Animal Adaptations: Physical and Behavior Characteristics- 3rd Grade

Introduction
• Animal adaptations for survival
• Length of Lesson – 45 min.
• VA SOL 3.4b

Learning Objectives
Students will:
• Describe and explain the terms hibernations, migration, camouflage, mimicry,
instinct and learned behavior.
• Compare the physical characteristics of animals and explain how the animals
are adapted to a certain environment.
• Explain how an animal’s behavioral adaptations help it live in its specific
habitat.
• Distinguish between physical and behavioral adaptations of animals.

Teaching and Learning Sequence

• Introduction/Anticipatory Set

Gather students on the carpet for the reading of: Animals of the Jungle by
Isabel Fonte, Marco Ferraris (Illustrator)

• Review the 4 things that animals need to survive by asking students to

recall examples from the book of food, water, shelter and shape.

• Ask the following questions:

• Do animals all gather food and water the same? Ask for examples.
• Do animals have the same types of shelter and the same amount of
space? Ask for examples.
• We know bears sleep or hibernate in the winter, what would
happen is we took its cave away and wouldn’t let him sleep?
• What if we made a polar bear black in the frozen arctic instead of
white?
• How would this effect their survival?

• Today we will learn about the physical and behavior adaptations animals
have that help them satisfy their basic needs to survive.

• As students return to their seats ask them to prepare a response to the

question, “What is a physical adaptation?”

• Lesson Development

• Share several student responses to the question and then offer the
following definition for clarification:
 Physical adaptations help animals survive in their environment. Examples
include camouflage and mimicry.
• Brainstorm ideas about our human body’s adaptation and demonstrate.
Ex: Walking on two feet instead of 4 limbs.
Trying to pick up a pencil without using your thumbs.
• What is a behavior adaptation? Listen to student responses then offer the
definition:
Behavioral adaptations allow animals to respond to life needs.
Examples include hibernation, migration, instinct, and learned behavior.
• Brainstorm ideas about our behavior adaptations.
Ex. Our natural sleep pattern is to sleep when it is dark.

• Begin the PowerPoint presentation which will show picture examples of

the each adaptation, provide a definition and discuss. Ask for other examples.
• Hibernation- Some animals go into a deep winter sleep in which
their body activities slow down and they can live off stored food.
• Migrations - Some animals go on a long-distance journey from
one place to another as seasons change.
• Camouflage - Various animals blend into their environments to
protect themselves from enemies.
• Mimicry - Some animals look like other animals to avoid being eaten.
This adaptation helps protect them from their predators. (For
example, the viceroy butterfly tastes good to birds, but the monarch
butterfly tastes bad. Because the viceroy looks like the monarch
butterfly, it is safer from predators.)
• Instinct - Some animals are born with natural behaviors that they
need in order to survive in their environments. These behaviors are
not learned but are instinctive, such as a beaver building a dam or a
spider spinning a web.
• Learned Behavior - Some behaviors need to be taught in order
for the animal to survive, such as a bear cub learning to hunt.
• Group students into pairs and hand out the Animal Adaptation
Activity Sheet.
• Explain that they will use information gathered in the PowerPoint
to complete the activity.
• Circulate as the students are working to monitor their
understanding of adaptations and the terms learned today.
• Closure
• Review the activity sheet as a class allowing different pairs to
share their answers.
• Answer any questions about the terms learned today. Have
students put this sheet in their science notebook.
 • Explain the homework assignment: Using the computer, students
will:
1. Look for 3 different examples of animal adaptations, (physical or
behavior)
2. Print the picture for our adaptation collage bulletin board to be created
next week
3. Copy the URL and bring to class Thursday for a class created
PowerPoint on animal adaptations that will be shown to the other 3rd
grade classes.

Homework
Students will use the computer to find 3 examples of an animal adaptations
either behavior or physical. Copy the picture and URL for future classroom
activities. Class time will be provided to complete this homework to
accommodate those students without computer access.

Assessment

• Formative – Monitoring of pair activity using the Adaptation Activity Sheet and
review of student pictures for PowerPoint. Looking for understanding of the
vocabulary terms and the ability to detect physical characteristics of animals and
explain how the animals are adapted to a certain environment.

• Summative – Unit test to be given once unit activities are completed: Students will
be tested on the following vocabulary terms, hibernations, migration, camouflage,
mimicry, instinct and learned behavior. Compare the physical characteristics of
animals and explain how the animals are adapted to a certain environment.
Explain how an animal’s behavioral adaptations help it live in its specific habitat.
Distinguish between physical and behavioral adaptations of animals.

References
Science Standards of Learnubg Enhanced Scope and Sequence grade 3. (2005). Virginia
Department of Eduacation (animal adaptations: physical characteristics).
Retrieved October 9, 2009, from Virginia Department of Education website:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov
 Content Organizer

Curriculum Framework Essential Understandings

• Describe and explain the terms hibernations, migration, camouflage, mimicry, instinct
and learned behavior.
• Compare the physical characteristics of animals and explain how the animals are adapted
to a certain environment.
• Explain how an animal’s behavioral adaptations help it live in its specific habitat.
• Distinguish between physical and behavioral adaptations of animals.

Materials and Lesson Preparation

• Animal Adaptation PowerPoint
• Animal Adaptation worksheet

Content Information and Vocabulary

• An adaptation can be described as a specialized characteristic or “tool” that an animal has
that enables it to survive in its habitat or environment. These tools are part of the animal’s
body, not something that it can choose.
• These tools help the animal to find or catch food, move about in search of food or a mate,
escape danger, see, breathe in air or water, or protect it. It is important to note that
adaptations develop gradually over long periods of time and through many generations of
the species.
• Individuals with the strongest or more successful traits/adaptations usually survivor and
live on to reproduce and make further generations.
• Eyes enable an animal to see, but they are not really an adaptation. Eyes on stalks help a
crab to see all around itself because it does not have a head and neck that it can turn.
Stalked eyes would be considered an adaptation.
• Distinguish for the class between more passive protection and active defense. Most
animals are more likely to flee or hide than to engage in battle. Examples of protective
“devices” might be camouflage coloring, a hard outer shell, ability to flee quickly, or
outer spikes or spines that would not be palatable to a gobbling predator.
Vocabulary:
• Adaptation: physical and behavior, a specialized characteristic or tool that an animal has
that enable them to survive in its habitat or environment
• Hibernation: animals spend the winter in a dormant state
• Migration: to move from one region to another with the change in season
• Camouflage: an act or device that is used to conceal an animal or mislead an enemy
• Mimicry: close resemblance in color, form or behavior of one organism to another for
protection
• Instinct: behavior that an animal is born with, natural, that is characteristic of that species
• Learned behavior: an animal behavior that must be taught by another animal (parent)
Connections: Cross Curricular and Real World:
• Students will look into their own lives to see how they as humans must adapt.