Lesson: Animal Evolution Body Puzzle

Lesson: Animal Evolution Body Puzzle

Parts of the Chicken Species

In this lesson: Animal evolution body puzzle students must determine what makes three different species of animals similar and what they share in common. This will be done in teams where each team will be given five minutes to observe an animal species and make five key observations about that animal. Then they will report out and shift to the next.

Systems of Plan and Design

When the rotations are complete, each team will write on the board their observations. Then as a whole the class will identify the most common traits and observations and those that are unique to that animal. This is a great introduction to taxonomy and observation skills tied to real world experience.

It will be useful to refer to the Pattern, Structure Process lesson and the Animal Care and Welfare lesson. These will help to keep the nomenclature and taxonomy of body parts ate front of mind. It will also help the students to start to reframe structures such as wind and paw as extensions of "hand".

Materials

• Cages
• Animals
• Notepad
• Pencils or pens
• White board
• Dry erase markers
• Whiteboard microfiber cloth
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Animal Part Templates (if you want)

Instructions

1. Assemble three different animal species in cages
   1. The more diverse the species the better
   2. Having the ability to touch the animals is a plus, but not necessary to success
   3. Forbid any observation that is not generalizable
   4. Humans can be one of the animals
   5. Insect species are a crazy alternative, but touching is a plus
2. Assign students to one of the three animal species
3. Ask them to make five observations in three minutes (time them)
4. Rotate them through three times
5. Reassemble the students to discuss
6. On a white board label the three species as a row
7. Have the students list their observations under each heading
8. Look for similarities between the three species
9. Identify that species that is most unique
10. Focus attention on how other species NOT included are similar and why
11. Allow kids to build a chimera of animals from pieces and parts of other animals
12. Use the construction paper and scissors to make ridiculous animal constructions
13. Allow students to create stories about their crazy animal parts