Morning all! DISCLAIMER! Don’t worry, before we start, you don’t have to touch a minibeast at all for this week’s activities! In fact, you can do the whole week’s learning from a completely safe distance!
Monday 11/05/20
Today’s learning is all about how we can group the range of different plants and animals there are on our amazing planet. Have a look here:
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone/animals/animalid/index.htm
…and explore the questions in red to find out all about classification. Next, use the internet to find out what you can about Carl Linnaeus and present your biographical information into the booklet of lined paper (if you have any space left!) How much information can you find out about him?
Finally, I’m sure you have discovered these titles by now: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
What are they? What do they mean? Look at the first letter of each word and come up with a way of remembering the order they go in. Here’s mine:
King Philip Can Only Fry Green Sausages.
Enjoy it!
Tuesday 12/05/20
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is an amazing organisation. They help look after the birds we have in this country and provide essential information to people who want to do the same. Have a look here:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/identify-a-bird/
It’s a bird identifier. Guess what I am suggesting you do? Yes… identify the birds in your garden. See how many birds you can find today – it may be from your bedroom window or in your garden (if you have one) or even on a walk if you go out with a parent/carer for your daily exercise. They can join in too because toucan play this game (oh dear.) Record all of the species of bird you find. Who can see the most species? Have fun…
Wednesday 13/05/20
Design your own classification key to identify different types of sweet. Choose your favourite sweets (about 10?) then start recognising the differences between them. Does each one have something unusual or special about it? That’s what you could use to help someone identify which one you are talking about. Do they fit into groups? Which groups could you put them in?Look at this key about minibeasts to give you some ideas of what it could look like:
https://www.schoolsofkingedwardvi.co.uk/ks2-science-year-4-1a-living-things-classification/
Design your classification key for your sweets then get someone at home to try it out…
Thursday 14/05/20
Yesterday you designed a classification key for your favourite sweets. Today let’s take our learning outside into your garden or local outside space with a parent. We are going to find minibeasts and classify them. Look for around ten different creatures, identify them and sketch them (or take a photo – smile please!), recording their key identifying features (number of legs, wings, appearance, habitat and so on.) Design a classification key that will help someone to identify a minibeast they were uncertain of. I hope the weather is okay for you today! From talking to others on the ‘phone over the past few weeks, most people have been having a go at the activities but not necessarily on the day they are set for – that’s perfectly fine! You could save this activity for a sunny day…
Friday 15/05/20
You met some new friends yesterday – your minibeast neighbours! What was the most unusual minibeast you found? Were you particularly fascinated by any of them? Today we are going to find out everything we can about one of the minibeasts. Remember this information? kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Use it as a basis to start investigating your creature. Which kingdom, phylum, class etc does it belong to? What is its binomial latin name? What is a binomial name? Find out! Sketch your creature. Label all of it’s features that make it different from its cousins. What are the features that set it apart, that make it able to be classified separately to other minibeasts? Remember our learning about each of us being unique – well your minibeast certainly is! Collect all of your information about your tiny friend in your lined booklet.
Enjoy!