The one that got away

Level: 5

Curriculum Area: Science, SOSE, Art

Outcomes

Students:

• Identify features of living things including behaviours that assist survival.
• Group living things using similar features.
• Relate similarities and differences between animals to particular environments.

Materials and preparation

All of the cut-outs, separate out the wattle, zebra, penguin and ringtail possum.
Research information if required.
Whiteboard and pens.
A3 sheets of paper.

Method

Place the cut-outs of the wattle, zebra, penguin and ringtail possum on the board with space underneath to list ideas. Leave a space to add a carnivore in later. Ask each student to jot down one feature of each organism that helps it to avoid being eaten. As a class generate a list from the jotted ideas underneath each picture. Ideas could include thorns, unpleasant taste for plants; camouflage, living in a herd, nocturnal for herbivores.

Add a carnivore to the board such as a cheetah and as a class generate a list of adaptations for it such as sharp teeth and claws, hunting strategies, etc.

Remove the cut-outs. Guide the class in grouping the features listed as aspects of producers, herbivores and carnivores. Write the headings producers, herbivores, carnivores and rewrite the items from the lists under the appropriate heading(s). For example camouflage could fit under herbivores and carnivores. Then assign the cut-out pictures to the herbivore, producer and carnivore headings on the board. Use all of the cut-outs that can be fitted onto the board.

If extra groupings are required they can be added, eg. scavengers and decomposers.

When completed the students draw conclusions about the similarities and differences within the groups. (eg. Carnivores have sharp teeth but the killer whale is streamlined to live in water while the lion is suited to land pursuit of prey.)

In small groups the students compose their own definitions to describe the groupings (herbivores etc.) and then choose one of the groupings from the board and prepare a mini poster of a generalised animal from that group with labels to explain its features. OR The students design a cartoon strip to show a day in the life of a herbivore, scavenger, etc.

As a class discuss what is the place of humans in the groupings.

Extension

Find out about the teeth of different animals and relate this to the animals' diet. Eg. kangaroos, wombats, elephants.

Find out what has happened to Australia's large carnivores.