Classifying Animals

S5L1 Students will classify organisms into groups and relate how they determined the groups with how and why scientists use classification.    
a. Demonstrate how animals are sorted into groups (vertebrate and invertebrate) and how vertebrates are sorted into groups (fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal).    

Research Links

Here are some research links that may be useful for research projects on animals and their classification.
Enature.com
Ask Jeeves for Kids
Netrekker.com                              National Geographic Kids

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Helpful Links

• This kid friendly website provides information about the various animal classifications and allows you to quiz yourself.
• Kid friendly presentation on Prezi about animal classification.
• Play this interactive game to learn about various ways that scientists categorize animals.

Vertebrates and Invertebrates

A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone and an invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The most common type of invertebrate are the millions of insects that crawl, fly and swarm around the globe. There are also many invertebrates that live in the ocean, such as jellyfish, sea urchins and more. You can visit StudyJams to view an invertebrate slideshow and  their vertebrate slideshow. Both links allow you to take a quiz to show what you have learned. 

Call Me a Vertebrate

Below is a parody I created to help students remember some key points in vertebrate classification. I'm hoping someday soon, a talented student will perform the song for me and create a music video complete with pictures of the different types of animals, while they're singing.

call me a vertebrate?.pdf
File Size:	34 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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