A Touch of Class

Ages 8-10
This activity could be done by 6 and 7 year olds who have computer/mouse skills with more guidance before and during the interactive.
View Student Webpage

Print this Facilitator Page
Print Student Activity Sheet

What You Need

• A Touch of Class activity sheet for each student [download PDF]
• A blackboard or white board or big piece of paper and a marker
• Pencils or pens
• Computers with Internet access

Background

Take a walk outside and you could probably note hundreds of organisms—grass, insects, trees, humans. An organism is any living thing. These living things can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which things belong to which group. For example, an organism could be classified as either a plant or an animal. Most organisms can likely be classified in a variety of ways. A reptile, for instance, is an animal and a cold-blooded vertebrate. There are many ways to classify organisms and the different schemes vary with purpose.

Activity Instructions

Set-Up

On the blackboard write “animal” and “plant.” Ask your group: “How many organisms can you think of or even see right now? Organisms are living things.”

List what they say under the two classifications on the board. Now ask them: “Can you find other classifications for the organisms you’ve listed?” (For instance, maybe there is dog, cat, and fish written on the board that could be grouped as “pets.” Or, if there is more than one type of tree, there could be a group “trees.”)

Now, students can do the A Touch of Class interactive on their own.

Activity

Give each student an A Touch of Class activity sheet and pencil. The student activity sheet will provide students with the URL to access the student web page and interactive.

In this activity, students will classify plants and animals into groups based on certain characteristics (e.g., plants, animals, things that lay eggs, things that live underwater). By doing this, they will visualize and learn how the same plant or animal can be classified into more than one group depending on the features of a specific group.

If you have time, you may want to revisit the list on the blackboard and see if students can add to it and talk about different groups in which to classify things on their list. You could ask: “What other categories could you come up with for the organisms on the board?”

Related Activities

Classifying Critters, from The Cool Science for Curious Kids website, allows students to test their knowledge about different species by engaging in five different challenges.

Learning Goals

Benchmarks for Science Literacy

A great variety of kinds of living things can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which things belong to which group. -- 5A Diversity of Life (3-5) #1

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