New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Adaptations – Designs for Survival
What's the difference between behavioral adaptations and physical adaptations? Learn about the various ways that organisms adapt to their environment with a worksheet about the creatures of the Hudson River.
Curated OER
Reptile Adaptations
Pupils research animal adaptations. In this adaptations instructional activity, students research the physical and behavioral adaptations of animals. Pupils create a diagram of their animal labeling it's adaptations.
K12 Reader
Adapting to Survive
Life science and language arts come together in a passage about animal adaptation. After kids learn about how organisms adapt to conditions in their environments, they complete five reading comprehension questions based on context clues...
Curated OER
The Desert is Theirs: Adapting to Our Environment
Students determine how animals and people adapt to the desert environment. In this desert lesson, students review vocabulary about the desert and how humans have to make changes to accommodate their environments. They listen to and...
Curated OER
Blubber Gloves
The ways that animals adapt to their environments is quite remarkable. In this life science lesson, fifth graders take a look at some of the ways that aquatic animals that live in Arctic or Antarctic waters survive. They perform an...
Curated OER
Physical Differences
Students role play what it would be like to have a physical disability. In this lesson on acceptance, students listen to the book A Rainbow of Friends by P.K. Hallinan. As a class, the students discuss similarities and differences in...
Curated OER
What Does it Take to be a Survivor? Part One
Students explore marine animal adaptation. In this introductory ocean life biology instructional activity, students access prior knowledge by participating in a whole class "thought swap." Students form two lines, respond to a prompt...
Curated OER
How Am I Supposed to Eat THAT?
Students explain nutritional strategies of benthic organisms.They describe nutritional strategies of benthic organisms and describe these physical characteristics.
Curated OER
Marine Animal and Plant Adaptations
Pupils examine nature by creating their own animals. In this animal adaptation lesson, students define scientific vocabulary terms dealing with adaptation such as sea stars, sea cucumbers and exoskeleton. Pupils utilize their adaptation...
Curated OER
Hawaiian Bird Beak Adaptation
Young scholars explore adaptation by participating in a lab activity. In this bird characteristics lesson, students discuss the different purposes birds have for their beaks and conduct an experiment testing which beaks collect food...
Curated OER
Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.
Curated OER
Animal Adaptations
Fifth graders discover the adaptation of species through analyzing pictures. In this scientific discovery instructional activity, 5th graders discuss the concept of adaptation in order for survival. Students view many images of extinct...
Curated OER
Adapting a Musical
Students transform literature into musical productions. In this integrated arts lesson, students discuss how musicals are written and produced. Students then select literature they are familiar with to adapt into musical productions.
Curated OER
Frozen Seas
Students research animal life in the frozen seas. In this researched based lesson, students use the Internet to create a poster about an animal that lives in an Arctic or Antarctic environment. Students will focus on the behavioral and...
University of Houston
The Snow Queen Study Guide
Even the kindest friends can become selfish and tyrannical in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen." Class members complete story-themed exercises in language arts, social studies, and even physical science.
Curated OER
Life in the Arctic
Students create a model of an arctic animal. In this animal adaptation lesson, students research an arctic animal, create a 3-D model of their animal, and explain the physical characteristics animals in the arctic need to survive.
Curated OER
Waddle You Know About Penguins
Second graders study the similarities and differences of the seventeen species of penguins. They investigate habitats and how these habitats are suited to each species characteristics. They see how animals adapt to their environments.
Curated OER
Creature Features
Students investigate animals and how they adapt to their environment. They design a multimedia presentation that includes information about an animal of their choice. They include a title card, habitats, adaptations, and a predator/ prey...
Curated OER
Kansas Prairie Homes
Students read about settlers in Kansas and the adaptations they made in order to build different kinds of houses. In this Kansas settlers lesson plan, students participate in choral reading and retell information they learn.
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
Flight Dreams - Flight Factors
Young scholars investigate the physics of flight by experimenting in class. In this history of flight lesson, students define terms such as gravity, lift, and drag in order to better understand how a plane is able to stay in the air....
Curated OER
Religion and Ethics: Living with Special Needs
Students explore human behavior by exploring mental and physical disabilities. In this learning disability lesson plan, students identify the different disabilities students have which prevent them from working at the same pace as the...
K12 Reader
Hide and Seek
Why do certain animals look the way they do? It could be because they have developed camouflage. Kids can read up on camouflage and mimicry and then respond to five questions related to the content of the passage.
Curated OER
Through the Eyes of an Owl
Learners describe vertebrates in terms of observable body parts and characteristics and describe life cycles of familiar organisms. They identify familiar organisms as part of a food chain or food web and describe their feeding...