Mississippi Science L.K.4.2
The Standard
- L.K.4
- Students will demonstrate an understanding that some groups of plants and animals
Observe and report how some present-day animals resemble extinct animals (i.e., elephants resemble woolly mammoths).
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 look at pictures of animals living today and animals that are extinct. They name body parts that look alike and tell one way the animals differ.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student points to the trunk in both an elephant photo and a mammoth picture. They say the elephant is living today, but mammoths are extinct.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think mammoths are hairy elephants that still live somewhere. They may think animals that look alike are the same animal.
How to Assess It
- Show an elephant photo and a mammoth picture. Ask each child to name one shared body part and point to the animal that is extinct.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs elephant and mammoth picture cards; have them sort trunk, tusk, and shaggy fur cards into 'both' or 'one' piles.
Show an elephant photo beside a mammoth picture and ask, 'What looks alike? What looks different?'
Play a matching game with elephant, mammoth, sloth, and giant ground sloth cards; children name one shared feature to keep each pair.
Show a zoo elephant photo and a museum mammoth display photo; have children make a sign naming one shared feature.
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Printable L.K.4.2 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- MAQ.7.2
Identify characteristics that are shared and derived using graphical representations of animal evolution and develop cladograms/phylogenetic trees.
- ZOO.8.7
Compare and contrast living and extinct reptiles.
- L.8.4B
Students will demonstrate an understanding of how similarities and differences among living and extinct species provide evidence that changes have occurred in o...
- L.K.4.1
Obtain information from informational text or other media to document and report examples of different plants or animals that are extinct.
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