Mississippi Science L.6.4.2
The Standard
- L.6.4
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of classification tools and models such as dichotomous keys to classify representative organisms based on the characteristics of the kingdoms: Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals.
Use classification methods to explore the diversity of organisms in kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, protists, bacteria). Support claims that organisms have shared structural and behavioral characteristics.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Adaptations and Diversity
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students sort organisms into five kingdoms using photos and short descriptions. They compare body features and behaviors, then use shared traits to explain why organisms belong together.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given photos and fact cards, students place organisms in the right kingdoms and explain their choices. They can support a claim that bees and butterflies belong together by naming their six legs and nectar feeding.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may place mushrooms with plants because both stay in one spot, or call every microscopic organism a bacterium. Some sort by color or habitat instead of cell structure and how organisms get food.
How to Assess It
- Give students fact cards for a mushroom, fern, paramecium, E. coli, bee, and butterfly. Ask them to label each kingdom, then name one shared body feature and one shared feeding behavior of the bee and butterfly.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs photo-and-fact cards for a fern, mushroom, paramecium, E. coli, bee, and butterfly to sort into five kingdom piles.
Ask, 'Why is a mushroom not a plant?' Have partners write two sentences about how each gets food.
Play Mystery Organism: read clues about cells, food, and movement; teams name the kingdom and explain which clue helped.
Check a yogurt label for live cultures, then compare bacterium and bread mold cell diagrams to identify each kingdom.
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Printable L.6.4.2 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- ZOO.1.3
Recognize that the classification of living organisms is based on their evolutionary history and/or similarities in fossils and living organisms.
- L.6.4
Students will demonstrate an understanding of classification tools and models such as dichotomous keys to classify representative organisms based on the charact...
- BOT.1.1
Analyze models (3-D, paper, and/or computer-based) to distinguish the basic morphology of the plant kingdom, with attention to structures and their related func...
- L.6.1.4
Compare and contrast different cells in order to classify them as a protist, fungus, plant, or animal.
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