Animal Parts!

Animal Parts Science Unit

Students in 1L have begun a new unit on the parts of animals this month! We will be doing experiments that help us to research animals and their parts, but also be doing some investigation about how animal parts differ, helping us to draw conclusions about the important differences among animal species.

Check out some background from our science curriculum to guide your conversations at the dinner table, on your weekend trip the zoo or aquarium, or even on your walk outside in this beautiful spring weather!

BACKGROUND:

Animals have external characteristics, such as body covering, color, body shape, or size, that are related to where they live. The cheetah, an African grassland wild cat, has a sleek body and long. muscular legs that allow it to run quickly to catch prey. The cheetah’s spotted fur helps it hide while hunting. The Antarctic penguin is covered in very dense feathers to keep warm. The penguin’s slender body helps it walk upright on webbed feet, swim underwater, or slide on the ice. The penguin’s black and white color protects it on both sides from ocean predators. The desert rattlesnake is the same color as the sand and has a long body to wiggle quickly across the hot surface. Each animal on Earth has special physical structures that help it survive in that region.

Animals have external characteristics, such as wings, flippers, hooves, or paws, that are related to how they move. Different limbs allow animals to move through water, land, or air. Eagles and flamingos have wings for flying. However, the large, strong wings of an eagle allow it to fly long distances to hunt food and swoop quickly to catch it. The wings of the flamingo, a wading bird, are intended mainly for migration flights. The penguin has flippers instead of wings and has webbed feet to swim. The snapping turtle also has webbed feet for swimming. In the north, reindeer have hooves to protect their feet from the hard arctic surfaces. Cheetahs have padded paws on strong muscular legs that allow it to be the fastest land animal.

Animals have external characteristics, such as teeth, claws, beaks, or eyes, that are related to what they eat. Although the cheetah, shark, and snake all have specialized teeth for eating meat, their teeth are quite different. The cheetah has a set of teeth typical of a large cat with strong, sharp, front fangs for ripping meat. The shark is unique in having multiple rows of razor sharp teeth used for biting other fish and sea creatures. The rattlesnake has two large fangs that inject poison to paralyze the prey, usually small rodents, which helps the predator to swallow its prey whole. The penguin also swallows its food whole (krill and small fish), which it catches at sea with its strong beak. The flamingo has a beak, but turns its head upside down in the shallow water to catch small fish in the hooked beak. The cheetah uses claws for catching and ripping meat. The eagle also has claws, called talons, which are long, razor sharp, strong enough to carry prey, and can be used to kill. The eagle also uses its incredible eyesight for spotting prey, which it can see up to a mile away.

We will be focusing in on these nouns and verbs:

The Verbs: What should students be doing?

• Use materials to design: Use items to create something
• Mimic: Copy something or someone
• Survive: Stay alive
• Grasp: Hold on to something

The Nouns: What key terms are found in the standard?

• Organism: A plant or animal
• External parts: Parts on the outside of something
• Body parts: Parts of the body (arms, legs etc.)
• Stability: Resistant to change

Love,

Mrs. L