Year 4 · Living things and habitats
Grouping living things
Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
Key learning points
- • Backbone or not
- • Grouping is a choice
- • How a key works
- • Plants get grouped too
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 18 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- No marked quiz yet
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 18
Watch first
Grouping living things
Discover how plants, animals and decomposers all depend on each other.
Do it for real
The practicals below use what the film shows, with a full method you can follow at home.
In a nutshell
Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
What you already know
Part 2 of 18
Before we start
What you already know
You can name some animals and plants and say a few ways they are different.
Key words
Part 3 of 18
Key words
Words you'll need today
- vertebrate
- An animal with a backbone.
- invertebrate
- An animal with no backbone.
- classify
- To sort things into groups by what they are like.
- key
- A set of yes-or-no questions that leads you to a name.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 18
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 — Sorting into groups
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 18
Learn
Backbone or not
The biggest split in the animal kingdom is vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates split again into five groups: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. Everything else — worms, snails, spiders, insects — is an invertebrate, and there are far more of those than of us.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 18
Learn
Grouping is a choice
You could group the animals in a garden by 'has wings' and 'no wings', or by 'lives in soil' and 'lives above ground'. Both are useful; neither is wrong. Good scientists say what rule they used, because otherwise nobody can check the groups.
Quick check
Part 7 of 18
Quick check
An animal with a backbone is a…
Reset break
Part 8 of 18
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 9 of 18
Quick check
Which is NOT an insect?
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 18
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 — Using a key
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 18
Learn
How a key works
A key asks a question with two answers, and each answer sends you on. 'Does it have six legs? Yes → go to 2. No → go to 3.' You follow the path until you reach a name. Keys work because each question is about something you can actually see, not something you have to guess.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 18
Learn
Plants get grouped too
Plants can be sorted into flowering and non-flowering, trees and non-trees, or by leaf shape. In a leaf key you might ask: is the leaf edge smooth or jagged? Is the leaf one piece or made of leaflets? Two or three questions like that can identify most trees in a park.
Quick check
Part 13 of 18
Quick check
A key question should be about something you can…
Quick check
Part 14 of 18
Quick check
How many groups do vertebrates split into?
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 18
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- Thinking all small animals are insects — spiders have eight legs and are not insects.
- Using a question in a key that cannot be seen, like 'is it friendly?'.
- Thinking there is only one correct way to group living things.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 18
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 17 of 18
No quiz for this one
This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.
Lesson round-up
Part 18 of 18
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
Why the school greenhouse failed
A science club grew tomato plants in the school greenhouse. In June the plants grew well: leaves were dark green and the fruit set quickly. In July the club went away for two weeks and left the greenhouse door shut. When they came back, the leaves were curled and pale and most of the fruit had dropped.
The club had a data logger inside. It showed the temperature reached 46 °C on several afternoons and the soil moisture fell close to zero. The club knew photosynthesis needs light, water and carbon dioxide, and that enzymes in a plant work best in a narrow range of temperature. Above that range the enzymes stop working properly.
The club repeated the summer with the door propped open and a water bottle drip on each pot. Temperature peaked at 31 °C and the plants survived.
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Name the variable the club changed the second time, and one variable they kept the same.
- Explain, using the words photosynthesis and enzymes, why the plants were damaged in July.
- Write a conclusion for the club's report, saying how far the evidence supports it.
Method and results
WritingWrite the aim, what you changed, what you measured and what you kept the same, then record your results in a table.
1 page + results table
Conclusion
WritingExplain what your results show and why, using the scientific words from the lesson. Say how you know you can trust them.
6–8 sentences
Labelled diagram
DiagramDraw the apparatus or the process in pencil, label it fully, and photograph it.
1 labelled diagram
Reading and notes
ReadingRead the lesson text again and write the key ideas in your own words.
Half a page of notes
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 18 · Watch & discover