In class this week we taught the last lesson of the semester, Primates. The lesson began with a review of the Archaeology lesson by asking what archaeology was. Archaeology is the study of physical remains left by past humans. After the review, we went into the Primates lesson. The Primates lesson included a review of what primates
are: monkeys, apes, and Prosimians. I then went into the differences between monkeys, apes, and humans. Monkeys are generally smaller than apes and humans and have tails. Apes are generally the largest of the three and are covered in body hair; however, they do not have tails. Humans have little to no body hair and do not have tails. I then went over the difference between great apes and lesser apes. Great apes include gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and humans. While lesser apes include gibbons. The difference between greater and lesser apes lies in their size. Greater apes are bigger than lesser apes. My lesson then went into the differences between the species of monkeys including the differences between New World monkeys and Old World monkeys. New World monkeys live in the Americas or the New World and generally have prehensile tails, meaning tails that can grasp like an extra hand or foot. These monkeys are also generally arboreal meaning they live in trees. Old World monkeys on the other hand live in the Old World which includes Asia, Africa, Europe, and India. These monkeys are typically terrestrial or ground dwelling and do not have prehensile tails. After the lesson, we went into our activities. For this lesson I had planned three activities: two to be carried out in class and one to take home as a fun activity to do with parents and siblings. For the first activity, we played capture the resources. This is played like capture the flag. Our groups were scavenging for resources like primates would in the wild. Since primates are not bipedal or walk on two legs, the kids could only “walk” on two feet and one hand while collecting resources with one hand. The group with the most resources won the game. For the next activity “Feast like a Beast” we had the kids try things primates would eat. This included various fruits, vegetables, and proteins. The kids tried guava, strawberries, mango, radish, dragon fruit, clams, and snails. The last activity was testing binocular vision. This was a handout the kids could take home with them. It included instructions on how to test your binocular vision, which is where your two eyes overlap and see the same things.

To see more lessons like this one on Culture, check out our lesson plan pages on Primates.

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​To see and download the exact powerpoint, lesson plan, and activity used in this blog, you can do so by clicking the links below!

We've added three lesson plans that are available for quick access. These can be accessed by those who can't access downloadable content or those working on a tablet. 

Click on the lesson titles to access them:
Seeing Culture
Playful Primates
Evolution

We hope that these additions are helpful. Please feel free to comment with questions or suggestions. 

Keep checking in for more updates. Our next goal is to add lesson plans for a Linguistic Anthropology lesson about language, an excavation lesson in Archaeology, and a museum lesson in cultural anthropology. 

Last week at Tuscaloosa Magnet School Elementary, the students learned about primate behavior in our Playful Primates lesson. 

They learn about primate diet (and get to sample some delicious primate cuisine: bugs!) and locomotion. The students must collect food items during the Meddling Monkeys Scavenger hunt while knuckle walking like a gorilla. 

​To access all the activity materials, read our Playful Primates​ activity page.