Please enjoy these videos and experience learning at Hidden Villa from your own home! Consider supporting Hidden Villa by making a donation.
Basic Care of Farm Animals
This video shows several examples of what farm animals need to live. Can be used for Kindergartners NGSS K-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes.
Discussion questions:
- What do animals need to survive?
- What is a predator?
- What predator might a goat be afraid of?
- If you were going to take care of an animal tomorrow, what would you do?
- What is a habitat?
- What are the three essential elements of a habitat?
- What do you need to survive?
- What is a herbivore? Omnivore? Carnivore?
- How can you tell if an animal is a herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore?
- What can you make from milk?
- Write an essay about how we (or they) take care of animals.
- What is the difference between farm animals, wild animals, and pets?
Deer Ears
This video uses the example of a deer’s ears as an external body part whose structure functions to protect deer from predators and other dangers. Can be used for 1st Grade NGSS 1-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes.
Discussion questions:
- What’s a herbivore?
- What’s a carnivore?
- How do big ears help improve hearing?
- Deer can move their ears in different directions. Why is that useful?
- How do deer use long legs to survive?
- How are deer different from you and why?
Woodrats: Forest Engineers
This video shows how build their shelters. Can be used for 1st Grade NGSS 1-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes.
Discussion questions:
- What tools can wood rats use to build shelters?
- What tools do humans use to build shelters?
- Why do wood rats have different rooms in their nests?
- What other animals use sticks to build shelters?
- What kind of houses do animals live in?
- Why do some animals build homes?
- Why so some animals need shelter?
- What kind of shelter do you live in?
- What is your shelter made of?
- If you were a wild animal, what kind of house would you build?
How to Keep Plants Healthy
This video gives examples of how plants are dependent on water and light. Can be used for 2nd Graders and NGSS 2-LS2-1 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics.
Discussion questions:
- What do plants need to survive and grow?
- In the pictures of the garden, what difference do you notice?
- Why are there these differences? How many hours and minutes of sunlight did Hidden Villa have on January 30th and on April 16th?
- Was there a greater chance of rain in January or April?
- What kind of plants grow in the winter where you live?
- How about in the spring?
Exploring Micro Habitats
This video shows many animals that life in the microhabitats under logs. Can be used for 2nd Grader NGSS 2-LS4-1 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity.
Discussion questions:
- What is a habitat?
- How can you explore log habitats without hurting the animals?
- What’s the difference between lizards and salamanders?
- Besides a log, describe another micro habit smaller than a backpack. (puddle, rock) Write a paragraph about amphibians.
- What is an amphibian?
A Life Story Written on a Leaf
This video shows the lifecycle of a ladybug and a leaf miner insect. Can be used for 3rd Grade NGSS 3-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes.
Discussion questions:
- What does “metamorphose” mean? (Change from one body form to another.)
- Name the 4 stages of a typical insect lifecycle? (egg, larva, pupa, adult)
- What are some examples of a pupa? (cocoon for moths and chrysalis for butterflies)
- Besides insects, what are some other examples of animals that change their body types completely? (frogs, many crustaceans, mollusks, etc.)
- What becomes of the adult leaf miner insect after it leaves the inside of the leaf? (Flies away on its wings, finds a mate, deposits eggs, and dies.)
Seed Dispersal
This video shows several ways plants depend on animals and the environment to spread their seeds. Can be used for 4th Grade NGSS 4-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes.
Discussion questions:
- How are seeds spread by plants?
- Do you know other ways plants spread seeds?
- What allows the bur chervil seeds to be sticky?
- What allows the maple seeds to fly in the wind?
- What part do people play in spreading seeds?
Life in the Air
This video shows the adaptations of birds. Can be used for 4th Graders and NGSS 4-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes.
Discussion Questions:
- Why do birds fly?
- What are adaptations that help birds fly?
- What kinds of birds do you see in your neighborhood or school?
- Why can’t humans fly?
- What adaptations help humans fly?
- Why do birds spend so much time taking care of their feathers?
Life Without Limbs
This video shows the adaptations of snakes. Can be used for 4th Grade NGSS 4-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes.
Discussion questions:
- What were the snake adaptations discussed in the video?
- Can you think of other snake adaptations? (senses motion in the area with its belly, scales are water proof, etc.)
- How does a snake’s special jaw help it?
- If you were a snake what color would you be and why?
Digging Deep
This video shows the cycle of how worms turn scrap food into soil. It can be used for 5th Grade NGSS 5-LS2-1 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics.
Discussion questions:
- What is transfer of energy?
- What else is transferred along with energy when plant waste and manure are transferred into soil by worms? (nutrients)
- Create a food chain beginning with the components covered in this video and concluding with a secondary consumer. Be sure to include a producer and a primary consumer.
- How do these food chains combine into a food web?
Eating Sunshine
This video shows one examples of how solar energy is captured and used at Hidden Villa. It can be used for 5th Grade NGSS 5-PS3-1 Energy.
Discussion questions:
- What’s the most abundant season for harvesting plants?
- What does Garth mean by eating sunshine?
- What is photosynthesis?
- How does photosynthesis help plants grow?
- Name 3 ways we can capture the sun’s energy?