Habitat Search

Procedure

Before providing this worksheet to your students, go over the concepts of habitats and community types. They will need to know about some of the different community types found at Great Sand Dunes and a few of the species that might live there. Consider printing out a copy of Habistack for use as flash cards.

Provide one copy of the Habitat Puzzle worksheet to each student. (A simplified worksheet is available for younger students.) The worksheet has ten true or false questions. (Younger students may need the questions read to them.) If a question is true, students will color in all the spaces with that number a specified color. If false, they will color those spaces black.

Answer key to the 3rd through 4th grade puzzle:

1. Montane forests at Great Sand Dunes have palm trees: false
2. Coyotes can live anywhere at Great Sand Dunes: true
3. Kangaroo rats live in the alpine: false
4. No animals live in the sand dunes: false
5. Pronghorn antelope live in the grasslands: true
6. Forests are found above the alpine: false
7. Snow covers the alpine for only about one month of the year: false
8. Salamanders can live both in water and on land: true
9. All animals live in only one plant community: false
10. Interdunal ponds are important to amphibians: true

Answer key to the 1st through 2nd grade puzzle:

1. Palm trees with coconuts grow at Great Sand Dunes: false
2. Bears live at Great Sand Dunes: true
3. Kangaroo rats make nests in the tops of trees: false
4. Animals do not live in the sand dunes: false
5. Some insects make their homes in the sand: true
6. Birds are not found in the trees: false
7. Snow falls in the mountains only during August: false
8. Salamanders can live both in water and on land: true
9. Elk do not live in the grasslands: false
10. Frogs need water: true