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The worksheet can be sent home with the students so they can use it as a reference when doing their homework. It can also be used a refresher when the students need to take their test.

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Animals and their Characteristics - The 5 Animal Groups

These free pages are down below!

Last week my daughter worked on vertebrates and invertebrates. From there she started working on the 5 animal groups. I also wanted to go over the characteristics of the various vertebrate animal groups with her.

As she sorted the animal groups we talked about some of the characteristics of each group... fish and amphibians lay their eggs in water, reptiles and birds lay their eggs on land and so forth.

We did this several times over the course of a number of days. Once she knew all the characteristics fairly well, I brought out a matching page. She had to match one of the characteristics (such as warm blooded) with all the animals that had that trait.

I also pulled out some sheets from a science book I bought for ED at the beginning of the school year. She did several pages from that book that week as well. We love the fact that our pets always come to check out what we're doing and hang out with us! 🙂

Update: When ED (my youngest) was about this same age, she wanted to study all things about animals! I made an entire packet (100+ pages) about animals,

body coverings (feathers, fur, scales or skin activities),

animal characteristics,

5 animal groups,

insects vs. spiders,

herbivores/carnivores/omnivores,

wild vs. domestic animals,

animal tracks,

nocturnal vs. diurnal,

animal homes & shelters,

and more!

Here's one quick screen-shot of that unit. You can find out more here: Animal Unit on vertebrates and invertebrates or you can purchase it with the link below.

Back to the original post... if you are interested, you can download the two pages below FREE by clicking on the link.

Free Worksheets:
Animals and their Characteristics - the 5 Animal Groups Free Worksheets
I also included an answer sheet.

Do your kids love animals as much as mine do? Be sure to check out our Big Animal Bundle (5 pdfs!). Kids will learn all about animals...

Vertebrates vs. invertebrates

Spiders vs. insects

Animal tracks

World animals - learn about the animals of the 7 continents

The animal life cycles - This packet helps kids become familiar with the different stages in the life cycles of the chicken, sea turtle, frog, mosquito, butterfly, dragonfly, bee, mouse, and ladybug.

The Rainforest - Learn about all about the rainforest, animals and insects of the rainforest and more!

Winter - learn why we have seasons, the differences between the Arctic and Antarctica, learn all about Polar Animals, learn why animals hibernate and more!

Quick Previews of the 5 pdfs in our Big Animal BUNDLE:

Visit this post, Big Animal Bundle, for more details (or scroll down below for more pictures!)

Here's more about our Animal Unit on vertebrates and invertebrates:

Here's more about our 100+ page packet:
What am I?
mammal bird reptile amphibian or fish?

Again, you can find our more about our 75+ page packet below!

This unit goes into both vertebrates and invertebrates. We went into more depth about the characteristics of the 5 animal groups (plus covered the classification of invertebrates, animal tracks, domesticated vs. wild animals and other things.
What am I? - 5 Animal Group Worksheets
We talked about the types of animals and their characteristics. We had some amazing discussions about this because of all the exceptions (the sheet on the right):

There is a cut-and-paste activity about the 5 animal groups (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish):

Study of Invertebrates: We also spent time in this unit on invertebrates and invertebrate classification. As you can see we talked about some of the different invertebrate groups (insects, crustaceans, centipedes, arachnids, mollusks, etc.) There's a invertebrate classification chart, a cut-and-paste-activity, and activities about spiders vs. insects.

Animal Track Activities:

I added in some fun pages about... yes, animal tongues!! These pages talk about why tongues are important (what their function is) and has "Whose tongues are these?" page where kids have to identify the tongues they see in the picture provided. For younger kids, there are tracing pages about the function of tongues. 🙂 Animal Homes and Shelters & Herbivore/Carnivore/Omnivore activities (also in the Animal Packet):

Animal Packet: Vertebrate-Invertebrate Packet, 100+ Page Packet: My daughter is currently in Grade 2 and we are doing a new unit on the types of animals and on the Biosphere (more about that below). I made a new set of materials for her. It covers the 5 types of vertebrates and goes over the main characteristic of each vertebrate group: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish. It also covers many of the invertebrate groups starting with the differences between insects and spiders. Then going into more detail about some of the other invertebrate groups: crustaceans, mollusks, echinoderms, porifera, and others. It has a section on herbivores/carnivores/omnivores. Plus, it has a huge section on animal tracks (fun to do in the winter!) and has a bit about food webs, though we'll really go into depth about that in our unit on the biosphere which we'll do immediately following this unit.

The Animal Unit: Vertebrate-Invertebrate Packet is well over 100 pages. This is now available for purchase. It is $5.99. It is also available in our Big Animal BUNDLE!

You can find out more about it at this post (which shows in more detail what is included): Animal Unit: Types of Animals Worksheet Packet (100+ Pages) or you can purchase it below:
You might also be interested in our World Animal Packet:
Once you pay for this packet, you will immediately receive a link to download this file (which will open in a browser window). You will also receive an email from Sendowl (the service I use), which will have a link you can click on to download the Animal Unit. (It will say, "You can download your digital products..." with a clickable link.) Of course, if you have any issues just email me at - liesl at homeschoolden dot com. You can also reach me by using the contact form on the blog or can reach me over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page.

