1.L3U1.9: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to support an…

Like Parent, Like Baby? Traits and Families Grades 1–3

Why does a grey cygnet grow into a white swan, why are puppies in one litter different colours, and why does a bean plant grown in the dark come up tall and yellow? Three lessons with nothing to buy: students match drawn family cards, make a living bar graph of pea cards beside Gregor Mendel's real counts, and walk a case-file trail of plants and animals changed by where they live.

• Do baby animals look like their parents? 40–50 min

  Teams match twelve drawn cards of young and adult plants and animals, then sort them: some young already look like small adults, others look different now but grow to be like their parents. They find one way each young is like its parent and one way it is not, and build an evidence-based account that young are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

• Why don't puppies from the same parents look the same? 45–60 min

  Teams read family files on a Labrador litter, a cat litter and a pea pod, then the whole class becomes a living bar graph of 32 pea cards and compares it with the 8,023 peas Gregor Mendel counted. Students use the data to explain that young inherit traits from their parents and that brothers and sisters still vary.

Printable practice for 1.L3U1.9

These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to 1.L3U1.9 is partial.

• Like Parent, Like Baby? Traits and Families workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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