Source: LMS, School Library Media Activities Monthly (December 1994, p. 23-25)

Grade Levels: 2, 3

Subject(s):

• Science/Animals
• Information Literacy

Curriculum (subject area) Objectives: This activity may be used in connection with a science unit on desert animals or on mammals. The students will study the habitat of camels and how they adapt to their environment.

Resources:

Print and non-print encyclopedias

Fiction and Folklore

Burningham, John. Where's Julius? Crown Publishers, 1986.
Byars, Betsy Cromer. The Dancing Camel . Viking, 1965.
Calhoun, Mary. Camels Are Meaner than Mules . Garrard, 1971.
Catherall, Arthur. Camel Caravan . Seabury Press, 1968.
Coerr, Eleanor. Waza Wins at Windy Gulch . Putnam, 1977.
Collins, Ruth Philpott. Hubba-Hubba: A Tale of the Sahara . Crown Publishers, 1968.
Ducornet, Erica. Shazira Shazam and the Devil . Prentice-Hall, 1970.
Evans, Katherine. A Camel in the Tent . Whitman, 1961.
Freschet, Berniece. The Happy Dromedary . Scribner, 1977.
Gilligan, Shannon. Mona Is Missing . Bantam Skylark, 1984.
Goodenow, Earle. The Last Camel . H. Z. Walck, 1968.
Hendry, Diana. A Camel Called April . Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1991.
Johnson, James Ralph. Camels West . McKay, 1964.
Kipling, Rudyard. How the Camel Got His Hump . P. Bedrick Books, 1985.
Kipling, Rudyard. How the Camel Got His Hump . Philomel Books, 1988.
Kirn, Ann. Nine in a Line: From an Old, Old Folktale . Norton, 1966.
McBrier, Page. Secret of the Missing Camel . Troll Associates, 1987.
McKee, David. The Day the Tide Went Out and Out and Out . Abelard-Schuman, 1975.
Parker, Nancy Winslow. The Christmas Camel . Dodd, Mead, 1983.
Peet, Bill. Pamela Camel . Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
Reinach, Jacquelyn. Fixed by Camel . Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.
Shivkumar, K. The King's Choice: A Folktale from India . Parents' Magazine Press, 1970.
Tworkov, Jack. The Camel Who Took a Walk . E. P. Dutton, 1979.
Wells, Rosemary. Abdul . Dial Press, 1975.

Arnold, Caroline. Camel . Morrow Books, 1992.
Bailey, Donna. Camels . Steck-Vaughn Library, 1991.
Cloudsley-Thompson, J. L. Camels . Raintree Children's Books, 1980.
Earle, Olive Lydia. Camels and Llamas . Morrow, 1961.
Ganeri, Anita. I Wonder Why Camels Have Humps: And Other Questions about Animals . Kingfisher Books, 1993.
Green, Carl R. and William R. Sanford. The Camel . Crestwood House, 1988.
Gregory, O. B. Camels and Llamas . Rourke Publications, 1982.
Hamsa, Bobbie. Your Pet Camel . Children's Press, 1980.
Kenworthy, Leonard Stout. Camels and Their Cousins . Harvey House, 1975.
Laycock, George. The Camels: Ships of the Desert . Doubleday, 1975.
Markert, Jenny. Camels . Child's World. 1991.
Moon, Cliff. Camels in the Wild . Wayland/Chelsea, 1985.
Waters, John Frederick. Camels: Ships of the Desert . Crowell, 1974.
Wexo, John Bonnett. Camels . Creative Education, 1989.

Poetry Examples (Check Poetry Indexes for Book Titles)

"The Camel" by Mary Howitt.
"The Camel's Hump" by Rudyard Kipling.
"The Camel's Lament" by Charles Edward Carryl.
"The Camel's Nose" by Lydia Huntley Sigourney.

"The Arabian Desert Is No Place for Camels." Audubon 93:1 (January 1991), pp. 38-46.
"Camels." Zoobook (October 1989), pp. 1-18.
"Camels on the Range." 321 Contact (July/August 1989), p. 3.
"From Its Blood to Its Hump, The Camel Adapts to the Desert." Natural History 102:8 (August 1993), pp. 30-34.
"Getting to Know You A Camel's Chummy Chomp." National Geographic World (October 1990), p. 82.
Hutton, Jacqueline. "Camels! In the U. S. Army?" Cricket 20:11 (July 1993), pp. 56-61.
"Nomads on the Notice." Natural History 102:9 (September 1993), pp. 50-58.
"Souk Al-Gamel: The Camel Market at Imbala." Faces 9:5 (January 1993), pp. 18-22.

