Living things & their habitats
Now we know what's alive — how do scientists sort living things into groups by their features?
⏱ Whole lesson ≈ 44 min · pick a tier in the bar, or leave on “All”
Whiteboard task as you come in — a look back at last lesson: conditions for life.
Circle the living things:
MRS GREN: what does the M stand for?
Prove a mushroom is alive. Give three pieces of evidence using MRS GREN.
Show the animals. Pupils find ways to group them at their tier.
🐕 dog 🦈 shark 🦅 eagle 🐸 frog 🐍 snake 🐝 bee 🕷️ spider 🐌 snail
Put them into two groups: has legs / no legs.
Find at least two different ways to group them (legs, wings, where they live…). Name your rule each time.
Find one rule that would split every animal into two groups — even ones not shown here. What's your rule?
Teacher models. Watch, then unpack the animal groups.
Swap the clip: change the ID after /embed/ (now mRidGna-V4E).
Together — first backbone or not, then which vertebrate group.
🦈 shark 🐈 cat 🐦 robin 🐸 frog 🐍 snake 🐝 bee
Bust the myths, then group the plants.
Whales come up to breathe air — that makes them mammals, not fish!
Make flowers, fruit and seeds. E.g. rose, daisy, apple tree.
No flowers — make spores instead. E.g. fern, moss.
Invertebrate groups to know: insects (6 legs), arachnids (8 legs), molluscs (soft body).
Group the plants together, then a quick invertebrate check.
🌹 rose 🌿 fern 🌼 daisy 🍏 apple blossom 🌱 moss 🌻 sunflower
On your own. Sort every organism, then write your evidence at your tier.
Tap an organism to sort it…
Sort the animals into vertebrate / invertebrate. Then finish:
Sort all three bins. Write for one animal its group and a feature:
Sort all, then pick two vertebrates from different groups and explain the feature that tells them apart. And: why is a whale not a fish?
Answer at your tier, then hand it in on the way out.
A friend says “a spider is an insect.” Are they right? Use features (legs, body parts) to explain.