We have been busy learning all about animal adaptations! During this unit, we identified the four basic needs of all living things: food, air, water, and shelter. We also learned that animals have adaptations to help them survive, and these adaptations can be behaviors or body parts.
We learned that some animals use camouflage in order to help them get their food and/or avoid becoming food. Though chameleons are able to change colors, we learned that the primary reason they do this is to show their mood. Chameleons change colors for many reasons, and scientists believe one of many reasons they do this is to disguise themselves. Students have been working to blend chameleons into our classroom environment. To learn more about why chameleons change their colors, read this
article on
Wonderopolis.org
The students know that animals have certain body parts to help them meet their basic needs. We experimented with different tools and different foods to learn about why different birds have different beaks. The students were able to observe that some tools were easier to use when getting certain foods, and decided that birds would have beaks based on the foods they eat. We also read
What If You Had Animal Teeth?, and we thought about what we would be able to do if we had animal teeth. Students created pictures of themselves with different teeth, and wrote about what they'd be able to do.
We have also been able to use the chromebooks to learn about animal adaptations. The Wildlife Conservation Society: New York Zoos and Aquarium has a
website where students can build their wild selves using various animal parts. Once completed, a description of the various body parts is given.
We will wrap up our study of animal adaptations this week with a few more experiments when families visit during American Education Week. Hope to see you there!
