Mechanism- Natural reaction in response to something else.

Venom-

Venomous/venenoso

Poison

Poisonous

self-defense

survive

toxic

predator

prey

 Read the first learning target aloud to students:

“I can infer about animal defense mechanisms based on information in pictures and text.”

Today we will infer about animal defense mechanisms, the topic we will be studying for the next few weeks. You will use pictures and text to do this.

•  Explain that the first word in the term

  defense mechanism, defense - means to protect

yourself or keep something or someone from getting hurt.

• The second word, mechanism, means natural reaction in response to something else. So...

the term defense mechanism is how animals react to protect themselves from harm.

• 
  

  
  

  Ask for a student volunteer to read the second learning target:

  
  

  “I can support my inferences with details and examples from pictures and texts.”

  
  

•  Remind students that whenever they make an inference, they must support it with information from the text they are reading and thinking about. (Encourage them to try to come up with 2 or 3 supports)

  
   

• Have students give a quick thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or thumbs-sideways to indicate how well they understand today’s learning targets.

Vocabulary 

Defense, means to protect yourself or keep something or someone from getting hurt.

Mechanism, means natural reaction in response to something else, so 

Defense Mechanism, means how animals react to protect themselves from harm.

How do animals’ bodies and behaviors help them survive?