Adaptations help animals to find and eat food, to avoid predators, to move, and to reproduce.
Students can start by talking about adaptations in many contexts. They can talk about how desert animals are adapted to the harsh heat and dryness of the desert, or how animals in the arctic are adapted to live where it is so very cold and there is a lot of snow. Although the ocean looks undifferentiated to us from shore, there are many different types of habitats there. Others are adapted to live on the bottom or floating in mid-water. This lesson can be introduced and used with the whole class, but you may want to ask students to complete the lesson at a center during work periods.