How an animal uses its body parts to get what it needs

General

Students learn to identify different parts of an animal and explain how they use these body parts to get what they need. For example, a fish uses its gills to breathe and a dog uses its mouth to eat and to pick things up.

Standards

NGSS:
1-LS1-1

Learning objective

Students will be able to identify different animal parts and explain how they are used.

Introduction

Show students the scenario of spilling water and making a mess. Ask students to describe what things they have to do to clean up the mess. After students have thought about this and shared, have students consider what they discussed when cleaning up the mess. Did they mention their hands and feet? Tell students how this is just like how animals use their body parts to get what they need.

Instruction

Begin by discussing the body parts of animals and that they each have a function. These functions include seeing, hearing, picking things up, breathing, and more. Give examples of different kinds of animals and different functions of body parts. These include how animals see and hear, how they pick things up, how they protect themselves, how they move around, how they eat and drink, and how they breathe. Read the paragraph about Tommy the turtle and ask students to use the circle to select the correct answers for the questions. Then ask students to determine which part of the animals shown is used to eat, drink, and breathe. What do students notice about these parts? They might notice the sharp teeth, tongues, and how the different noses look. Next, ask students to use the diagram of the elephant to answer questions about the elephant's body parts. Then ask students to drag the name of the body part to the diagram of the tiger and the hawk.

Quiz

Ask students a set of multiple-choice questions to check their understanding of key concepts. Questions include determining which body part would take care of a specific function and which body part an animal would use for a specific action.

Closing

Refresh the learning goal with the students and ask them to give some examples of animals using their body parts to get what they need. Close the lesson by having students form partners and to select an animal. Once they have selected an animal, ask students to label the body parts of the animal. Make sure that students also describe how each body part can help the animal get what it needs to survive. There is an optional worksheet included for this activity.