On this 3-page 3rd grade project sheet, students invent an animal for one of four habitats. Page 1 has four habitat cards with three facts each, a large box to draw and label the animal, and lines for its name and chosen habitat. Page 2 asks for three adaptations, whether each is physical or behavioral, and how each helps the animal survive. Page 3 shows a sample desert animal called the Sand Hopper.
“Match an animal's adaptations to the conditions of its habitat.”
Page 1 gives the facts about each habitat, and the page 2 table asks how each adaptation helps the animal survive there.
“Classify adaptations as physical or behavioral.”
The middle column of the page 2 table, with a tip box that defines both types.
Four cards with a picture and three facts each: hot days, little water and lots of sand for the desert; very cold, snow and ice and few plants for the Arctic; warm all year, very wet and rainy and tall trees for the rainforest; salty water, deep and dark and strong currents for the ocean. Students circle one.
A large box to draw the animal in its habitat and label its special body parts, then lines for its name and chosen habitat.
A tip box defines physical and behavioral. A table has three rows with columns for the adaptation, physical or behavioral, and how it helps the animal survive.
A sample Sand Hopper with giant ears, wide hairy feet, a water-storing tail pouch and a daytime burrow, filled into the table.
Problem first
Have students circle a habitat and say one problem it creates, such as little water, before they pick any body parts. The adaptations then answer a real problem.
Gallery walk
Post the drawings and let classmates guess the habitat from the labels. If they cannot, the adaptations did not fit.
Check the middle column
A student who writes physical for a burrow has mixed up the two types. The sample answer lists digging a burrow by day as behavioral.
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