1. More Classifying

2. Activity 1 Count the animals The living world is divided into plants and animals. There are several animals in the picture on the Workcard. Can you spot them all? How many are there?

3. Count the animals

4. Dividing into smaller groups The animals can be divided into smaller and smaller groups. One way could be like the diagram in your booklet. How many are in each group? Write the number of animals in each group in the box.

5. How many in each box?

6. How many birds are there? Are there more birds or more animals? How many animals are not birds? How many animals are not ducks? How many animals are not dark ducks? Are there more animals that are not birds or more animals that are not ducks? ( Hint: what would be left if all the ducks flew away? What would be left if all the birds flew away?)

7. The Birds of Britain Four hundred and fifty different types of birds have been officially recorded in Britain. About 200 of these are quite common. To make it easier to study so many types, they must be sorted into groups. What do we call this sorting process? What do we call someone who studies birds?

8. Classifying birds. See if your group can help ornithologists by making a classification system. Look at the 20 pictures of birds you have been given. List four characteristics your group might use for sorting the birds.

9. Choosing characteristics A. B. C. D.

10. Looking at size Now think about ‘size’ as a characteristic for classifying birds Use the size of the birds to sort them into three groups: small, medium and large. How many birds has your group got in each pile? Is it the same as other groups? How did your group decide which were small birds and which were large? Was it an easy decision to make? Is it useful to use ‘size’ as a way of classifying birds?

11. Choosing useful characteristics Look again at all the characteristics of the birds you have been given. Which does your group think are the most useful for classifying? Use these characteristics to regroup your birds into a more useful classification. Produce a list of the birds in each group, and the characteristics for each of those groups of birds.

12. An odd bird Ask your teacher for a picture of a humming bird. Discuss these questions:  Does this fit into any of the groups you have made?  If it does, which group and why?  If it does not, why doesn’t it?  Would you make a new bird classification system now you have been given the humming bird to add?  If you did make a new system, how would you do this?

13. Hummingbird Do hummingbirds have sex in mid air?