Whenever I ask my primary students what they’d like to learn more about, the answer inevitably involves animals. Young children are intrigued by the creatures who share our environment, especially when it comes to the physical and behavioral adaptations that make them so different from us (and each other!).
An adaptation is a trait that enables an animal to survive in its environment. Adaptations can be behavioral (such as birds migrating south for the winter) or physical (such as the thick coat of a polar bear, which helps it survive bitterly cold temperatures). Additionally, an adaptation is a special skill which helps an animal to survive and do everything it needs to do. Adaptations could be physical changes to the animals body or behavioural changes in how an individual animal or a society do things in their daily lives. An animal that is well adapted to its environment will survive long enough to produce offspring, while animals that are not well adapted usually die before they can reproduce.
