Exploring Animals

This program explores the adaptations of three groups of animals (birds, reptiles, mammals) that allow them to interact with their environments in a unique and successful way. Students will explore animal classification through the five senses to make connections to multiple adaptations and traits that are special to each group.

Ohio’s Learning Standards 

Grade 1

Life Science – Basic Needs of Living Things 

• Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical environment.
• Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs. 

English Language Arts – Key Ideas and Details 

• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information. 

Grade 2

Life Science – Interactions Within Habitats 

• Just as living things impact the environment in which they live, the environment impacts living things.
• All organisms alive today result from their ancestors, some of which may be extinct. Not all kinds of organisms that lived in the past are represented by living organisms today. 

English Language Arts – Key Ideas and Details 

• Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text. 

Grade 3

Life Science – Behavior, Growth, and Changes 

• Plants and animals have life cycles that are part of their adaptations for survival in their natural environments.
• Organisms’ physical and behavioral traits affect their ability to survive and reproduce.
• Differences in inherited traits give some individuals an advantage in surviving and/or reproducing. 

English Language Arts – Comprehension and Collaboration 

• Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail. 

Grade 4

Life Science – Earth's Living History 

• Suitable habitats depend upon a combination of biotic & abiotic factors. 

• Changes in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes harmful. 

English Language Arts – Comprehension and Collaboration 

• Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support points. 

English Language Arts – Craft and Structure 

• Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in perspective and the information provided.