1. M My name is Henry. I am a prairie dog from South Dakota. Do you know where South Dakota is? Well I'll show you later. I want to talk to you about where I live. I live in the Prairie. Lets take a look at it!

2. This is what some prairies look like. Can you name some things that you see and that you don't? Edit: The students should then begin to answer, with some encouragement in the beginning. Expected answers and responses: -No trees- Why? Not that much water on the prairies -Lots of Grass-Why? Grasses can survive with less water and store it better -Stormy weather-The Great Plains in N. America have very stormy weather. It can change from one minute to the next. Isn't weather in Chicago crazy? -Flat/No big mountains-The Plains used to be a giant ocean; the strong winds and floods caused erosion to flatten out the landscape

3. This is a map of the Prairie in the United States. Is Illinois part of the prairie?

4. Can you guess where and when these fossils are from? They are from Kansas! They look like they are from the ocean, but they are from the middle of the prairie. They are 300-250 million years old, from when there was an ocean over the Prairie

5. AGE OF THE GIANT ANIMALS What do these animals look like? Are they still in the Prairie today? Where did they go? When were they here? Edit: Animals look like and are:(going clockwise starting with mammoth) -Looks like mammoth/elephant: Wolly mammoth -Looks like camel:Western camel (bigger and has 1 or less humps - Looks like a mountain lion: sabertooth cat -Looks like a sloth: Giant ground sloth (much bigger) -Still in Prairie? No-became extinct -They were here during/after ice age, 18,000 years ago

6. When did we get here and what did we do? Humans arrived in the Prairie only 15,000 years ago. Only 1% of natural untouched prairie land is left We turned the prairie into this:

7. Sources: :http://www.signsbyyou.com/images/decals/140c/SDEPSL2/CARTOONS/SAA0647.gifhttp://www.signsbyyou.com/images/decals/140c/SDEPSL2/CARTOONS/SAA0647.gif http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/images/photos/photo_lg_nebraska.jpg http://www.krewg.org/Publications/primer/primer10.html http://www.blackfootedferret.org/gif/map-grass.gif http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/Biology/wildamerica/grasslands/graslandoutline.html