Preparing You For Your Education Session:
Fur, Feathers and Scales—Classify!
Duration: 45 mins
Please see your confirmation letter for details of where to meet your Discovery and Learning Officer for
your session
KS2 Science
Working scientifically
· Identify and classify; Record findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar
charts and tables; Report on findings from enquiries, including oral explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions; Talk about criteria of grouping, sorting and classifying and use simple keys
Living things and their habitats
· Use classification systems and keys to identify animals and plants; Research unfamiliar animals and plants and
decide where they belong in the classification systems; Impact of humans (both positively and negatively) on environments
Session content
During the session students will:
In Fur, Feathers and Scales, Classify! pupils will explore
the different vertebrate families deeper with different
classification systems. Comparing and contrasting
different objects from the natural world students will
have to group unfamiliar objects into groups. Pupils will
also be introduced to a live animal in order to showcase
how humans have an impact on different environments.
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Work in small groups to identify and
classify mammals, birds, reptiles and
amphibians.
Give an explanation of why animals
are classified into groups
Discuss how their lives have an
impact on environments both
positively and negatively way
Using the Zoo to support this session
The photocopiable worksheet on the reverse of this page encourages pupils to classify animals into
different categories based of different characteristics.
Visit some of these animals at the zoo to discuss different animals with your students. Discuss how as
scientists, you could classify these animals in different ways.
Animal
Link to session
Region
Reticulated Giraffe
Mammal
Africa
Dwarf crocodile
Retile
Main Hub
Californian Sealion
Marine mammal
Base Camp
African penguin
Bird
Europe
Suggested classroom activity (for before or after your visit)
Encourage students to look carefully at an animal’s features by choosing a ZSL Whipsnade Zoo creature
to draw and label. Then use the drawings to play a game of 20 questions, where the students ask
questions about the features of an animal in order to identify it. Students must only be allowed to ask
questions that can be answered with yes or no, such as ‘Does it have scales?’
zsl.org/education
Classifying animals
Animals can be grouped in lots of different ways.
For each of the following groups try and find three
animals in the zoo that could be classified under
that heading.
Mammal
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Hair
Warm blooded
Gives birth to live young
Female produces milk for young
Different teeth
Carnivore
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Eats only meat
Has sharp canines to tear meat
Eyes are at the front of its head
Animal 1: ____________________
Animal 1: ____________________
Animal 2: ____________________
Animal 2: ____________________
Animal 3: _______________________
Animal 3: ____________________
Warm blooded = ‘endotherm’
Cold blooded = ‘ectotherm’
“Eyes on the side, Ready to hide
Eyes on the front, Ready to hunt”
Herbivore
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Eats only vegetation
Large molars
Eyes at the side of their head
Reptile
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Animal 1: ____________________
Animal 2: ____________________
Animal 3: ____________________
Dry scales
Cold blooded
Lays leathery eggs
Has backbone (vertebrate)
Animal 1: ____________________
Animal 2: ____________________
Animal 3: ____________________
zsl.org/education