Friday, August 12, 2011

Invertebrates - What Are Mollusks?

Mollusks are soft-bodied animals which often live in hard shells. There are over 50,000 species of mollusks.









Examples are:
  • snails
  • slugs
  • squid
  • mussels
  • clams
  • scallops
  • chitons
  • cuttlefish 
  • oysters
  • octopuses

Activity 1




  • Put out an assortment of shells for students to observe.
  • Have students use their senses to observe and examine the shells. (shape, color, texture, etc.)
  • Have students put the shells into groups based on characteristics that they observe. (color, size, shape, texture, etc.)
  • Have students explain what characrteristis they used to group the shells.
  • Older students can try to regroup the shells using different characteristics.
  • Again students should explain what characteristics they used to group the shells.







Activity 2
  • Students can use field guides or pocket guides to identify shells according to scientific classifications.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashells (National Audubon Society Field Guides)    Unix C Shell Field Guide      

A Field Guide to Shells of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and the West Indies (The Peterson Field Guide Series ; 3)       Texas Shells: A Field Guide (Elma Dill Russell Spencer Foundation Series)



Seashells of North America: A Guide to Field Identification (Golden Field Guides)   Shells (National Audubon Society First Field Guides)   



Activity 3
  • Younger students can trace shells and color in their pictures.
  • Older students can sketch pictures of the shells and use the field guides to label the shells.


Shells (Peterson Field Guide Color-In Books)

Activity 4

Students can watch a video and learn a song about mollusks.



Activity 5

Students can collect shells at a beach.




Activity 6

Students can read books about mollusks.


About Mollusks: A Guide for Children  The Shell Book  A Project Guide to Sponges, Worms, and Mollusks (Life Science Projects for Kids)


Seashells, Crabs & Sea Stars (Take Along Guides)  Slugs  Slugs and Snails (Minibeasts)

A Slug's Life (Nature Upclose)   What Lives in a Shell? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)   Clam-I-Am!: All About the Beach (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)

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1 comment:

  1. What a great collection of shells. I'm looking forward to when we learn about mollusks in our swimming creatures book.

    ReplyDelete

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