
3. Review the classroom- and field-based hands-on activities in Teacher-Led Activities and choose the ones suited to your curricular needs and classroom circumstances.
4. Introduce the topic with a discussion. Here are some suggested discussion-starters:
• What does the word “wildlife” mean?
• What kinds of wildlife live in cities and towns?
• What kinds of birds live in cities and towns?
• Why do you think some kinds of wildlife are able to live in cities?
• Why do people create parks? Why do wild creatures live in parks?
5. Review these topic-specific vocabulary words or have students define them as they discover them in context in the “City Life for Wildlife” student magazine (PDF):

adapt
adaptable
amphibian
burrow
compete
crop
environment
forage
grassland
habitat




herbicide
immigrant
insect
mammal
mature
migration
native
nonnative
pesticide
population




prey
raptor
reptile
roost
shrub
species
survive
urban
wetland
wildlife


Definitions for all vocabulary words can be found in the online Naturalist’s Glossary.
6. With the whole class or in small groups, review and discuss the content and features of the student magazine and other student content that you’ve incorporated into your teaching or that students have explored on their own.
7. Do the hands-on activities you’ve selected, and follow up with review and discussion.
8. Download the Assessment questions and answer key for each topic to use as a tool for evaluating students’ learning experiences with Audubon Adventures.
9. Extend learning with topic-specific print, online, and video resources found in the Naturalist’s Bibliography.

Photo: depositphotos.