1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on the Microsoft Educator Network.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location, take a Skype lesson on today’s topic, or invite a guest speaker to expand on today’s subject. And if you are using Windows 8, the panoramas in the MSN Travel App are great teaching tools. We have thousands of other education apps available on Windows here.
Ja'Dell Davis is a Los Angeles native who currently divides her time between New York City and Madison, Wisconsin. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, pursing a PhD in Sociology. Ja’Dell previously taught high school in Philadelphia public schools, and implemented college access and academic enrichment programming in Chester, Pennsylvania and New York City in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. Ja’Dell received her B.A. from Swarthmore College with a special major in History and Educational Studies, and a minor in Black Studies. She completed her M.S.Ed in Secondary School Education at the University of Pennsylvania.  In addition to her studies and work in the education field, Ja’Dell is a dancer, musician, avid people watcher, and Scrabble enthusiast.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading: Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.2Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.3Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.4Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.

2. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?
© Steven Gnam/Tandem Stills + Motion
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?
Like most owls, many species of pygmy owls are nocturnal hunters. But the northern pygmy-owl hunts during the day. From dawn to twilight, the six-inch long predator moves quickly through the forests of western North America and even down into Central America in search of its favorite prey, birds smaller than itself.
Hummingbirds and small songbirds have learned to recognize the territorial call of the northern pygmy–owl. If they spot one, they’ll “mob” it – gathering around its perch, or following its flight, hoping they’ll annoy the owl enough to make it seek prey elsewhere.
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?1
Thinking/Web Search
What does it mean for an animal to be “territorial”? 2
Web Search/Thinking
Are humans territorial? Find large-scale ways humans have displayed this quality? 3
Web Search
How common is the territorial instinct among animals? 4
What is the purpose of territorial behavior? 5
Thinking
Do you have a territory? Do you protect or defend this territory in any concrete ways?
There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.)

5. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?5
Minutes
You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.

6. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?1
Thinking/Web Search
What does it mean for an animal to be “territorial”? 2
Web Search/Thinking
Are humans territorial? Find large-scale ways humans have displayed this quality? 3
Web Search
How common is the territorial instinct among animals? 4
What is the purpose of territorial behavior? 5
Thinking
Do you have a territory? Do you protect or defend this territory in any concrete ways?
You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others.

7. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?1
Thinking/Web Search
What does it mean for an animal to be “territorial”?
(Possible Search Queries: ”define territorial”)
From a Bing Search:
territorial
[ ˌteriˈtôrēəl ]
ADJECTIVE
of or relating to the ownership of an area of land or sea:
"territorial disputes"
synonyms: geographical · jurisdictional · regional · land-related

8. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?2
Web Search/Thinking
Are humans territorial? Find large-scale ways humans have displayed this quality?
(Possible Search Queries: ”territorial animals” “human territorial”)
From Scienceray (
Human Territorial Behavior
Humans also exhibit territoriality. Throughout history, man has been invading or colonizing other countries than its own. This is done for various reasons, and obviously some do it for power, economic reasons, assertion of control, strategic advantage, or for unknown agenda towards its favor.

9. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?3
Web Search
How common is the territorial instinct among animals?
(Possible Search Queries: ”territoral animals”)
From Wikipedia (
territory is the sociographical area that an animal of a particular species consistently defends against conspecifics (or, occasionally, animals of other species). Animals that defend territories in this way are referred to as territorial.

10. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?4
Web Search
What is the purpose of territorial behavior?
(Possible Search Queries: ”territoral animals”)
From Wikipedia (
The ultimate function of animals inhabiting and defending a territory is to increase the individual fitness or inclusive fitness of the animals expressing the behaviour. Fitness in this biological sense relates to the ability of an animal to survive and raise young. The proximate functions of territory defense vary. For some animals, the reason for such protective behaviour is to acquire and protect food sources, nesting sites, mating areas, or to attract a mate.

11. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?5
Thinking
Do you have a territory? Do you protect or defend this territory in any concrete ways?
Students should consider their own territorial behavior.

12. How does an animal’s territorial instincts contribute to their way of life?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.