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🐾 Animal Crossings:

A STEM Engineering Adventure!

Lesson Plan for Preschool–1st Grade

Inspired by: Make Way for Animals by Meeg PincusSubject Areas: STEM, Engineering, Science, Literacy, and Problem-SolvingAge Group: Preschool through 1st GradeDuration: Two sessions, 30–40 minutes eachEssential Question: How can we design a safe way for animals to cross a road?

🌟 Lesson Overview

In this two-part, hands-on STEM lesson, students become engineers tasked with solving a real-world problem: helping animals safely cross roads. Inspired by Make Way for Animals by Meeg Pincus, students will explore how roads can affect wildlife and discover how people can design animal crossings to protect animals.

During the first session, students will explore building materials, discuss the problem presented in the story, and begin experimenting with different structures.

During the second session, students will apply their engineering skills to design and build an animal crossing that helps their chosen animal travel safely from one side of a road to the other.

Through building, testing, and collaboration, students will practice creative thinking, problem-solving, and the engineering design process!

🎯 Learning Objectives

By the end of these lessons, students will be able to:

• Identify a problem that animals face when roads interrupt their habitats.

• Explain how an animal crossing can help animals travel safely.

• Explore different building materials and how they connect.

• Design and construct a structure that helps an animal cross a road safely.

• Test a design and make changes when something does not work.

• Describe their design and explain how it solves the problem.

• Practice sharing materials, collaborating, and listening to others' ideas.

🧠 STEM Connections

Science: Explore animals, habitats, animal characteristics, and the effects roads can have on wildlife.

Technology: Watch a video or read a digital version of the story to learn about real-world animal crossings.

Engineering: Design, build, test, and improve structures that solve a problem.

Mathematics: Compare sizes, explore shapes, count building materials, and consider the distance needed to cross a road.

Literacy: Listen to a story, discuss its central problem, share ideas, and explain engineering designs.

🧰 Materials and Preparation

Materials Needed

Story and discussion

• Make Way for Animals by Meeg Pincus

• A physical copy of the book or an available video version

• Carpet or meeting area for group discussions

Building materials

• Wooden blocks

• LEGO DUPLO blocks

• Rokenbok building blocks

• Other optional materials, such as:

  • Paper

  • Paper cups

  • Craft sticks

  • Straws

  • Cardboard

  • Recycled building materials

Animals

• Small plastic or wooden animal figures

• LEGO DUPLO animals or other small toy animals

For the second session

• Road stickers, a road-patterned rug, or blocks arranged to represent a road

• Toy cars, if desired

• A camera or device for taking pictures of completed designs

Teacher Preparation

Before class:

1. Gather the building materials and place them in separate bins.

2. Make sure each student has access to a variety of materials.

3. Choose a small animal collection for students to explore.

4. Prepare the story or video.

5. For the second session, create a road that runs through the classroom or across a designated building area.

6. Keep track of which animal each student selects during the first session so students can use the same animal in the second session.

Teacher Tip: If you are introducing a new building material, such as Rokenbok blocks, allow time for students to explore how the pieces connect and disconnect before beginning the main challenge.

SESSION 1: Discover the Problem and Explore Solutions

Duration: 30–40 minutes

1. Welcome and Free Exploration (5 minutes)

As students arrive, invite them to sit together on the carpet. Give each student two Rokenbok blocks to explore while everyone gathers.

This is an opportunity for students to experiment with the materials, practice connecting and disconnecting the pieces, and become comfortable with the building supplies.

Take attendance and allow students to share any exciting news before introducing the lesson.

Teacher Prompts:

• What do you notice about these blocks?

• How do the pieces fit together?

• Is it easy or difficult to take them apart?

• What could you build with just two blocks?

Encourage students to explore without worrying about creating a finished structure.

2. Explore the Story: Make Way for Animals (5–8 minutes)

Introduce the story by explaining that people sometimes build roads through places where animals live and travel.

Tell students that today they will think like engineers and investigate how people can help animals move safely through their habitats.

Read the book or watch a video version. For the video, you can begin by watching until approximately 4 minutes and 8 seconds, as in the original lesson.

Pause at an appropriate point to discuss the problem introduced in the story.

Discussion Questions:

• What do you think about this story?

• What problem are the animals facing?

• Why might a road be dangerous for an animal?

• What could people build to help?

• What ideas do you have for solving this problem?

Give every student an opportunity to share an idea. Encourage creative thinking and remind students that engineers often come up with several possible solutions before choosing one to test.

3. Meet the Building Materials (5 minutes)

Introduce the three main types of building blocks:

• Wooden blocks

• LEGO DUPLO blocks

• Rokenbok blocks

Place the materials in separate bins where students can easily reach them.

Explain that engineers choose materials based on what they want to build and how they want their structure to work.

Allow students to examine the blocks and experiment with combining different materials.

