A unit on the desert has lots of creative possibilities!
In my district in fourth grade I teach about the Atacama desert of South America (that has no camels!) which is so interesting because astronauts train there because of the extremes in temperature. There are also fascinating giant sand paintings permanently and mysteriously etched in the soil in Nazca. There are many controversial theories about their origins. Most of the figures found there are animals so they are appealing to young children. See the following links for more ideas and resources:
The first URL has an exciting children's activity to draw a giant Nazca hummingbird on pavement. I would love to do this activity but have no unadorned large spaces of pavement to work with. However, I am trying to come up with a way to do this activity on grass using pieces of railroad board. Any ideas on this approach are most welcome. The second URL has line drawings of all Nazca figures.
Other topics to explore, in addition to the animals living there include:
1) extremes of temperature for day and night (number sense; Fahrenheit and Centigrade scale; comparisons)
2) expressions of physical feelings -- "I'm thirsty; I'm hungry; I'm tired; I'm cold; I'm warm / hot." Using puppets to express these feelings leads to questions about how animals survive in the desert. Folkmanis makes three desert puppets -- bobcat, armadillo, and tortoise. See my puppets page for more desert animal puppets.
3) locations of deserts on the continents. It's also interesting to mention that children in other countries may learn sixcontinents instead of seven learned in North America: America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Antarctica.
4) the rainstick, a beautiful, soothing musical instrument made by the Mapuche indigenous people, which is made out of a real cactus. Here are some helpful links for creating rainsticks:
