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Adaptations and the Environment

Describe an animal adaptation and explain how it helps survival.

If a hummingbird hunted like an eagle, would its beak be useful? Explain.

How does camouflage help lions and sloths survive in different ways?

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Learn what an adaptation is and how it helps living things survive in their environment. Our science video for kids shows you many examples. Watch now!

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1. How do animals adapt to their environment?

2. How do animals adapt to protect themselves?

3. What animal adaptations help them obtain food?

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1. How do different animals use their body parts to survive in their environment?

2. What can we learn about an animal's life by looking at its body parts?

3. Why do animals have different kinds of tails ears, eyes, noses, feet or mouths?

4. How does the structure of a body part help the animal do something important like find food, stay safe, or move?

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From your eyes to your feet; this book teaches readers about animal adaptations.  The text begins by showing colorful illustrations of animals and their physical features.  Then the author goes into facts about animals and their ability to survive in their environment.  The text looks like this: “If you’re a ___, you use your ____ to ____.”  Next the book goes into a deeper dive with several facts about animals and their adaptations.  The facts in the book describe the animal's environment, features, and size.

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This is a ~12-minute video designed for elementary students (grades 3–5), covering how animals adapt for protection, food gathering, and survival in various environments. It’s produced in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association, aligned with NGSS, and includes lesson plans, vocabulary, DIY experiments, discussion questions, reading material, quizzes, and teacher guides. Examples featured include sloths using camouflage and slowness, armadillos rolling into armored balls, hummingbirds with long beaks, giraffes with long necks and sun-protective tongues, and echidnas with digging claws and spines.

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The Generation Genius video is an essential multimodal text that introduces students to key science concepts around animal and plant adaptations in a highly engaging, age-appropriate way. It supports visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners through animations, live-action demonstrations, and interactive discussions. This complements traditional print texts by bringing real-world examples to life and reinforcing content in an accessible format.

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Word Splash

Strategy type: Before Reading

DOK Level 2: Skills and Concept

involves using information, skills, or concepts in familiar situations. In a word splash activity, this happens when students predict what a text or topic will be about based on the word splash

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.6 - Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases.

Word splash helps students explore and apply new vocabulary through prediction, discussion, categorizing, and writing.

The Word Splash pre-reading activity involves the teacher selecting 8-12 vocabulary words related to an upcoming unit of study and presenting these words to students one at a time.

In partnerships, students can try to connect a new topic to familiar vocabulary words.

The purpose of this activity is to allow students to have an introduction to vocabulary, activate prior and background knowledge.

Guided Notes / Video Pause Prompts

Strategy type: During Reading

DOK Level 2: Skills and Concepts

At this level, students are, organizing information, identifying relationships, making observations, summarizing or explaining in their own words, and classifying (e.g., physical vs. behavioral adaptations)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1 - Students discuss questions/prompts during pauses.

This standard builds academic conversation skills Guided notes often include: open-ended prompts, sentence starters (e.g., “I think ___ because…”), opportunities for peer discussion before recording an answer. This reinforces the speaking and listening process—not just content recording.

Use a note-catcher or stop the video periodically with questions like:

What is the difference between physical and behavioral adaptations?

What examples of adaptations did you just hear?

Why do those adaptations help the animal survive?

Exit Ticket / Reflection

Strategy type: After Reading

DOK Level 1: Recall and Reproduction

This strategy would be a DOK level 1 because the exit ticket asks questions to recall facts and definitions. These are simple recall tasks that require no reasoning or processing.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3 - Describe the relationship between a series of scientific ideas or concepts… using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

The student must explain cause and effect (e.g., a polar bear’s thick fur → stays warm → survives Arctic cold). This standard is hit every time a student explains how an adaptation relates to survival.

After watching the video, students will explain one adaptation you learned today and how it helps the animal survive. They will also answer the following; one thing I learned, one question I still have, and one adaptation I thought was cool and why.

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This book is good for introducing the concept of animal adaptations.  It explains how each animal’s body part is uniquely suited to help it live, hunt, stay safe, or communicate.  The book shows how animals are diverse with their features.  The question/answer format encourages students to think and guess how animals use their bodies, sparking scientific thinking.

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Ponder

Strategy Type: Pre-Reading

DOK Level 2: Skills and Concepts

This strategy involves students applying skills related to making predictions, engaging in discussions, and reflecting on their predictions.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

This standard aligns with the strategy’s emphasis on engaging students in a discussion about their predictions. Talking with each other supports students in expressing their own ideas and building on peers' ideas.

Prior to reading the text, I will share the front cover of the book and its title.  I will have students turn and talk about what the title of the book could possibly mean.  While they are discussing, I will listen to their ideas and how they’re communicating with their partner. Next, students will write down their predictions and explanations.  I will bring the class together to discuss their ideas and reasons.  After I read the book aloud, students will go back to their paper and write down what happened, while reflecting on their own prediction to see if it was correct or incorrect.  The strategy involves skills related to prediction, discussion, and reflection, aligning with standards that focus on these aspects of reading comprehension and communication.

Visual Imagery

Strategy Type: During Reading

DOK Level 2: Skills and Concepts

This strategy involves students actively engaging with the text to construct mental images based on descriptive information since visualization enhances reading comprehension.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1.D

Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion

Students will explain their visualization and reasoning.

Students will listen to the book being read aloud.  They will close their eyes while listening to some of the descriptions of animals.   The students will visualize the animals using one of the body parts to survive in their habitat.  For example, students will close their eyes and visualize a hippopotamus closing their ears when underwater.  After I read a few pages that contain animals adapting, I will put a real life picture of the animals adapting in their environment.  Students will discuss how their visualization was similar or different to the image I display.

Match me

Strategy Type:  After Reading

DOK Level 2: Recall and Reproduction

This strategy involves thinking and communication skills as they reflect on body parts and function of animals in their environment.  Ensures students can accurately recall information and basic concepts. Use strategies like flashcards, matching activities, or simple recall questions.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Students will work in partnerships and discuss matches of functions to body parts.

I will revisit the concept of how animals adapt in their environment and specific body parts help them adapt.  I will show two sets of cards; one set of cards with body parts (e.g. tail, eyes) and one set with functions (e.g., balance, seeing far).  Students will be in partnerships and play a matching game.  They match each body part to its function and explain why they go together.

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A Place For Butterflies by Melissa Stewart 2024

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A Place For Butterflies by Melissa Stewart 2024

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1. How do butterflies depend on their environment to survive and grow?

2. What can people do to help butterflies and protect their habitats?

3. How do human actions affect the survival of butterflies?

4. Why is it important to protect even small creatures like butterflies?

5. What is the author trying to teach us about nature and our role in it?

6. What can we learn from butterflies about how living things adapt to survive?

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A Place for Butterflies explores the delicate relationship between butterflies and their environments. Through beautifully illustrated pages, the book explains how specific species of butterflies depend on certain plants and habitats to survive. It emphasizes how human actions—like destroying habitats or planting invasive species—can harm butterfly populations.

The book also highlights positive ways people can help butterflies, such as planting native flowers, reducing pesticide use, and protecting wild spaces. Each page features a different species of butterfly, pairing poetic main text with informative sidebars that give scientific facts about behavior, diet, and adaptation.

I like how the book repeats the phrase “When people ____, butterflies can live and grow.” This pattern supports fluency and helps readers understand the main idea more easily.

Overall, the book encourages young readers to understand the importance of protecting natural habitats and shows how even small actions can make a big difference for these fragile pollinators.

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Students can connect with this book because butterflies might live in their own gardens or in nearby parks and fields. Just like we take care of pets to help them live, there are things people can do to help butterflies survive. For example, people can avoid using strong chemicals on plants and flowers. Taking care of the environment is one way to protect butterflies, just like feeding and caring for pets helps them stay healthy.

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Think Pair Share

Strategy type: Before Reading

DOK Level 2: Skills and Concept

Students are making connections between prior knowledge and the text (e.g., what they know about butterflies and what they predict they’ll learn).

They are comparing and contrasting ideas about how butterflies survive.

They are discussing possible solutions to real-world environmental problems.

They are explaining relationships (e.g., how humans affect butterflies, and how specific adaptations help them survive).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade-level topics and texts.

Connection: Think-Pair-Share develops student discussion skills, encourages active listening, and promotes respectful dialogue — key components of the Speaking & Listening standards.

NGSS 3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat, some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Connection: During Think-Pair-Share, students consider what butterflies need to survive and what might threaten them — activating background knowledge about habitats and survival, which sets them up to later construct arguments using evidence from the book.

Students will share what they already know about butterflies and consider how people might help or harm them, setting a purpose for reading.

Think → Ask students to silently think about and jot down answers to one or more of these questions:

What do butterflies need to survive?
Have you ever seen butterflies in a garden, park, or your neighborhood?
What might hurt butterflies or their homes?
What do you think people can do to help butterflies?

Pair (partner discussion) → Students turn to a partner and share their thoughts. Encourage them to add to or revise their ideas based on what their partner says.

Prompt them with:

“I agree with you because…”

“I hadn’t thought about that. I also think…”

“One thing we both noticed was…”

Share (whole group) → Invite a few pairs to share their most interesting or surprising ideas with the class. Record common ideas on a chart titled:

“What We Know or Wonder About Butterflies”

You can then say:

“As we read A Place for Butterflies, let’s see what new information we learn and which of our ideas were right.”

Compare Two Creatures

Strategy Type: After Reading

DOK Level 3: Strategic Thinking

Students must go beyond simple recall of facts or direct answers from the text.

They are analyzing similarities and differences between two animals and interpreting how different types of adaptations serve different functions.

They must evaluate the role each adaptation plays in survival, often across two different environments or species.

This involves using evidence from both texts and organizing their thinking into a comparison or explanation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.9 Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.

Students are comparing two nonfiction texts about animal adaptations and using key details to show similarities and differences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

If students write a paragraph or short essay comparing the two animals, they are fulfilling this writing standard.

NGSS 3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat, some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Students analyze how each creature’s adaptations help it survive in its environment and why those adaptations are effective in that specific habitat.

Use the two books What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? (about physical adaptations) and A Place for Butterflies (about behavioral adaptations) to compare how two different animals adapt in different ways to survive.

Animal Adaptation Project

Strategy Type: After Reading

DOK Level 3: Strategic Thinking

Students must analyze how specific adaptations help animals survive in their environments (e.g., how thick fur helps in cold climates or webbed feet aid swimming).

They often need to make decisions about how to organize and present their findings (poster, presentation, model, or report).

The project may ask them to compare different adaptations across species, or even design a new animal adapted to a unique environment.

Students must use evidence from texts, research, or observations to support their reasoning.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

A Place for Butterflies provides rich information about butterfly behavior, habitats, and survival. Students can use this text to write clear, informative paragraphs or reports about butterflies, including what they need to live and how humans impact their environments.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

The book can serve as a springboard for a research project on butterflies or habitat conservation. Students might explore specific butterfly species from the book, investigate what types of plants support butterflies in their local area, or look into real-world conservation efforts.

NGSS 3-LS4-4 Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and affects the types of living things that live there.

The book clearly presents problems butterflies face due to environmental changes (like habitat loss or pesticide use), and offers solutions (like planting native flowers or protecting wild spaces). Students can evaluate these solutions and make a claim about which one is most effective, using evidence from the text.

Students will select a habitat—such as the desert, arctic, or rainforest—and design an animal that is specially adapted to survive there. They will include details about the animal’s body parts and how each part helps it live in that environment. After researching both the habitat and their animal, students will take notes using a graphic organizer. Then, they will write a descriptive paragraph explaining their animal’s adaptations and include interesting facts. Finally, they will present their writing and share their visual model or drawing with the class.