Classifying Animals
1. Students begin by talking about how animals can be classied into different groups, like mammals, reptiles, fish, and many more.
2. Students are given 3 or 4 animals that they can do some brief classifying of.
3. Animals are listed accross the top of 3 or 4 columns on the spreadsheet.
4. Then down the side of the spread sheet students write down each of the following: warm blooded, vertebrate, live birth, skin and hair, lungs, omnivore, and social.
5. Connecting each of the columns and rows, students determine if the first animal is warmblooded, then if the second animal is, and so on. Then if they say yes, then they put a numeral one in the corresponding cell. If the animal does not meet that criteria, then they are given a 0.
6. Then students are shown how to total the cells under each animal. Then the total will help these young scientists classify these animals. Six or above is a mammal.
7. As an example a Whale, is warm blooded, 1 point, has a vertebrate, 1 point, does give live birth, 1 point, has skin with a small layer of hair, 1 point, has lungs, 1 point, is an omnivore, 1 point, is social, 1 point, for a total of 7 points. This animal is a mammal
Alternative Instruction:
· Students could classify shapes in geometry.