Why Flamingos Turn Pink, Read and Answer

Ask your child to name one thing they got from family, like eye color, and one thing they learned, like riding a bike. Then read each passage and sort what is inherited from what comes from food or practice. Check with the answer key.

Read why flamingo chicks hatch gray or white and turn pink from the shrimp and algae they eat. To wade means to walk through shallow water. 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 vs acquired traits. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

An inherited trait comes from the parents, like a flamingo's long legs and bent beak. An acquired trait depends on how an animal lives, like a flamingo's pink color, which comes from the shrimp and algae it eats.

Both. A white-crowned sparrow is born able to sing, but it learns its exact song by listening to grown males. Scientists found that young sparrows that never heard a grown male sing still sang, but their songs were much simpler.

NGSS 3-LS3-2, which asks children to use evidence that the environment can change traits, and 3-LS3-1 on traits inherited from parents. A flamingo that gets less shrimp and algae grows paler feathers.

Yes. All 4 inherited vs acquired traits sheets have an answer key.