Animal Adaptaptions

This lesson plan walks through the planning, implementation, assessment, and extention pieces of a lesson dealing with animal adaptations.  All the master copies needed are easily accessible from the main page of the lesson plan.  The information the students need to complete the activity can be found on the website linked to in the lesson plan. The learning expectations all deal with an organisms ability to live in particular environments.  The resource is adaptable to various grade levels.  The Kratts' Creatures website does require a login, but it is free.  The lesson plan also has an assessment piece and a few enrichment/extension activities.

Weblink address (URL): 
Animal Adaptaptions

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives: 

Purpose:

To expand students’ knowledge of animal features and behaviors that can help or hinder their survival in a particular habitat.

Essential and guiding questions: 

Ask students:

  • What would happen if the animals switched habitats?
  • What adaptation features would be useful or useless in the new habitat?
  • Do you think the animal could survive in the unfamiliar habitat?
  • What does that tell you about how animals adapt to their environments?

 

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Understanding
Extension suggestions: 

Extensions:

  • The Science NetLinks lesson Bird Beaks can be used to build upon the concepts introduced in this lesson. 
  • MBGnet helps students explore the world's biomes (rainforest, tundra, grasslands, etc.) and its freshwater and marine ecosystems. When students choose a biome or ecosystem, they'll discover a wide variety of information on plants, animals, and the amazing habitats they live in. There are also photos of students like them who use the site and talk about habitats.
  • Journey North is a fun and interesting website in which kids from over 6,000 schools in the U.S. and Canada learned more about animal adaptation and the environment by tracking the journeys of a dozen migratory species. The site not only provides information on interesting animals—like hummingbirds, manatees, bald eagles, and caribou—it also allows students to use live satellite animal tracking data, contact real scientists, and make their own field observations.

Helpful Hints

What you need:

  • Animal Adaptation (Student Activity Sheet)
  • Animal Adaptations (eSheet)

References

Contributors: 
Jennifer Hassell
Originator: 
Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation