We’ve been learning about the system of animal classification in science, and to help the boys visualize it, I made categories on colored paper and pulled out some of their plastic animals.
They first had to figure out which Phylum each animal belonged to, and then further divide them into Class.
We soon discovered that we have lots of mammals! But, we talked about how they each were the same and how they are different and could be further divided using the system of animal classification. The boys noticed things such as differences in their skin coverings, feet, and antlers/horns/tusks. We talked about their teeth and what they eat (plants or meat).
There are some animals that the boys knew went into the Phylum Chordata, but they didn’t know where to put them from there. We pulled out our field guides for help in classifying snakes, alligators, frogs, lizards, and sharks.
As the boys get comfortable with these broad categories of animal classification, we will move into learning how to put them into the correct Order, Family, Genus, and Species.
For a fun resource to accompany this animal classification activity, check out this post!
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I love doing classification like this, it always goes over so well with my kids.
Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday!