Subscribe

2nd grade · Science · Unit 10 of 14

Animal Adaptations

Features and behaviors that help

What your child practices

Body features (fur, quills, beaks, camouflage) and behaviors (hibernating, migrating, storing food) that help animals survive, and which features change as animals grow.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 2.13(B) · how animal structures and behaviors help them find food, water and air

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Body features help animals survive: gills to breathe underwater, webbed feet to swim.
  2. Behaviors help too: hibernating, migrating, storing food.
  3. Ask: what job does this part do?

Example: A fish has gills. What do they help it do? Fish live underwater all the time. Gills let them breathe there. Answer: breathe underwater

Animal Adaptations in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 10 of 14 in 2nd grade Science, after Plants, Seeds & Pollinators and before Care for Our Earth.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A porcupine has sharp quills. They help it…

    🦔
    • swim
    • fly
    • stay safe from predators

  2. Question 2

    A woodpecker has a strong, sharp beak. It helps the bird…

    🐦
    • swim in lakes
    • peck into trees to find insects
    • carry fish

  3. Question 3

    Which is a behavioural adaptation (something an animal does)?

    • A bird building a nest
    • A turtle's shell
    • A fish's fins

  4. Question 4

    Many bears sleep through much of the winter. This behavior is called…

    • hibernating
    • hunting
    • migrating

  5. Question 5

    A fish has gills. They help it…

    🐟
    • fly
    • breathe underwater
    • dig tunnels

  6. Question 6

    A beaver has big front teeth. They help it…

    🦫
    • swim underground only
    • fly
    • cut down trees

More 2nd grade