The Biomes of the World: Introduction & Vocabulary Words

The Biomes of the World: Introduction & Vocabulary Words
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This series offers teaching ideas on the earth’s five land biomes. The planets land surfaces can be divided into zones or biomes according to the climate and other physical factors in each area. Each biome has a distinctive combination of life forms that are able to thrive in the particular conditions found there and each has a distinctive kind of vegetation.

Vocabulary Words

Ecosystem: a community of plants and animals linked together for survival.

Ecotone: the area where two or more ecosystems overlap.

Climate: weather over an extended period of time.

Biomes: plants and animals live together in the same climate conditions.

Flora: all plants in a certain area

Fauna: all animals in a certain area

Vegetation: plant life that is used to determine the type of biome

Tundra: a treeless biome with long harsh winters and short summers.Grasses, lichens, low scrubs, mosses, and a few flowering plants are the only forms of vegetation.

Forest: A forest is a land area that contains large group of trees, scrubs, flowers, grasses, ferns, seedlings, lichens, and mosses.This biome has the largest variety of vegetation.

Grassland: Land zones where the main vegetation is grass with a few scattered trees.

Desert: this biome receives less than 10 inches of rain a year and has little to no vegetation.

Mountain: the vegetation varies in this biome as the elevation changes.

Permafrost: a layer of permanently frozen ground.

Semiarid: A climate that is dry but not as dry as a desert.

Activities:

forest

1. Print a map of the United States including Alaska .As a class label the biomes, i.e. tundra would be in Alaska, forest in Washington.

2. Divide the class into groups, give each group a piece of labeled with each biome and several magazines. Have the groups go through the magazines and glue the pictures they find for each biome (i.e. a polar bear or ice-berg would be glued on the piece of paper labeled tundra).

3. Have the students determine which of the five biomes has the least amount of flora and fauna and which has the most.

This post is part of the series: Land Biomes of the World

We live in a beautiful world. This series offers several class ideas to keep students understand the five major land biomes.

  1. Learn About the Biomes of the World
  2. Grasslands Biomes of the World
  3. The Forest Biomes of the World
  4. Arid & Desert Biomes Lesson Plan
  5. The Two Types of Water Biomes Lesson Plan: Marine & Freshwater