Download Stemscopes Guided Practice

5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
TEKS 5.10A: The student is expected to compare the structures and functions
of different species that help them live and survive, such as hooves on prairie
animals or webbed feet in aquatic animals.
Activity Description: Students will sort adaptations into physical and behavioral
categories.
Materials:
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Adaptation cards
Plant and Animal Cards
Vocabulary Cards
Sharpie® marker
Baggies
Writing materials
Procedure:
Duplicate the cards attached on card stock. Cut apart and laminate. Place one set of
cards in each baggie. Label the bags (i.e. ‘Vocabulary Cards’).
Guide students to use the Adaptation Cards to create a t-chart labeled ‘Physical
Adaptations’ and ‘Behavioral Adaptations’. Reflect on why each is categorized as
students choose.
Next, students will use the Adaptation Cards and match them to the set of Animal
Cards. The adaptations will be matched with the appropriate description.
Vocabulary cards can be used to reinforce unfamiliar terms as necessary during
class.
Time permitting, have students then create their own cards to continue playing the
games in groups or partners with different examples of adaptations.
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Guiding Points:
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Adaptations are functional changes that allow an organism to survive such as
size, shape, color, and locomotion.
Adaptations develop over long periods of time.
A change in the environment can lead to adaptations.
Behavioral adaptations are the way an organism acts or what it does.
Guiding Questions:
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What are some adaptations that you have studied?
What is under a whale’s skin that provides it with warmth and energy?
Why are some rabbits white in the winter and brown in the summer?
When and why do animals hibernate?
Why do some insects, such as bees and scorpions, have stingers?
What keeps an armadillo safe from many of its predators?
Why do some birds have webbed feet?
Why does a cactus have thick waxy leaves?
How does a plant protect itself from animals that may try to eat it?
Why are thumbs useful body parts for animals such as humans, chimpanzees
and orangutans?
Next Pages:
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Plant and Animal Cards
Adaptation Cards
Vocabulary Cards
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Plant and Animal Cards
A prairie dog digs tunnels
underground to hide from predators
and stay cool on hot days.
Birds don’t like to eat monarch
butterflies. Since a viceroy butterfly is
about the same size, shape and
color as a monarch butterfly, the
birds leave it alone, too.
A Goliath beetle has a hard outside
covering that supports the beetle’s
body and helps protect the insect
from predators.
Many insects use these to smell or
detect moisture in the
air.
A hummingbird’s bill is long and
straw-like so that it can sip nectar
from inside flowers.
Seals, walruses, whales, and
penguins rely on these fatty deposits
to keep them warm in cold ocean
water.
A marbled tree frog is very difficult to
see when resting on a tree because
its coloring blends in well with the
tree bark.
Molars in an herbivore’s mouth are
used for grinding plant material.
Pointed incisors in a carnivore’s
mouth allow the animal to bite and
cut through the flesh of its prey.
This adaptation helps
animals such as
opossums and monkeys
climb, swing, or dangle
from trees.
These have adapted to
allow birds to stand,
walk, run, swim, perch,
climb, or grasp prey.
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Plant and Animal Cards
Every fall, gray whales travel more
than 5,000 miles from the Northern
Pacific Ocean to the warm waters
near Western Mexico.
A dormouse makes a winter nest
underground. Then it eats and eats.
Finally, it curls into a ball and sleeps
away the whole winter.
A scorpion uses this adaptation,
found on the end of its tail, for
paralyzing its prey and for defending
itself.
An eagle’s sharp claws are an
adaptation for catching and grasping
fish near the water’s surface or small
animals running on the ground.
A rabbit’s eyes are on the side of its
face so that it can see if something is
sneaking up behind it.
When threatened by a predator, an
opossum goes limp and falls to its
side. It also gives off a foul odor that
stinks like a dead animal.
The African baobab lives in a desert
habitat. It has a huge trunk that can
store as much as 100 kiloliters of
water.
When attacked, a skunk turns around
with its tail facing the predator. The
skunk then sprays its foe with a foulsmelling liquid.
Owls and badgers sleep during the
day and hunt prey at night.
Jack rabbits have long ears to help
them listen and then escape from
predators.
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Plant and Animal Cards
An ivy’s leaves will turn towards a
window in order to gather sunlight.
The prickly pear cactus has these
structures that protect them from
plant eating animals.
The seeds of coconut palm trees
float on water and can be carried
from one island to another.
The passionflower uses this structure
for climbing.
Thorns or spines
Seed Dispersal
Tendrils
Tropism
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Hibernation
Migration
Mimicry
Antennae
Beaks
Blubber
Camouflage
Teeth
Tails
Feet
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Burrowing
Body Coverings
Stingers
Talons
Eye position
Playing dead
Storing water or food
Chemical defense
Nocturnal
Keen hearing
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Vocabulary
Adaptation
Functional changes that allow
organisms to obtain food and
keep safe
Antenna
Sensory structures on an insect’s
head
Beak
The outer, hard part of a bird’s
mouth; also called a bill
Blubber
A thick layer of fat found under
the skin of ocean animals
Camouflage
Protective colorings or markings
that make an organism appear to
be part of its surroundings
Carnivore
An animal that eats only meat
Habitat
Area in which a particular
species lives
Herbivore
An animal that eats only plants
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Vocabulary
Hibernation
Mimicry
Nocturnal
Stinger
A sleep-like state of inactivity
during the cold, winter months
The act of using colorings or
markings to look like another
organism or object
An animal that sleeps during the
daytime and is active at night
An organ used for injecting
venom
Talon
A curved claw on a bird’s foot
Niche
The role of an organism in its
habitat
Omnivore
An animal that eats both plants
and animals
Predator
An animal that kills and
consumes other animals
5.10A: Adaptations
Organisms and Environments
Vocabulary
Prey
An animal hunted for food
Producer
An organism that produces its
own food
Species
A group of similar organisms that
can breed with one another
Tendrils
A twisting thread like structure of a
plant that grabs hold of an object or
another plant for support.
Tropism
The movement of an organism
towards a stimulus such as light,
water, or heat.