Language Arts, Reading, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Traits of Writing, Oral Language, Listening, Art, Techniques

Grade 1- 3

Objective

The student will describe the physical features and a special ability or quality of an alien.

Directions

1. Read aloud the text from the "Hello! Anybody Out There?"

Hello! Anybody Out There? What do aliens from outer space look like? Are they short and green? tall and purple? Are there really aliens at all? Today science has the tools to look for signs of life in outer space. How do scientists search for aliens? They listen very carefully. They use huge radio telescopes to listen for signals from space.Earth gives off billions of signals every day. Maybe creatures on other planets give off signals, too. The telescopes pick up all kinds of signals. Then computers sort through them. They look for ones that did not come from Earth. Why do we search for life? Because we want to know if we're alone in the universe. After all, Earth is only one planet, circling one star. There are 400 billion other stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. And there are 100 billion other galaxies! Do you think we're alone?


2. Discuss the idea of aliens living on other planets. Ask the students to imagine how an alien looks.
3. Display the transparency of "Identifying an Alien." Ask students to describe the size, color, features, and special abilities that his or her alien has. Model how to write each student's description in the correct column on the activity page.

Example: I think an alien is about the size of a mouse. An alien is green, has three eyes, hands, and three feet. An alien can read people's minds.
Provide each student with a copy of the activity page. Have the student fill in the information that can be used to identify an alien.


4. Display the transparency of "My Alien." Using the descriptions from the "Identifying an Alien" activity, model how to add the different features to the alien body. After drawing the alien, model how to label the different parts. Give each student a copy of "My Alien." Have the student complete the drawing of the alien and label each part.
5. Using the overhead projector, model how to use the information from the drawing to write a paragraph describing the alien. Provide each student with a sheet of paper. Have the student write about the alien he or she made. Allow the student to use invented spelling.

Publication

1. Have each student glue his or her alien and paragraph onto a large sheet of construction paper. Allow the student to share his or her completed activity with the class. The finished products can be displayed on a science-related bulletin board.
2. Using a word-processing program, have the student type the words used as labels on the "My Alien" activity page. Have the student cut out the words and glue them onto the activity page. (The student can glue the labels on top of the hand-written labels.)

Extension
Using the finished activity, have the students sort the aliens into different groups based on common characteristics. After the pictures have been grouped, provide each student (or small group of students) with a sheet of paper. Have the student (or students) list the common characteristic found among all of the aliens in that group.
Example: All of the aliens in this group have three eyes. All of these aliens have green bodies.

Resources

• overhead transparency of "Identifying an Alien" (page 20)
• student copies of "Identifying an Alien" (page 20)
• overhead projector
• wipe-off markers
• overhead transparency of "My Alien" (page 21)
• student copies of "My Alien" (page 21)
• crayons or markers
• writing paper
• large sheets of construction paper
• glue or glue sticks