This is also available in a BUNDLE with our World Animal Cards and Activities (60+ page packet) OR in the Big Animals BUNDLE (which includes the 1) Animal Unit, 2) World Animals Unit, 3) Life Cycles Packet, 4) Rainforest Packet and 5) Winter/Polar Animals Unit). Scroll down below for more about the BUNDLES - the World Animals Packet & Life Cycles Packet and more.

$5.99

Don't forget to check your PayPal email address for the download link!

My daughter sure had fun with this unit!!

There are animal cards and activities for each of the continents.

There is a fun board game. Players have to be the first to collect an animal from every continent.

There are also materials included for creating your own world animals pin map activity: This packet includes Montessori 3-part cards and suggestions on how to use them:

And a new section specifically on animals of the African Savanna.

Newly added to the World Animals Packet:
Big Animal BUNDLE:
This World Animals packet is 100+ pages and is $4.99. (See Our Store to purchase separately.) It can be purchased as a BUNDLE with the Animal Unit:

Remember there is also a BIG ANIMAL BUNDLE (which includes both of these packets - Animal Packet and the World Animals Packet).
This bundle includes the Life Cycles Packet:
Purchase the BUNDLE: Animal Packet and World Animal Packet
This includes the Rainforest Packet:
$10.00

Don't forget to check your PayPal email address for the download link!

You can click on the links below to bring up more information about each of the packets included in this bundle.
You might also be interested in our Biology Packet:
1) Animal Unit, 2) World Animals Unit, 3) Life Cycles Packet, 4) Rainforest Packet and 5) Winter/Polar Animals Unit
Scientific Classification and Taxonomy Packet 60+ Page Dinosaur Packet!
$19.99
Related Posts
Life Cycles Packet: All living things go through changes as they grow and develop! This new 50+ page Life Cycles Packet helps kids become familiar with the different stages in the life cycles of the chicken, sea turtle, frog, mosquito, butterfly, dragonfly, bee, mouse, and ladybug. This unit includes worksheets, Montessori 3-part cards, spinners, ordering activity pages, writing pages, and more. Visit this post for more details: Life Cycles Unit

It also includes the Winter Packet (which focuses on Polar Animals and more)

The hibernation materials are included in the Winter Packet. 🙂

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don't forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter. You might also want to check out some of our resources pages above (such as our Science, Language Arts, or History Units Resource Pages) which have links to dozens of posts. You might want to join our free Homeschool Den Chat Facebook group. Don't forget to check out Our Store as well. Happy Homeschooling, everyone!! ~Liesl

Biosphere Packet - Biomes, Feeding Relationships, Biological Interactions and More!: After our family did the Animal unit, we went on to learn about the different biomes, the food chain and food webs, the energy pyramid, animal feeding relationships and more.

If your kids are a bit older (upper elementary, middle school) your kids might enjoy the Scientific Classification and Taxonomy Unit. We did this Animal Unit several years ago and just this year we did an entire unit on scientific classification & taxonomy. We build dichotomous keys and went into quite a bit of depth about the animal phyla:

Dinosaur Packet for Ages 3-7

Montessori 3-Part Dinosaur Cards

Dinosaur Lapbook

Letter Recognition Activities

Number Activities and Games

Dinosaur Game Board

Fast Fact Information Cards

Dinosaur Writing Cards

Math Games

Bingo Cards and more!

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Animals and Their Characteristics (Free Worksheet) - Homeschool Den

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Animals and their Characteristics - The 5 Animal Groups These free pages are down below! Last week my daughter worked on vertebrates and invertebrates. From there she started working on the 5 animal groups. I also wanted to go over the characteristics of the various vertebrate animal groups with her.

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This can be used as an end of the lesson assessment sheet. It has a feel short questions that can help the teacher navigate if the students know the topic or not.

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This could be used as a warm up or just for fun. It has good details for the students and it can be used to help the teacher fully explain the topic to the students.

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Mammals | Definition, Characteristics & Examples - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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See what is a mammal, including the characteristics of mammals and the different types in various habitats. Learn what classifies a mammal and see…

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This is a helpful resource to teachers to use for an already made lesson plan. It can be tweaked, but is a good start for a lesson plan.

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Characteristics of Mammals Mini-Lesson - TeacherVision

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Use the slideshow, teacher resources, and student worksheets in this science mini-lesson to give students a general overview of the defining characteristics of mammals. This mini-lesson can be taught as part of 1 or 2 45-minute class periods. The activities and exercises can be completed in class or given as take-home assignments.

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A fun way to learn more about the topic of animals. The website can be used as an incentive for the students to get their work done or can be done with the entire class.

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Parents and Teachers: MrN 365 is NOW LIVE! Get full access to the entire MrNussbaum library with NO ADS, NO FLASH, thousands of additional activities unavailable here plus amazing new features such as student dashboards, bookmarking, and designing your own games and activities!

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This activity could be preplanned or up to the discretion of the students. By using an expo marker, the students can get into groups and make different lego groupings, then swap with another group to see if they can identify which animals belong with each other.

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Video to show different examples of how animals are grouped and what those groups are called.

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Amazing Animal Groups | Science for Kids

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The worksheet just gives more examples of animals and their offspring.This is a fun worksheet for students to work on for homework, if they finish early, or even in a small group.

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This video introduces new vocabulary and explains most of the standard. It gives a visual representation of what is happening.

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Living and Nonliving Things for Kids: Life Science for Children - FreeSchool

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This would be a good activity for the students to do when they have completed their assignment early or to be used as a warm up to introduce the lesson to the students.