Are spiders related to crabs? Study the order of arthropods with a reading selection about animal diversity. It provides details about each class within the order, as well as vivid pictures and explanatory charts. 

Concepts

arthropods, exoskeletons, animal classification, phylogeny, insect anatomy, arachnids, spiders, crabs, crustaceans

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Use in conjunction with your unit on arthropods, or when covering animal and insect classification
• Put your class into small groups or pairs and assign a shorter range of pages to read; they can report what they have learned to their classmates, possibly with visual aids
• Bring in examples of arthropods if you can for kids to observe
• Divide the class into three large groups to represent the arachnids, the horseshoe crabs, and the sea spiders; have them conduct research on their animals, play competitive learning games, or complete other activities (such as this reading assignment) in these groups
• Bridge the lesson between a language arts class and a life science class by reading and analyzing the informational text in language arts, and conducting additional research or experiments in science

Classroom Considerations

• Resource is in color, but should still be understandable if printed and copied in black-and-white

Pros

• Page 46 has an excellent chart of the major orders of insects, complete with examples, characteristics, pictures, and approximate number of named species
• Provides a strong summary of the chapter as well as nine comprehension questions

Cons

• None