Year 4 Science · Grouping living things · Summary
Year 4 Science Grouping living things: summary and key words
Part of the Year 4 Science grouping living things chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page
Chapter summary
| Skill | Method |
|---|---|
| Grouping | Living things can be grouped in many ways, using features they share. |
| Animals with a backbone | Vertebrates: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Each group has its own features. |
| Animals without a backbone | Invertebrates: snails and slugs, worms, spiders and insects. Count legs and body parts to tell them apart. |
| Plants | Flowering plants have flowers and make seeds in them. Ferns and mosses are non-flowering plants. |
| Tables and Venn diagrams | A table sorts living things by their features. In a Venn diagram, the overlap belongs to both groups. |
Can you…?
- I can explain that living things can be grouped in many ways
- I can name the five groups of animals with a backbone, and give a feature of each
- I can name some animals without a backbone, and say how to tell an insect from a spider
- I can sort plants into flowering and non-flowering plants
- I can read a Venn diagram and count the animals in each part
Key terms
- group
- living things that share one or more features
- feature
- something about a living thing that can be seen, counted or measured
- vertebrate
- an animal with a backbone
- invertebrate
- an animal without a backbone
- backbone
- a line of bones down the back that supports the body
- amphibian
- a vertebrate with moist skin, that usually lays eggs in water, such as a frog
- reptile
- a vertebrate with dry scaly skin, such as a lizard or a snake
- mammal
- a vertebrate with fur or hair, that feeds its young on milk
- flowering plant
- a plant that has flowers, and makes seeds in them
- Venn diagram
- two overlapping circles that show two groups, with the overlap in both groups