Dome Shells and Saddle Shells on Giant Tortoises, Read and Answer

Talk about traits your child shares with family members, then about things that change with food or care. Check with the answer key.

Read how dome shells and saddle shells help Galapagos tortoises reach low plants or high cactus pads. An island is land with water all around it. The directions on the page read: Read the passage. Then, turn the page and answer the questions. On page 2: Circle the letter of the best answer for questions 1 to 3, and write the answers to questions 4 to 6 on the lines. The answer key covers the questions on page 2.

Yes, both. We made it for 3rd Grade living things, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with inherited traits. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

It is a feature an animal gets from its parents, like fur color or shell shape. Kittens in one litter can look different because some look like their mother, some look like their father and others have a mix of both parents' traits.

In some places, song thrushes catch fewer grove snails whose shells are close to the color of the ground, so those snails live longer and have more young with the same shell color. On dry Galapagos islands, a tortoise with a saddle shell can stretch its neck high to reach cactus pads.

NGSS 3-LS3-1, which says young animals inherit traits from their parents and vary within a group, and 3-LS4-2, which says some differences in traits help animals survive and have young. The sort page also touches 3-LS3-2, traits the environment can change.

Yes. All 8 inherited traits sheets have an answer key.