Description
What our Cheetahs lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Cheetahs is a high-interest reading comprehension lesson plan. As such, students will practice various close reading and comprehension skills. In addition, they will learn about the cheetah’s habitat, diet, and behaviors. This lesson is for students in 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. For the activity, students will need cones or markers for distance, stopwatch or timer, and a cheetah mask or headband for each student (just for fun).
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page provides an extra paragraph of information to help guide the lesson. It explains that you can teach this lesson in a whole-class setting or as an independent, small-group activity. You can use the blank lines to write down any other ideas or thoughts you have about the topic as you prepare.
CHEETAHS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
What Are Cheetahs?
The Cheetahs lesson plan contains two content pages. It begins by providing a box of background information about this animal. Cheetahs are mammals that live in Africa and feed off meat. They live for around 8 to 10 years. They are wildcats known for being the fastest land animals on Earth. Their long legs, flexible spines, and large lungs help them run. They have small heads, black tear-like stripes on their faces, and a spotted coat. Cheetahs are native to Africa and parts of Iran. They live primarily in savannas (grassy areas with few trees) and prefer open spaces where they can sprint after prey.
These wildcats have interesting ways of living together. Male cheetahs often live in small groups called coalitions. These groups are usually made up of brothers from the same litter, and they stay together for life. Female cheetahs live alone most of the time unless they have cubs. They have large home ranges and only meet with males to mate. So cheetahs are mostly solitary but do sometimes live in small groups.
Female cheetahs take care of their cubs without any help. After about three months, a mother cheetah gives birth to around three to five cubs. She hides them in tall grass or bushes to protect them from predators like hyenas or lions. Cheetah cubs are born with a thick grayish mane called a mantle. The mantle makes them look like a honey badger, an animal most predators don’t like to mess with! The mother teaches the cubs to hunt by bringing back injured animals for them to practice with. Cubs stay with their mother for about a year before they go off on their own.
Diet of a Cheetah
Cheetahs are carnivores. They mainly eat animals that live in the same grassy places as they do, like gazelles, impalas, and young wildebeests. These animals are fast, but cheetahs are faster. But that speed means they need to eat often to stay strong and full of energy. They usually eat about 6 to 8 pounds of meat each day. They typically hunt during the day, especially in the early morning or late afternoon, to avoid bigger predators like lions and hyenas.
In addition to great speed, cheetahs have excellent eyesight that they use to spot prey from far away. They stalk their prey by creeping up slowly and staying low to avoid being seen. Then they burst into a high-speed chase when they are close enough, usually about 60 to 100 feet. This chase only lasts for about 20 to 30 seconds. Once they catch the prey, they trip it with their paw and use their sharp teeth to deliver a killing bite to the throat. After the hunt, they must eat quickly before other predators steal their food.
Other Interesting Facts
Remember, cheetahs can run up to 70 miles per hour, but only for short distances. Their bodies are specially built for speed. Their semi-retractable claws give them a better grip, like cleats on running shoes. And their long, muscular tail works like a rudder, helping them stay balanced and make sharp turns when chasing fast animals.
Cheetahs have a cream coat covered in black spots, which helps them blend into the tall grass. No two cheetahs have the exact same spot pattern. Each pattern is unique, like a fingerprint. They also have black lines under their eyes called tear marks, which help block the sun and improve their vision during the day. Unlike lions or tigers, cheetahs can’t roar. Instead, they make many different sounds—including chirps, purrs, hisses, and growls—to communicate.
While part of the Felidae family, which includes all cats, cheetahs have their own group called Acinonyx. They can’t climb trees very well like other big cats, because of their body shape. And they are also one of the only big cats that hunt mainly during the day instead of at night.
Why They Are Important
Cheetahs play a significant role in keeping the environment healthy. Because they are predators, they help control the number of animals and keep the food chain balanced. When cheetahs hunt, they usually go after the slower or weaker animals. This helps the prey population stay strong by leaving the healthiest animals to survive and have babies.
Cheetahs are endangered, so few are left in the wild. Fewer than 7,000 cheetahs live in nature. Their habitats are being destroyed by people building farms and cities. Sometimes, people also hunt cheetahs or take their land. Scientists and wildlife groups are working hard to protect cheetahs by saving their habitats and teaching people how to live near cheetahs safely. If we help protect cheetahs, we can ensure these amazing animals are around for future generations.
CHEETAHS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Cheetahs lesson plan includes two worksheets: an activity worksheet and a practice worksheet. Each one will help students solidify their grasp of the material they learned throughout the lesson. You can refer to the classroom procedure guidelines to know when to hand out each worksheet.
AS FAST AS A CHEETAH ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
Students will get to see how fast they can run during this energizing activity. They will follow the directions to complete a little speed challenge first. Then they will answer the questions on the worksheet.
CHEETAHS REVIEW PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet lists 11 questions based on the content. These questions all relate to the content pages, so students will need to refer to them often for the answers. In addition, each question provides which reading tool the question corresponds to, such as text feature, vocabulary, or comprehension.
Worksheet Answer Keys
At the end of the lesson plan document is an answer key for the practice worksheet. The correct answers are all in red to make it easier for you to compare them with students’ responses. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
