Animal AntipodesCarly Allen-Fletcher9781939547491Guided Reading Level JLexile 451Teks Grade 2, 110.13, 112.13; Grade 3 110.14, 112.14; Grade 4 110.15, 112.15CCSS skills: Literacy, Foundational, Writing; CCSS strands RF3,4,5,6, RL3.1, 3.
2, 3.3, 3.4.3.5, 3.6, 3.9, 4.1, 4.
2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.9, 5.1, 5.2, 5.
3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.9, W3.3, 4.3, 5.3, 6.
3Some facts about antipodes:The distance between any two opposite points on earth is 10,800 nautical miles or 20,000 kilometers.Most antipodes are oceans. Only 15% of any land area has an antipode that's also on land. The biggest atipodal land regions are the Malay Archipelogo, which is the antipode of the Amazon Basin, eastern China and Mongolia, which are the antipodes of Chile and Argentina, and Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which are antipodes of East Antarctica.Most of Africa has antipodes in the Pacific Ocean. Most of the United States has antipodes in the Indian Ocean. Most of Europe has antipodes in the South Pacifc Ocean, off the coast of Australia. East Asia and South America are the regions with the most land antipodes.
Just as antipodes are opposites on the globe, they're opposites in time and seasons, so noon in one place is midnight in its antipode, and midsummer in one is midwinter in the other (except in the tropics). Sunrise and sunset are not quite opposites due to the refraction of sunlight, but they're pretty close.Antipodes comes from the Greek and means literally "opposite feet." The concept was first described by the ancient Greeks, or by one famous ancient Greek, the philosopher Plato in his dialogue "Timaeus." Aristotle, Strabo, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius all write about antipodes. Medieval artists thought this meant that people living on the opposite side of the world had feet growing out of their heads.Antipodes Activities:Where can you find maps of antipodes? Where can you find lists of them? Which countries have land antipodes? Find the antipode of where you live and draw a picture of it. Pick a pair of antipodes and research what animals live there.
Are there animals that live in only one place on earth, like the freshwater Baikal seals? Do any animals live in opposite places?Draw your own pair of antipodal places for this book based on your research.