October 2024

Bat Hospital

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Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Students will identify the steps that workers at a bat hospital use to raise baby flying fox bats until they’re ready to live on their own.

 

Reading Level:

Lexile: 500L; GRL: K

 

Next Generation Science Standards:

2-LS4-1: Observe Plants and Animals in Their Habitats

2-LS4-1: Animals that disperse seeds

 

Vocabulary:

raise, pup, syringe, spat

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

1. What do hospital workers use to wrap up the baby bats?
(blankets)

2. What do hospital workers use to feed the baby bats?
(a syringe)

3. How old are the baby bats when they are taken to the forest?
(Four months)

4. Do flying fox bats eat fruit the same way we do? Explain.
(Answers will vary.)

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

 

  • Flying fox bats are the biggest bats in the world. They’re called megabats.
  • When they get too hot, these bats fan themselves with their wings. If that’s not enough, they lick their bodies to cool down.
  • They are also called fruit bats because they eat so much fruit!

Materials: Copies of the skill sheet, crayons or markers, kid scissors, paper clips (optional: tape measure)

Overview: Kids color and cut out paper bats, fold them, and fly them. How far will the baby bats go? Will they fly better with a paper clip on their noses or without one?

Directions:

  1. Before the lesson, make copies of the skill sheet so that each child has a paper bat to color and cut out. Make one for yourself so you can demonstrate how to fold it.
  2. To start, remind students they learned about flying fox bats that grew big enough to fly off on their own.
  3. Tell students they’ll be coloring and cutting out their own bats, and getting them ready to fly.
  4. Pass out the skill sheets so kids can color and cut out their bats. They can fold the colored sides together along the center dotted line, and the fold down the wings using the side dotted lines.
  5. Let kids fly their bats. Do they fly better with the paper clips?
  6. If they like, kids can use a tape measure to see which baby bats flew farthest.