7 Biomes Activities to Bring the WOW Factor to Your Classroom

I still remember one of the biomes activities I did as a middle school student. It’s crazy how something like that just sticks with you throughout the years. I’ll talk more about that later!

Biomes are pretty neat! They are a large group of similar ecosystems and are characterized by specific climate, vegetation, and animal life!

You may notice that various resources label biomes differently. The number and names of biomes can vary because scientists use different criteria to define them.

In this post, I share 7 different biomes activities that you can do in your middle school science classroom. First, I will share three WONDER activities that will help your students to become curious and excited to learn more about biomes. Second, I will share an interactive lesson in which students will learn about the 5 types of biomes (the major ones and subcategories). Finally, I will share three WIDEN activities for students to do that will expand their knowledge on this topic!

WONDER Biomes Activities for Middle School

Time to get your students hype about learning biomes! These activities flow very well in your ecosystem learning activities! Here are 3 WONDER strategies that you can use to introduce your students to biomes  that are fun and engaging!

Where does it live?

The environment impacts what organisms can live there and what organisms cannot. There are some environments that are rich in biodiversity because of the resources available, and there are some that are harsh and do not support much life.

Here’s a fun activity you can try with your students BEFORE learning about biomes. They may or may not know what a biome is, but the point of this activity will be to talk about what type of climate they believe the organisms may be able to survive in.

So, you’ll need to gather some pictures of animals, either printed or on a screen, and ask your students these questions:

1. What type of climate/environment do you think this animal lives in?
2. What plants do you think live in that environment as well?

Here are some examples of animals you can choose. You don’t have to tell them the biome name. They’ll learn that in the lesson.

• Polar Bear (tundra biome)
• Camel (desert biome)
• Kangaroo (grassland biome)
• Toucan (tropical rainforest biome)
• Panda (temperate forest biome)
• Moose (boreal forest biome)
• Coral Reef Fish (marine biome)
• American Bullfrog (freshwater biome)

You can do more or less. It’s fun to see what they come up with. What type of environment might they be able to survive in? You might even capture some prior knowledge they’ve received from prior grades, the places they’ve visited, or things they might have seen on TV.

Biome Virtual Reality Experience

I found this really awesome resource that allows students to explore biomes through a virtual reality experience. This is one of the fun interactive biome activities

You are able to immerse yourself inside of the biome to look around as well as hear sounds that you may encounter if you were actually there.

Another thing that I like is that there are different things to click on that may give facts or show a video. There are also pins you can click to look closer at certain objects.

So, ready for the link? Here it is! It’s by Arizona State University, Ask a Biologist. Check it out!

Nature Walk

Another thing you can do is check out the biome that you live in!

Go outside and go on a nature walk.

Have your students bring their science journal and record their observations.

1. What is the weather like?
2. How is the climate in this area?
3. What animals do you see? What animals have you seen around here before?
4. What plant life do you see?
5. Are there seasons? What season is it now?

You can add more questions if you wish. Do they know which biome they live in? If not, they will definitely learn in the lesson. I share about it below! You can also see if they know how many biomes are on Earth.

Biomes Interactive Lesson

I’m so excited about this interactive lesson! If you don’t know what an interactive lesson is, you can check them out here!

Interactive lessons are an important part of the WOW Factor. They are designed to help overcome the overwhelm of information and reduce cognitive load. In this way, they can remember the content and store it in their long-term memory.

They are designed using the 7 steps to help students retain information including highlighting important information, segmenting information, and starting simple.

In this biomes interactive lesson, students will learn about ecosystems, abiotic and biotic factors, and then they will explore the 5 major biomes and their subcategories. In each biome, they learn about the animal life, the plant life, and the climate.

In this lesson, there are embedded activities included for students to process the content before moving on. Some of these include a KWL, exploring outside resources, biomes summary, and drag-and-drop activities! Skip the biomes review worksheet and try this!

You can find this resource in the Bright in the Middle Shop.

You can also find it on TPT.

Be sure to add this to your list of biomes activities for your middle school classroom!

Biomes Explained Through WIDEN Activities

If time allows, it’s always great for students to dive even deeper into a lesson to learn all that they can. This helps build a solid foundation for the rest of the students’ school career, and of course, their actual career and life. Here are three different activities that you can do with biomes! They are great biomes project ideas!

Create a Model

Remember when I told you we’d come back to the biomes project I did in middle school? Well, here we are!

My assignment was to create a model of a biome I was assigned. I was assigned a marine biome, specifically the coral reef, and we had to make a 3-D model of the biome on the inside of a box.

So, I got a shoebox out and made a beautiful model using different objects. I’m sure that thing is thrown away now, but the idea stuck with me.

So, here’s what your students can do!

1. Select a biome to create a biome in a box. You can assign it, or they can choose one. They will need a shoebox or a box of around the same size. They can use art supplies, craft materials, small toys, natural materials, pictures, or anything else they can think of to create this model.
2. One they have their biome, they will need to research and find information about the plant life, animal life, climate, and any unique features about the biome.
3. Then, they can sketch a draft of what their model will look like!
4. Then, they can begin to create. They’ll need a background, and then they can add the rest.
5. You can create the rubric as you wish, but the important elements include plants, animals, and landscape features!

This is a lot of fun, and you can have your students present this as well!

Create a Biome Creature

This can be so much fun, and it will allow your students to really let their creativity shine! So, what do they do? They can create a creature that would be able to survive in a biome of their choice.

Students can work on this individually, or they can work in partners or groups.

1. Once students choose their biome that this creature will live in, they should research it, looking at the plant life, animal life, animals adaptations, climate, etc.
2. As students are brainstorming their creature, and then creating it, they must keep these in mind: physical adaptations, diet and feeding habits, special abilities, and life cycle. They should also think about the organism’s role in the ecosystem.
3. Students can choose to create an illustration or a model that reflects this organism.
4. This will be a great project to present in class if there is time.

Want to take it up a notch? Working in groups? Each student can create an organism for a biome and the group can work together to decide their relationships in the ecosystems.

Travel Brochure

Along the same lines of researching biomes and their animal life, plant life, and climate, students can choose a biome and create a travel brochure! This one will have to have a little flair to it because, the travel brochure should be enticing and make the audience want to visit the biome.

1. After students have chosen their biome, they must research the plants, animals, climate, unique features, etc. Are there anything cool things located in the biome already? They can create a travel brochure for that particle place.
2. After, they should start thinking of the design of the brochure. Where will they place the important information? Where will they place the picture? How will they engage the audience?
3. After they have drafted their ideas, they can start creating. They can make a paper version or a digital version.
4. After they finish, students can share their brochures with the rest of the class and even other classes.

Take a vote to see where they would like to visit based on the brochures that were created!

Which one of these example of biomes projects will you choose?

Help your students master science content!