Grade by Grade
B. Life Systems · Growth and Changes in Animals

Growth and Changes in Animals: Unit Review

B1.1 B1.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2.3 B2.4 B2.5 A1.1 A1.2 A1.3 A1.4 A1.5 A2.1 A2.2 A3.1 A3.3About 40 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can compare animals' characteristics and describe how they move.
  • I can describe and compare the life cycles of insects, amphibians, birds and mammals.
  • I can explain physical and behavioural adaptations.
  • I can describe how animals and people affect each other, and how we can protect animals.

Words to know

characteristic
Something you can observe about an animal, like its body covering or number of legs.
life cycle
The stages an animal goes through from the start of its life until it is an adult that has young.
metamorphosis
A big change in body shape as an animal grows, like tadpole to frog.
adaptation
A body part or behaviour that helps an animal survive in its habitat.
habitat
The natural home of an animal.

Let's review!

You have learned a lot about how animals grow and change. This review has a few questions from every lesson in the unit. Try each one, then press Show answer to check. If a part feels tricky, go back to that lesson for more practice.

Mammalfur or hairbabies drink milkBirdfeathers,wings and a beakFishscales, finsand gillsAmphibiansoft, moist skinyoung live in waterReptiledry scalesbreathes airInsect6 legs,3 body parts
Six animal groups and their big clues. Use these clues when you sort an animal: look at its body covering first!

Comparing Animals: Body Coverings and Body Parts

1

A little brown bat has fur, flies, and its baby drinks milk. Which group is it in?

2

How can you tell an insect from a spider?

3

Give one way a loon and a beaver are the same and one way they are different.

Characteristics That Stay the Same and Characteristics That Change

1

Name one characteristic of a snowshoe hare that changes and one that stays the same.

2

Which animals grow antlers: male moose, female caribou, robins?

3

A puppy was 24 cm long. Four weeks later it was 30 cm long. How much did it grow?

How Animals Move

1

How does a garter snake move without legs?

2

Does a northern flying squirrel fly or glide?

3

In a fair jumping test, what should you change, and what should you keep the same?

Insect Life Cycles: The Monarch Butterfly and the Grasshopper

1

Put the monarch stages in order: butterfly, egg, chrysalis, caterpillar.

2

What are the 3 stages of a grasshopper's life cycle?

3

Give one way a monarch caterpillar's behaviour is different from a butterfly's.

Amphibian Life Cycles: From Egg to Frog

1

How does a tadpole breathe? How does an adult frog breathe?

2

What is a froglet?

3

Give one safety rule for exploring a pond.

Bird and Mammal Life Cycles

1

Put a robin's life in order: nestling, adult, egg, fledgling, hatchling.

2

How is a gosling different from a robin hatchling?

3

Where and when are black bear cubs born?

Comparing Life Cycles (and Coding Them!)

1

Sort: frog, moose, monarch, robin. Which go through metamorphosis?

2

Find the bug: egg → nestling → hatchling → fledgling → adult

3

Write "forward 1, forward 1, forward 1, forward 1" in a shorter way.

Adaptations: How Animals Survive Where They Live

1

Is a red squirrel storing cones a physical or behavioural adaptation?

2

Name one physical adaptation of a beaver and tell how it helps.

3

What did the blubber glove experiment show?

How Animals Affect People and the Environment

1

Give one positive impact of beavers and one negative impact.

2

How can people stop raccoons from getting into garbage?

3

Name one way Inuit people use caribou or seals.

Protecting Animals and Their Habitats

1

Name 2 practices that protect animals.

2

What are the steps of the engineering design process?

3

How do trail cameras and code help scientists?

Animals growand changeGroups:fur, feathers, scalesLife cycles:egg → young → adultAdaptations:what it has, what it doesPeople and animals:impacts and protectingMetamorphosis:a big change in shape
The big ideas of this unit. Which one was your favourite?
Riddle time

I start as an egg, then I wiggle and swim. I lose my long tail and hop out on a limb. What am I?

A frog!

How to use this review

  • Do the review over two short sittings if your child gets tired. Each section matches one lesson.
  • Read questions aloud. Accept answers that are said, drawn or pointed to. Short spoken answers are fine in Grade 2 science.
  • Ask "How do you know?" Good scientists explain their thinking.
  • Note which section had mistakes, then revisit that lesson's activity. Doing it is often the best way to learn it.
Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which animal is a mammal?

2.

Which characteristic of a white-tailed deer changes every year?

3.

How does a northern flying squirrel move through the air?

4.

What is a monarch's pupa called?

5.

What does a tadpole use to breathe?

6.

A young robin that has just left the nest is a...

7.

Which animal's babies look like small adults?

8.

Which is a behavioural adaptation?

9.

Which is a positive impact of an animal on people?

10.

Which practice helps turtles cross roads safely?

For parents and teachers

Use mistakes to choose what to revisit. Each review section matches one lesson.

  • Calls whales or beavers fish, or spiders insects: revisit Comparing Animals: Body Coverings and Body Parts and redo the animal card.
  • Thinks a white hare and a brown hare must be different animals, or measures unfairly: revisit Characteristics That Stay the Same and Characteristics That Change.
  • Names a movement but not the body part, or says flying squirrels fly: revisit How Animals Move and the jump test.
  • Mixes up the order of monarch stages, or nymph and larva: revisit Insect Life Cycles: The Monarch Butterfly and the Grasshopper and the life cycle spinner.
  • Confuses gills and lungs, or which legs grow first: revisit Amphibian Life Cycles: From Egg to Frog.
  • Mixes up hatchling, nestling and fledgling, or thinks mammals hatch from eggs: revisit Bird and Mammal Life Cycles.
  • Cannot tell metamorphosis from growing up, or struggles with step order in code: revisit Comparing Life Cycles (and Coding Them!) and play the robot game.
  • Mixes up physical and behavioural adaptations: revisit Adaptations: How Animals Survive Where They Live (ask "Does it have it, or do it?").
  • Sees animals only as "good" or "bad", or only one point of view: revisit How Animals Affect People and the Environment.
  • Cannot name ways to protect animals, or skips testing in design: revisit Protecting Animals and Their Habitats and build the feeder.

A few mistakes are normal. Praise careful observing and good explanations, not only correct answers.