A NOTE TO TEACHERS

This board is a free resource that can be used to address the Australian National Curriculum (ANC): Science for year three students. It explores the different features of living things, focusing on animals, and demonstrates how to categorise them in a Venn diagram. It covers the following (ANC) content descriptions:

Science Understanding – Biological Sciences:• Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable

features and can be distinguished from non-living things (ACSSU044).

Science as a Human Endeavour:• Science involves making predictions and describing

patterns and relationships (ACSHE050).

Science Inquiry Skills:• Use a range of methods including tables and simple

column graphs to represent data and to identify patterns and trends (ACSIS057) (ACARA, 2013a).

A NOTE TO TEACHERS

This is an interactive resource to provide a digital source of information to students and teachers. Therefore, it also demonstrates elements of the Information and Communication Technologies capability of the ANC namely:

Investigating with ICT:• Locate, generate, and access data and information.

Managing and Operating ICT:• Manage digital data.• Select and use hardware and software (ACARA, 2013b).

The learning objectives are:• Children will learn how to identify features of animals• Children will learn how to classify animals based on

observable features• Children will learn how to present comparisons of animals

A NOTE TO TEACHERSThe first note identifies some basic, observable features of animals. The purpose of this presentation is to get the children thinking about the different features of animals and to encourage further exploration.

The second note, featuring a YouTube video by Drollinger, (2012), goes into detail about the classification of a lion. It identifies classifications such as kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species, and eliminates other animals as they don’t meet the criteria for each classification.

The third note is a demonstration of creating a Venn diagram to compare the features of two living things; a dog and a duck. The purpose of this is to remind children how to correctly complete a Venn diagram, how to compare different animals, and how to use the data about animal features and present them in a meaningful way.

A NOTE TO TEACHERSThe following three notes introduce students to animal classifications including mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects. The first is a song, the second is an amusing video of animals being interviewed about their class, and the third is a printable worksheet that can be used to allow children to list animals from each class.

This resource is not a structured lesson plan and does not have to be used in the order the notes are posted, or all in one lesson.

Strategies used include: • Explicit teaching so that the students receive all the

background information they require.• Worksheets so that students can practice identifying

animal features then using this information to classify the animals.

• Engaging videos and music.• Demonstration (Venn diagram).

A NOTE TO TEACHERSThe higher-order thinking skills that are promoted through this resource include:

Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas• Identify and clarify information and ideas. • Organise and process information (ACARA, 2013c).

Generating ideas, possibilities and actions• Imagine possibilities and connect ideas (ACARA, 2013c).

Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures• Evaluate procedures and outcomes (ACARA, 2013c).