Classifying Animals

We have now begun the second part of our unit. Today, the students were introduced to the classification of animals. The lesson began with the introduction to several new vocabulary words that are used when grouping animals: vertebrates- mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertabrates: spiders and insects. The students learned about the characteristics that animals must have to be classified into each group.

During the second part of the lesson, we were in the computer lab, and the students had the opportunity search for pictures of animals using Flickr. Flickr is a great photo site that allows easy access to photos. The students have existing Flickr accounts from previous lessons in other subjects. They were able to log on to their accounts and locate pictures of animals that would fit into the different classification categories. The students downloaded these pictures and pasted them onto a chart diagram that is broken into the different groups. After selecting and pasting the pictures, the students gave a brief explanation for why they believe each picture fit into the category. I decided to use Flickr in this lesson because I wanted the students to have visual examples of what the characteristic for each animal group looks like. There was a lot of new vocabulary introduced today so I believe this activity was beneficial to the students.

There is one more lesson left before we wrap up our unit on classifying plants and animals.







Photos from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucumari/2711488804/sizes/s/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/324182729/sizes/s/in/photostream/