We had recently completed our Life Science unit that covered all the bullets required for middle grades.

    I went to the media center, prior to assigning materials and animals and looked to see what type of information my school had accessible on specific endangered animals.  We had a volume of encyclopedias on Endangered Species so I chose many of my animals from these texts.  Then I compiled a selection of animals that the students could select their "new best friend" from.  I had copied the pages from the books in the media center and placed them on the desk and asked them to come up, one at a time, and choose their animal.