Activity overview
Science topics:
Animals, including humans , Living things and their habitats
Put your class' observation skills to the test with these three minibeasts. This activity is great for promoting observation and discussion skills.
Run the activity
1. Show the three images above and ask everyone to come up with as many similarities and differences as they can. If they get stuck, prompt them to think about:
- appearance
- what they do
- where they might be found
2. Then, everyone needs to decide which one is the odd one out and why. Encourage a reason for every answer and there is no wrong answer!
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How to run Odd One Out activitiesBackground science
These three animals are all classified as arthropods which means ‘jointed legs’. The images show an earwig, a wood louse and a common house spider.
This large group of animals includes creatures as diverse as crabs, dragonflies and millipedes. They do not have internal skeletons, as humans do, but are protected by a tough ‘exo-skeleton’. Arthropods are divided into many other groups of animals including insects such as the earwig, crustaceans such as crabs, shrimps and the woodlouse and arachnids, which include spiders and scorpions.
At this stage, children do not need to know this much detail about how these animals are classified. Instead, encourage them to concentrate on observable features such as the number of legs, what the creatures might eat, where they live and what might eat them.
Take it further
Challenge your class to make a classification key for these creatures. They can find out more about classification keys at BBC Bitesize. Your children may also be interested in this Explorify Zoom In, Zoom Out of a spider I spy.