Teacher Prompts:

• Which blocks seem easiest to stack?

• Which blocks connect together?

• Which materials might work well for a bridge?

• What could you use to build a tunnel?

• Can you combine two different kinds of blocks?

There is no need for students to settle on a final design yet. The goal is to explore possibilities.

4. Choose an Animal and Begin Designing (15–20 minutes)

Invite each student to choose a small animal figure.

Explain that students will become engineers responsible for helping their animals travel safely through an environment where a road may interrupt their path.

For this first session, students can begin experimenting with structures and possible solutions. They might try building a bridge, a tunnel, or another creative structure.

Encourage students to choose a building location and gather the materials they want to use.

As students build, circulate around the room and have individual conversations about their ideas.

Guiding Questions:

Understanding the animal

• What animal did you choose?

• Where does your animal live?

• How does your animal usually move?

• Is your animal big or small?

• What might your animal need to travel safely?

Exploring engineering

• What are you trying to build?

• How will your structure help your animal?

• Why did you choose these blocks?

• What happens if your structure falls over?

• How could you make it stronger?

• What other ways could your animal get across?

Encourage students to explain their thinking rather than simply telling them what to build.

For younger children, the emphasis should be on exploration and experimentation. Older students may be ready to sketch a design, compare building materials, or explain why they chose one solution over another.

Session 1 Goal: Students explore the problem, select an animal, investigate building materials, and begin developing ideas for an animal crossing.

Students do not need to finish their structures during this session.

SESSION 2: Design, Build, and Test an Animal Crossing

Duration: 30–40 minutes

1. Revisit the Story (5 minutes)

Begin by gathering students on the carpet and revisiting Make Way for Animals.

Watch the next section of the video or read the remaining portion of the book.

Discuss how the people in the story helped animals move safely through their environment.

Introduce the term animal crossing.

Explain that an animal crossing is a structure or designated route that helps wildlife move safely across or beneath a road or another human-made barrier.

Two examples are:

• Wildlife overpass: A bridge that allows animals to travel over a road.

• Wildlife underpass: A tunnel or passage that allows animals to travel underneath a road.

Discussion Questions:

• How did the people in the story help the animals?

• What is an animal crossing?

• Have you ever seen an animal crossing?

• Why is it important for animals to cross roads safely?

• What might happen if an animal could not get to the other side?

• How could a bridge or tunnel help?

Explain that roads can separate animals from places where they find food, water, shelter, and other animals. Wildlife crossings help animals move between these places while reducing the risk of collisions with vehicles.

2. Introduce the Engineering Challenge (3–5 minutes)

Before students begin building, reveal the road that runs through the classroom.

You can create the road using:

• Road stickers placed on the floor

• A road-patterned play rug

• Blocks arranged to form a road

• A long strip of paper or cardboard

Explain that the road represents a busy road that the students' animals need to cross.

🚧 The Challenge: Build a Safe Way Across!

Your mission is to design and build an animal crossing that helps your animal travel safely from one side of the road to the other.

Review the engineering requirements with the students:

1. It must cross the entire road. Your structure must provide a way for your animal to travel from one side to the other.

2. It must help your animal stay safe. The design should keep the animal away from the traffic on the road.

3. It must work for your animal. If you build an underpass, your animal must fit through it. If you build an overpass, your animal must be able to travel across it.

4. It must be sturdy enough to test. Your crossing should stay in place while your animal travels through or over it.

Explain that engineers often discover problems while testing their designs. If something does not work the first time, they can make changes and try again.

3. Build an Animal Crossing (15–20 minutes)

Give each student the same animal they selected during the first session.

Set out the building materials in the designated construction area.

Invite students to begin building their animal crossings using the materials available.

Students may work independently or collaborate with classmates, depending on their needs and abilities.

Encourage them to use what they learned during the first session to make decisions about their designs.

Teacher Prompts During Building:

Planning

• What kind of crossing are you going to build?

• Will your animal go over the road or underneath it?

• Which materials will you need?

• How will your crossing reach both sides of the road?

Problem-solving

• Does your animal fit?

• Is your crossing long enough?

• What happens when your animal moves across it?

• Does your structure stay in place?

• What could you change to make it work better?

Connecting to science

• Why does your animal need to get to the other side?

• What might your animal find on the other side?

• How could your crossing help other animals, too?

Allow students to make their own decisions. Some may build tall bridges, while others may create tunnels, covered pathways, or imaginative structures.

The important part is that they can explain how their design helps their animal cross the road safely.

4. Test, Improve, and Share (5–7 minutes)

Once students finish building, invite them to test their crossings.

Have students move their animal from one side of the road to the other using their structure.

Check whether:

• The crossing reaches across the entire road.

• The animal can travel through or over the structure.

• The structure remains stable during testing.

• The animal can get safely to the other side.

If a crossing does not work as expected, encourage the student to make adjustments.

