Habitat Fragmentation Curriculum

Overview:
Animals need connected places to live, find food, and move safely. When roads divide their habitat, we can create ways to reconnect it.

Recommended format: 3 lessons
Age: 5–7
Group size: Individual, small group

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

“How can we help animals get where they need to go?”

Rather than beginning with the term habitat fragmentation, children first experience the problem.

LESSON 1 — Animal needs

Goal:

For children understand that animals need different resources from their habitats.

Intro

Tell the children:

“Imagine you are a wild animal. Where would you live? Where would you find food? Where would you get water? Where would you hide?”

Place several animal pieces on the model.

Ask:

  • Where do you think this animal lives?

  • What does it need?

  • Where would it find food?

  • Where could it hide?

  • Does it need to move around?

Hands-On Activity: Build an Animal Home

Have children choose an animal and create its ideal habitat using loose pieces:

  • Trees

  • Water

  • Grass

  • Rocks

  • Shelter

  • Food

  • Open spaces

Then have them move their animal around its habitat.

Discovery

Ask:

“What happens if your animal needs something that isn't right next to its home?”

This introduces the importance of movement without introducing complicated terminology.

Takeaway

Animals need homes, but they also need places to move.

LESSON 2 — Road barrier

Goal

Children discover how a road and other barriers can divide habitats.

Start with the intact landscape.

Say:

“This is a beautiful place for animals. But people need a road to get from one place to another.”

remove center grass pieces to reveal a road across the model.

Then add cars on the road.

Challenge

Give each child an animal.

Say:

“how could your animal get from one side of the habitat to the other now?”

Let them try.

Some will naturally try to avoid the cars.

Others will mostly likely have their animal hit a car.

There is no wrong answer.

Ask

  • What happened?

  • Is the animal's home still there?

  • Can it get to its food?

  • Can it get to another animal?

  • What happens if it needs to cross the road?

Introduce the Vocabulary

Habitat: A place where an animal lives.

Barrier: Something that makes it difficult or dangerous to get somewhere.

Fragmentation: When one large habitat becomes separated into smaller pieces.

For 5 year olds, simplify it to:

“An animal’s big home got broken into little pieces.”

Takeaway

When habitats become separated, animals can have a harder time moving around

LESSON 3 — Wildlife Bridge

Goal

Children discover that humans can design solutions that help animals move between habitats.

Show the wildlife bridge on the model.

Ask:

“What do you think this is for?”

Let them investigate before explaining.

Then demonstrate by placing the bridge across a road

Move an animal across it.

Engineering Challenge

Give children simple materials:

  • Wooden blocks

  • Cardboard

  • Craft sticks

  • Natural materials

  • Small pieces of felt

  • Twigs

  • Moss

  • Leaves

Challenge:

“Can you build a safe way for an animal to cross the road?”

There is no single correct solution.

Children can build:

  • Bridges

  • Tunnels

  • Overpasses

  • Habitat strips

  • Stepping stone habitats

Test It

Have children move animals through their creations.

Ask:

  • Can the animal get across?

  • Is it connected to habitat?

  • Would the animal want to use it?

  • What could make it safer?

Takeaway

People can change landscapes in ways that help wildlife.