The Camel . Macmillan, 1974. 16mm film. 23 min.
The Camel Who Took a Walk . Weston Woods, 1987. 1 sound filmstrip.
Desert Animals and Plants . Kodak Video Programs, 1988. 1 videocassette. 30 min.
Desert Caravan . NBC/Films Incorporated, 1971. 16mm film. 13 min.
Kipling, Rudyard. How the Whale Got His Throat, How the Camel Got His Hump: From Just So Stories . Charles E. Merrill/Spoken Arts (#SAC 6022-M), 1969. 1 audio cassette.

Sandpaper, crayons, wax paper, and iron

This activity can begin in the classroom during a study of animals of the desert or mammals. The teacher may introduce the species as an example of adaptation to the environment. The library media specialist may introduce students to options for searching for information and to categorizing the information. Both may work with students on a sandpaper art project.

Activity and Procedures for Completion:

Introduce students to camels with stories, pictures, figures, and one of the poems that describe the camel's hump. Introduce the concept of the camel as an animal that has adapted to its environment. List some facts about camels, with source citations. Explain that the facts were found in an encyclopedia:

Two species of camel now exist: the one-humped dromedary, camelus dromedarius , and the two-humped Bactrian, C. bactrianus . The dromedary camel was domesticated more than 5,000 years ago in the desert regions of the Middle East. The Bactrian camel was domesticated about 2,500 years ago in Central Asia, where it is also found in the wild in dwindling numbers. Adult male dromedaries stand about 2 meters or 7 feet at the shoulder and weigh up to 680 kilograms or 1,500 pounds. Camels can obtain sufficient water from desert vegetation to survive for many months without other water, and can lose up to 25% of their body weight without ill effect. Camels can drink up to 25 gallons of water in 10 minutes to regain lost body weight. Fat is stored in a hump that shrinks and tends to sag when the camel needs to use the stored fat. The camel has two-toed feet with padded toes for walking on sand. The camel has horny pads on the knees, thigh joints, and chest, and long eyelashes, hair-covered ear openings, and slit-like nostrils for protection against sand and wind.

Explain that students will make sandpaper pictures of camels, but must first find information about camels. Camels live in various parts of the world, even in Australia. The students will use a note taking sheet in the shape of a one-humped Arabian camel to collect notes and facts about camels in order to illustrate camels in their environment.

In the library media center, the library media specialist may introduce students to print and non-print encyclopedias, books (indexes), periodicals, and non-print materials about camels. Materials may be collected in advance so that students do not have to waste time looking for materials in this particular exercise. Explain that the purpose of this research is to select one kind of camel and locate information about the camel's habitat (climate, plants, people, land formations, etc.). On the worksheet, the students may list the sources that they used and one or more facts derived from the source that may help them make an illustration. (Each student may use only one source for this exercise.) Allow time for students to use the materials to find appropriate information.

The students may take their worksheets to class so that they can work on their illustrations.

Students may be given small sheets of sandpaper, coarse enough so that the crayons will be affected by the texture. Students may use the outline of the camel that they selected as a pattern and may use crayons to color their sandpaper outlines. They must add illustrations of appropriate vegetation and environmental features that they researched.

After they have finished the illustrations, students will take the pictures to an area where an iron has been set up. The sandpaper is placed on a board or heavy piece of cardboard face up. A piece of wax paper is placed on top of the sandpaper. Then a piece of brown paper (shopping bag cut open) is placed on top of the wax paper. Students must iron the sandpaper illustration with the heated iron so that some of the crayon beneath begins to melt into the sandpaper. The heat creates an unusual effect on the illustration. Cooled pictures may be hung for display. Students may post their notesheets beside the illustrations.

Evaluation:

The students will locate information about camels in an encyclopedia, book, periodical, or nonprint resource and use the information about camels to draw an illustration of a camel in its environment.

Follow-Up:

Share one or more fiction stories about camels and ask students to identify the kind of camel described. Did the illustrator base his or her illustrations on factual information?