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4th grade · Science · Unit 11 of 17

Traits & Variation

Traits come from parents, and the environment matters too.

What your child practices

Practices how plants and animals inherit traits from their parents, how traits vary within a family, and how the environment can change traits like size or health.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 4.13(B) · inherited and acquired traits

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Traits like eye color or fur color are inherited from parents.
  2. The environment can change traits too, like a plant grown in the dark turning pale.
  3. Learned behaviors, like a dog sitting on command, are not inherited.

Example: A plant in a dry pot grows short. Is that inherited or caused by its environment? The plant did not get enough water. That came from where it grew, not from its parents. Answer: its environment

Traits & Variation in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 11 of 17 in 4th grade Science, after Energy from the Sun and before Built to Survive: Plants.

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 trait is…

    • a type of rock
    • a kind of weather
    • a feature of a living thing
    • a place to live

  2. Question 2

    A dog that eats too much becomes heavy. Its weight is affected by…

    • the environment
    • its name
    • its fur color
    • inheritance only

  3. Question 3

    Why don't all salmon in a river look exactly alike?

    • There is variation in traits
    • Water changes their species
    • They are all the same age
    • They are not salmon

  4. Question 4

    Which is an inherited trait?

    • Eye color
    • Knowing how to read
    • A scar from a fall
    • A haircut

  5. Question 5

    Flamingos are pink because of…

    • the cold
    • the sky
    • the food they eat
    • their parents only

  6. Question 6

    Two identical twins grow up eating very different foods. They might differ in…

    • weight
    • eye color
    • blood type
    • number of fingers

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