Novelinks
Touching Spirit Bear: The Literary Mandala
Even someone with a dark side can make a good decision—and vice versa. Readers explore Cole's traits and decisions in Ben Mikaelson's Touching Spirit Bear and analyze his sunside and shadowside. They identify a symbol that best...
Curated OER
Raptors: Senses and Influences
Young scholars compare the traits of humans to raptors. In this senses and beneficial traits lesson plan students create a newsletter and compare raptors to aircraft.
Curated OER
A Planet Full of Animals
Pupils explore a variety of animals that live on our planet. The shapes, sizes, colors, movements, and coverings of the animals are observed. The similarities and differences in the animals are grouped according to common traits.
Curated OER
Specialized Structures and Environments
Fifth graders explore biology by completing an Internet activity in class. For this adaptation lesson, 5th graders identify several organisms and mammals that fight for their existence through slow changes to their anatomy over the...
Curated OER
Animal Classification
Students recognize the six groups of animals (Mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods) and their characteristics. In this animal characteristics lesson, students sort animals by their traits. Students cut and paste...
Curated OER
Beans and Birds: A Natural Selection Simulation
Students examine the problem concerning the evolution of seed color in pinto bean plants "How does natural selection change the frequency of genes or traits over many generations"? Students work in teams to design an experiment that...
ARKive
Penguin Diversity – Mask Making
Penguins are very diverse and well-adapted birds; they live on islands, in warm and cold climates. Little ones examine penguin diversity and discuss the highly functional adaptive traits that have helped them survive in some of the...
Columbus City Schools
Get Your Organisms Organized
From large to small, show your class how to organize them all! Included within the guide is everything you need to take their knowledge of classification from the cellular to the species level. The worksheets focus on building vocabulary...
Berkeley Engineering and Mentors
Darwin's Finches
Try a twist on the old finch beak and chopsticks activity by using M&Ms on a Twister mat. Spoons, knives, forks, and chopsticks represent beaks and are randomly assigned to your little birds, who must collect as much food as possible...
Curated OER
Radical Raptors
Students study the lifestyles and habitats of raptors that live in Minnesota. They play games associated with their study.
American Museum of Natural History
What's This? Reproduction
Attracting the right mate is as important for humans as any other species. An interesting lesson teaches individuals about several strategies that animals and plants have adapted to attract their mates. From colorful nests to powerful...
Curated OER
In a Class of Their Own
Young scholars explore taxonomy and how birds are classified in this scientific system. They use this knowledge to create entries for a field guide to birds that can be used to identify different species.
Curated OER
Creature Creation
Students explore the characteristics of dragons as represented in the myths of cultures around the world. They create their own mythical dragons by hybridizing two creatures with desirable traits and writing stories about their creation.
Curated OER
Pets: Oh Behave
Students develop an understanding of how innate and learned behaviors and the environment determine behavior. They see how a variety of factors affects our pet's behavior-including species-specific traits, the environment, training, and...
Curated OER
Ecology - Reproduction and heredity
Students correlate signs of spring with reproductive strategies of varioius organisms. They describe how organisms inherit traits from generation to generation.
Curated OER
Mexican "Tona" Animal Masks
Students study the Mexican legend related to masks. They select an animal with traits they can identify with and recognize in themselves. Afterward, they create a mask that will retain some human features, but take on the life of the...
Curated OER
The Natural Selection of Stick-Worms
Young scholars discuss and role-play the elements of natural selection. They use toothpicks to represent Stick-Worms and discover the mechanisms of change of traits in populations.
Curated OER
Classify That!
Pupils explore diverse forms of life by using modern biological classification systems to group animals that are related. Students then study basic scientific groupings like genus, species, mammals, fish, birds, amphibians, and...
Curated OER
Robin Hood: England's Man of Mystery
Students study the tale of Robin Hood to further their knowledge of character traits, improve their vocabularies, and increase their knowledge of the Medieval Ages. In this Robin Hood lesson, students complete 14 lessons that help them...
Curated OER
Raptor Force
Students observe a video about pilots, their desired traits, and explore the similarities between a bird and an airplane. Using paper, wood or foam, they design create an aircraft to be flown in a competition to see which plane will fly...
Curated OER
Doing Our Jobs
First graders identify traits of good listeners and speakers and role-play these traits in pairs. They brainstorm acceptable and unacceptable behaviors for the classroom and identify what jobs are appropriate for first-graders to perform...
Curated OER
Vertebrates
Fifth graders examine the traits and characteristics of vertebrates. Identifying the key factors that make the classes of vertebrates unique, they create a children's book. They decide which material is necessary to share about the...
Curated OER
Canine Companions
Students research and complete activities about dogs. In this dog lesson, students read information about dogs to examine their traits, behavior, language, characteristics, and genetics. Students take a quiz about the information.
Curated OER
Pets as Good Neighbors
Students investigate proper training techniques for pets by creating a list. In this domesticated animal lesson, students identify traits of a good neighbor and relate those traits to a pet. Students create lists of the admirable...