Grade 1 - Animals and Habitats

Animals and Habitats: Supplemental Guide 4A | Animals of the East African Savanna Habitat 75

Presenting the Read-Aloud 15 minutes

Animals of the East African Savanna Habitat

 Show image 4A-2: Rattenborough in savanna

Rattenborough, your intrepid^1 adventurer here, to show you

something a little different. We’ve been talking about habitats—the

places where plants and animals live—and we’ve spent time in

three of the most extreme habitats in the world: the freezing Arctic

tundra, the Arctic Ocean, and the scorching Sonoran Desert. Now,

I’ve come to a habitat that should be of great interest to you.

Some of the most famous animals in the world live here.

 Show image 4A-3: African savanna^2

Welcome to the East African Savanna. Savanna is another name

for grassland, a wide-open, vast stretch of grass-covered land.

You know you’re in a grassland when there is a lot of grass around

you, but not many trees or bushes.

The East African Savanna has very warm weather all year

round. However, it only has two seasons: the rainy summer, and

the dry winter. The plants and animals that live here have had to

adapt to these two very different kinds of weather in the summer

and winter. Luckily, I brought my umbrella in case it starts to pour!

 Show image 4A-4: African savanna grasses

Boy, I can barely see a thing in all this grass—there’s so much

of it. As the name grassland suggests, grass is the most important

plant growing in the savannas. The grasses are very hardy, which

means they can survive the tough conditions of their habitat—long

spells of dry, hot weather as well as heavy rainfall and fl ooding.

The grass has adapted to these conditions by growing very deep

roots. Even if the grass above ground is destroyed, the roots

underground survive and the grass can grow back. This grass

grows very quickly—as much as an inch per day!^3 The grass in

your backyard might take a whole week to grow an inch.^4

2 What do you see in this image?

1 or fearless

3 [Show students an example of an
inch.]

4 Which grows faster—the grass in
the savanna or the grass in your
backyard?