Animal Adaptations (SOL 2



Animal Adaptations (SOL 2.7)

Introducing Activity – Birds’ Beaks

What you will need:

• An open container with odds and ends in it (ie: cotton balls, paper clips, marbles, pompoms, rubber bands)

• 3 plates

• 3 tools

1. A spring-loaded clothespin

2. A spoon

3. A pair of chopsticks

Vocabulary: adaptation, environment

Procedure:

• Place your materials on a table that the students can see. Show them each item. Choose 3 children to be helpers in this activity. Call them up to the table. Give each child one of the tools listed above.

• The goal is to use each of the tools to get as many objects from the container to your plate in 30 seconds.

• After the 30 seconds, ask the class who had the easiest time collecting object; the most difficult time; and why. Ask your 3 helpers what strategies they used to collect the items and what were the easiest/hardest items to collect.

• Explain that each tool represents the different types of beaks that birds have (clothespin = nut crackers {ie: chickadees}; spoon = scoopers {ie: pelicans}; chopsticks = dippers {ie: humming birds} ).

• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type of beak, and why it works best for the kind of food each bird eats.

• Explain that living things change their behavior or physical appearance – adapt - to be more successful in their environment.

Check for Understanding:

Have students write a journal response in their interactive notebook telling which kind of beak they would want to have if they were a bird and why.

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