Community Cards

Lesson Plan #4 Materials: Ponds and Lakes: Community Cards

Community Card Examples

You can make your own cards or use the ones below.

1. You are surrounded by dark mucky mud. Bacteria and fungi are working to rot (decompose) all the dead animals and plants which sink to the bottom. You have relatives that live in the ocean. You have tubes that reach into the water and get oxygen and food.

2. You look like green hair waving in the water and you feel very slippery. Wherever there is available space on rocks or logs, where the sunlight reaches through the water, you may be able to grow.

3. You are a very weak swimmer now, but you may grow out of this stage. Or you may spend your entire life in this community, drifting through the water from one meal to the next.

4. You are not speedy. With your hard shell and camouflage, you can safely find a spot on the bottom to wait for your next meal. If you are dropped, you may sink like a rock to the bottom or swim away freely to hide on the bottom.

5. You live in areas where sunlight shines through the water. When water looks very green, it is because of you. You are tiny, but you are not alone. There are many others like you slowly sinking to the bottom to provide food for filter feeders and some types of fish.

6. Special structures and body shapes help you "walk on water." Wherever you step, small ripples and dimples appear on the water. You look down, to find food, but also have to keep one eye up, since things that eat you also live above!

7. Many animals hide in your stalks or swim around your stems. You must live in shallow or clear water so sunlight can reach you. You can be red, green, or even brown.

8. You swim in the deep. It is very dark, so you may use other senses to find food. You may move to shallow areas as well.

9. Although you are not the best swimmer, you do rise to the top of the water when it is safe to eat. When it is not safe, you sink to the dark bottom and wait until the danger passes.

10. Without roots to hold you to the bottom, you float wherever the winds and currents carry you. Because of this, you often end up in a quiet section of a pond or lake. You use sunlight to grow.

11. You might be found on pier pilings, rocks, or even boat bottoms. Wherever you are, you are there to stay and must wait for food to come to you for the rest of your life.

12. Waves and breezes may make your leaves move, but you are anchored to the bottom by roots. The sun is used to produce food. You produce a white or yellow blossom in the summer months.

13. You swim around in the water in search of your home, a lodge to which you are always adding more sticks. You also may leave the water and go elsewhere.

14. Standing quietly along the water's edge, you wait for another water animal to swim by. Then you unexpectedly lunge at it with your long bill. You also quietly walk the water's edge looking for food.

15. You bask in the sun on a partially submerged log. When something is frighting, you either drawback into your shell or dive into the water to hide.

Other card ideas:

-tadpole

-red-winged blackbird

-fisherperson

-bullfrog

-osprey

-salamander