Living things and habitats
Make your own minibeast key
Can you write yes-or-no questions that identify five minibeasts?
Watch first
Discover how plants, animals and decomposers all depend on each other.
What you need
Tick each one as you find it — 0 of 3 ready.
Stay safe: Handle minibeasts gently, keep them out of the sun, and let them go where you found them.
Plan the fair test
- Change: The questions you choose
- Measure: Whether someone else can name the minibeast
- Keep the same: The same five minibeasts
Objectives this evidences
- Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
Do it, one step at a time
Step 1 of 5
- Step 1. Find five different minibeasts outside and draw each one quickly.
- Step 2. For each, note: how many legs, wings or no wings, shell or no shell, long body or round.
- Step 3. Write a first question that splits your five into two groups, such as 'Does it have six legs?'.
- Step 4. Keep asking questions until each minibeast is on its own at the end of a path.
- Step 5. Give your key to someone else and see if they can use it.
What should happen
Keys that ask about things you can see work; ones about behaviour or size do not.
Think about: Which question was most useful first, and why?
Write up your result
A sentence or two is enough to save it.
The lessons behind this practical
Each one opens with the same short film, and the film has a written transcript underneath if reading is easier than watching.
Now the quiz for this topic
Questions come from the lessons behind this practical, so nothing is asked that has not been taught.
Quiz
Living things and habitats quiz
4 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.