Explain that testing and improving a design are important parts of being an engineer!

Next, invite students to share their completed structures with the group.

Each student can explain:

• Which animal they chose.

• What type of crossing they built.

• Which materials they used.

• How their design helps their animal.

• What they changed or improved during testing.

Allow classmates to try their animals on one another's crossings, with permission from the builder.

Take photographs of the finished designs to include in a classroom newsletter, family update, or take-home sheet.

🔧 The Engineering Design Process

Throughout both sessions, reinforce the steps engineers use to solve problems.

Step	What Students Do
ASK	What problem are the animals facing?
IMAGINE	What are some ways we could help?
PLAN	What kind of crossing could we build?
CREATE	Use building materials to construct the design.
TEST	Move the animal across the road using the structure.
IMPROVE	Make changes to help the crossing work better.

For preschool students, these steps can be introduced through simple questions and conversation. Older students may be ready to describe each stage themselves.

💬 Vocabulary Words

Introduce these words throughout the lessons.

Word	Child-Friendly Definition
Animal Crossing	A safe way for animals to travel over or under a road.
Engineer	A person who designs and builds things to solve problems.
Structure	Something that is built, such as a bridge or tunnel.
Habitat	The place where an animal lives.
Wildlife	Animals that live and grow in nature.
Bridge	A structure that lets people or animals travel over something.
Tunnel	A passage that goes underneath or through something.
Design	A plan for how something will look or work.
Test	To try something out to see whether it works.
Improve	To make something work better.

📝 Assessment: How Do We Know Students Learned?

Observe students during discussions, building, and testing.

Look for Evidence of Learning

Science

• Can the student identify an animal and describe something it needs?

• Can the student explain why an animal might need to cross a road?

Engineering

• Can the student use building materials to create a structure?

• Can the student explain how the structure helps the animal?

• Can the student test the design and make a change when needed?

Communication

• Can the student share an idea with a teacher or classmate?

• Can the student describe what they built?

Collaboration

• Does the student share materials?

• Does the student explore ideas with classmates?

• Can the student listen to or respond to another person's suggestion?

Simple Observation Checklist

Skill	Not Yet	Developing	Demonstrated
Identifies the problem	☐	☐	☐
Explores different building materials	☐	☐	☐
Creates an animal crossing	☐	☐	☐
Tests the crossing with an animal	☐	☐	☐
Makes changes to improve the design	☐	☐	☐
Explains how the design helps the animal	☐	☐	☐

Assessment should be based on each child's developmental level. A preschool student may demonstrate understanding through building and conversation, while a first grader may be able to explain the problem and describe why their solution works.

🏡 Family Connection: Our Animal Crossings

After the second session, send home a photograph of each student's completed animal crossing.

Include a short description of the challenge and invite families to continue the conversation at home.

Example Take-Home Note

We Became Animal Engineers!

Today, we explored how roads can make it difficult for animals to travel safely. Inspired by Make Way for Animals by Meeg Pincus, we designed and built our own animal crossings!

Each engineer chose an animal, experimented with building materials, and created a structure to help their animal get safely across a road.

Ask your child:

• Which animal did you choose?

• Did you build a bridge or a tunnel?

• How does your crossing work?

• What was the trickiest part of building it?

Our young engineers are learning that big problems can be solved with creativity, teamwork, and a little experimentation!

Student's Name: __________________________

My Animal: _______________________________

My Animal Crossing:[Attach photograph of student's design here.]

🌈 Extensions and Adaptations

For Younger Students: Preschool

• Offer larger building blocks that are easy to handle.

• Provide a selection of animals and let children choose their favorites.

• Focus on exploring, stacking, connecting, and moving animals through structures.

• Ask simple questions such as, "Can your animal get across?"

• Help students test their designs while allowing them to make their own choices.

For Older Students: Kindergarten–1st Grade

• Ask students to draw their designs before building.

• Challenge students to use a limited number of blocks.

• Have students compare bridges and tunnels.

• Encourage students to explain why they selected particular materials.

• Invite students to redesign a crossing that collapses or does not fit their animal.

• Ask students to consider how their design could accommodate more than one animal.

Additional STEM Challenge: Can You Improve It?

Once students have successfully tested their crossings, introduce a new challenge:

Can you redesign your animal crossing to help two different animals travel safely across the road?

Students may discover that a larger animal needs a wider tunnel, a taller bridge, or a different path than a smaller animal.

Encourage them to test their new designs and explain what they changed.

⭐ Final Thoughts

This two-session lesson gives young learners an engaging introduction to engineering through a problem they can understand and solve creatively.

By connecting literature to hands-on building, students discover that engineering is not just about constructing things. It is about identifying problems, imagining possibilities, testing ideas, and making improvements.

Most importantly, students learn that their ideas can help solve real-world problems—even problems that affect animals in the wild!