All About Gorillas {Mini Unit Study for kids}
Gorillas are always a popular topic for kids since they’re out close relative. We paired ours with the book “The One and Only Ivan” but this mini unit study can be done solo.
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I did this unit study with a kindergartner and a 2nd grader but it’s appropriate for about K-4th grade. They really enjoyed it and displayed some of their completed activities at a learning fair.
In this unit study you’ll cover the following topics:
- Gorilla Habitat
- Gorilla Behavior/Anatomy
- Dian Fossey – Gorilla Scientist
- Animal Science
- Endangered Gorillas
- Bonus subject: Captivity (if you’re doing the novel study)
How long is the unit study?
This Gorilla unit study will take 4-6 weeks. It includes 2 schedules, one without the novel study (5 weeks), and one with (6 weeks). You could combine 2 of the lighter weeks and get it done in just 4 weeks if that works better for you.
The schedule has the unit being completed 3 days a week.
What sort of activities are included?
Each week will include books to read, videos to watch for some weeks, and activities to complete.
Some of these activities are included in the unit set, and some weeks will include links to other free activities and ideas.
The Books
We used 4 books for this unit study. These were ones that were available at my local library and seemed the most informative and kid friendly.
They could be switched out for books available at your library and read the parts that go with the topic for the week.
You can also purchase them all here if you prefer.
Can I do it with kids of different ages
I love unit studies because it’s something I can do with both of my kids together!
I generally let my younger child give everything a try. If she’s not getting it then we just move on for her.
I also frequently work as her scribe so she can think through the activity even if it’s beyond her writing ability. Other times we will complete things as a group and I do the writing for all of us.
How to do the novel study too
We love pairing a unit study with a related novel study. For this one it was “The One and Only Ivan”. I did not create my own novel study for this.
I did include a schedule that lists when we used items from one or both of these novel study resources (these are paid items). Brave Writer is great if you like their system, but I relied more upon the novel study from TPT which costs less than $5.
Grab the unit study
I hope your family has as much fun learning about gorillas as we did! Feel free to message me shari@totschoolresources.com if you have any questions and tag us on social media with your projects from this unit study!
