Backbone or Not

Sort animals as vertebrates or invertebrates.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 17

The first big split is the backbone. Animals with a backbone are vertebrates. Feel your own back: you're one!
Animals without a backbone are invertebrates, like spiders, snails, crabs, and jellyfish.
Most kinds of animals are invertebrates. Insects alone outnumber all the vertebrates.
Vertebrates split into five groups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:

S5L1.a — Develop a model that illustrates how animals are sorted into groups (vertebrate and invertebrate) and how vertebrates are sorted into groups (fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal) using data from multiple sources.