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Let's teach! Primary

Lesson 2

How are animals and plants different?

Lesson Plan

Preparation

  • Have a wide variety of animal and plant pictures available (from the internet, nonfiction books or posters) to view and discuss during the lesson.
  • Students will need access to a dictionary or the internet to answer the final question on the worksheet.
  • Students will need access to the internet and other reference material to complete the investigation sheet.

Curriculum Links

  • Australian Curriculum: ACSSU044, ACSHE050, ACSIS053, ACSIS054, ACSIS057, ACSIS058, ACSIS060
  • NSW Curriculum: ST2-4LW-S, ST2-1WS-S
  • VIC Curriculum: VCSSU056, VCSSU057, VCSIS065, VCSIS066, VCSIS067, VCSIS069, VCSIS071, VCSIS072
  • WA Curriculum: ACSSU044, ACSHE050, ACSIS053, ACSIS054, ACSIS057, ACSIS058, ACSIS060

Suggested Teaching Strategies

Introduction

  • Display the digital lesson on your smartboard to introduce the differences between plants and animals.
  • The student summary and worksheet should be used together.

Development

  • Provide students with printable versions of the student summary and worksheet. Have students complete the worksheet.
  • Students complete and present their report from investigation sheet to the class or to each other in small groups.
  • Ensure students understand vocabulary such as ‘nutrients’, ‘reproduce’, ‘response’, ‘stimulus’, ‘senses’, ‘sense organs’ and ‘antennae’.

Differentiation

  • Students could complete and present investigation sheet in pairs or small groups rather than individually.

Conclusion

  • Have a final class discussion about the difference between animals and plants.

Assessments

Worksheet answers

1. Students should choose from four of the following: breathe, grow and change, take in food and nutrients, reproduce, give off wastes, move, and respond to things.
2. To help them move by walking, running, crawling, flying etc.
3. (a) They use a mouth, teeth or beak for eating and stomach for digesting. (b) Plants usually make their own food in their leaves.
4. Many animals have several senses and sense organs to see, hear, taste, touch and smell things.
5. Plants have coverings such as bark and leaf and stem coverings. Animals have skin, hair, hide, scales, feathers and shells etc.
6. A Venus flytrap behaves like an animal as it eats insects like some animals do.

Science as a Human Endeavour question

Nature and development of science

A zoologist is a scientist who studies animals and a botanist is a scientist who studies plants.

Investigation sheet answers

Teacher check.

Student Pages

Science Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Intro 1

Lesson 2

How are animals and
plants different?

Science Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Intro 2

Lesson 2

How are animals and
plants different?

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Science Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 1

Did you know that there are millions of different types of animals and plants on Earth?

Science Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 2

Animals and plants both belong in the same group
of living things.

But how do you know if a living thing is a plant or animal?

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 3

We know that all living things breathe, grow and change, and take in food and nutrients.
They also reproduce, give off wastes, and move and respond to things around them like light or heat.

Science Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 4

It is usually easy to tell an animal from a plant.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 5

clown fish

kangaroo

We know a bee, a fish and a kangaroo are animals.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 6

rose

fern

And we know that a tree, a rose and a fern are plants.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit1 Lesson 2 Slide 7

Sometimes it is more difficult to tell.

For example, a plant called a Venus flytrap catches animals, including insects.

It behaves a bit like an animal but is still a plant.

Science Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 8


Here are some ways to tell the difference between animals and plants.

Movement
Feeding
Use of senses
Coverings

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 9

Movement

Animals can move from place to place by themselves.

They may have legs, limbs or wings to help them walk, run, crawl or fly.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 10

Most plants grow in soil and stay in the one place.

They move as they grow or as the wind moves them.

They also move in response to a stimulus like light,
such as opening their petals in the morning sunshine.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 11

Feeding
(They have to catch or collect their food.)

Animals feed on other animals or plants.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 12

Most animals have some kind of mouth, teeth or beak to help eat their food.

It is digested in an
area like a stomach.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 13

Most plants make their own food in their leaves and store it.

Science Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 14

Use of senses

Most animals use several senses and have sense organs.

Many animals have eyes for seeing and ears for hearing.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 15

Some animals feel things through skin or antennae and have noses for smelling.

Some taste things using their tongue.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 16

Plants don’t have senses in
the same way animals do.

They respond to a stimulus
such as when an insect
lands on a Venus flytrap
and its trap closes.

They don’t have sense organs such as eyes, ears, noses or antennae.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 17

snake skin

Coverings

Animals have coverings such as skin (human), hair (dog), hide (rhinoceros), scales (python, goldfish), feathers (owl) or shells (snail).

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Slide 18

plant stem with thorns

Plants have coverings such as bark on tree trunks, and leaf and stem coverings that can vary, such as smooth, coarse, hairy or hard.

SCIENCE Year 3 Unit 1 Lesson 2 Final Slide

Lesson 2

Complete

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Downloads

Student Summary

Summary of student page information

Worksheet

Activities for students to complete

Investigation Worksheet

An experiment to consolidate learnings