Student Worksheet

Create Your Own Invertebrate - Activity Instructions

Part A: Describing Words

Step 1.

Start by looking at the picture below:

Imagine if you were meeting an alien from another planet and you needed their help to find your missing cat. However, this alien has never seen a cat, let alone any other Earth animals!

What could you tell the alien about the cat? How would you describe this cat to the alien?

Record some keywords and statements in your workbooks.

Step 2.

Take a look at the statements and words you described the cat with. The naming words are nouns and the words that used to describe the nouns are adjectives. In the statements below you can see that the nouns are highlighted in blue and the adjectives are highlighted in red.

Neat, round head
Long, slender body
A long, thin tail that swishes from side to side and stands straight up sometimes
Short, soft, orange and cream striped fur over the whole body
Two small, soft, pointed ears with very short hair on the outside and pink skin on the inside
Large, wide green eyes
A small, pink, wet nose
Long whiskers that stand out to the side from the cheeks
A smiling mouth that opens to reveal small but very sharp teeth
Four sleek legs
Feet with soft fleshy pads underneath and very sharp, translucent claws
Very loud meow, especially at dinner time!

Now work with an adult to do the same highlighting to the descriptions you created of the cat.

Step 3.

Why did you do this? Scientists use descriptive words to describe any species that they find - using descriptive words helps other scientists (and non-scientists) to understand not only the physical appearance of the species but also the ways they may move and behave. Videos and photos are also good but words capture something about the species that can be quickly read and understood.

You will now be doing the work of an invertebrate scientist, observing invertebrates and describing their appearance and movements using descriptive words.

Fact check:

Invertebrates are animals without a backbone or bony skeleton. Insects, slugs, snails, worms, jellyfish and octopus are all examples of invertebrates.
Vertebrates are animals with a backbone (vertebrae) and bony skeleton. People and cats are examples of vertebrates.

Part B: Describing Invertebrates - From Images

Step 1.

Take a few minutes to flick through the images of the invertebrates on these Invertebrate Flashcards.

Step 2.

Working with an adult, select one image and use as many adjectives as you can to describe it. Record these in your workbook.

If you need help getting started, you could focus on:

Number of legs
Wings if they can see them
Whether they can see antennae and mouthparts
Colours
Head, thorax and abdomen (see Invertebrate Anatomy)
Other interesting features

Repeat with several more invertebrate images. The aim here is to develop a list of words that you can draw on later.

Part C: Describing Invertebrates - Outside

Step 1.

You will now head outside to observe invertebrates in their natural habitat. You will record a series of descriptive words and terms about the physical appearance and movements of the invertebrates that you observe.

You will need to take some writing materials with you, such as a pencil and a workbook.

Before you go, talk to an adult about where you’re going and how you will practice caution and care when observing invertebrates - you don’t want to get stung and you don’t want to harm any invertebrates.

Step 2.

Find an invertebrate to focus on. Take a few minutes to first draw the invertebrate you are observing. You can then start describing the invertebrate using nouns and adjectives. You could add these as annotations/labels to your drawing.

Note: If the invertebrate you are observing is moving, you could also make some quick notes about how it is moving; how would you describe the way it moves and what it is doing?

Step 3.

Once you feel you have recorded as much as you can about the invertebrate you are observing, it’s time to share your observations with an adult.

Keeping the type of invertebrate you observed a secret, give the adult a piece of paper and a pencil. Read out the observations you made to the adult. As you share your observations, the adult should draw what they hear. Continue until you have shared all your descriptors.

Once complete, invite the adult to share their drawing as you reveal the invertebrate you were describing. You could also compare your drawings to see how you both went: what went well and where could more descriptive words and terms have been useful?

Part C: Who Am I? - Optional

Create a ‘who am I?’ text for the invertebrate they observed for someone else in your family. The aim of this type of text is to slowly reveal the invertebrate through each sentence that you write.

You could then create a second page to accompany your text; this second page could include the name and a drawing of the invertebrate. This could be used as the big reveal!

An example of what this could look like can be found here: Who Am I? Example

How many people guess the right invertebrate?

Create Your Own Invertebrate (home learning)

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