WHAT INVERTEBRATES LIVE AROUND US? (CLIL UNIT)

 Hello! Hello!

Today I would like to share with you the CLIL unit  I prepared for my 10-11 year-old students during the third term. Kids love animals whether they are vertebrates or invertebrates, don't they? Since they had already studied the vertebrates in L1, their teachers and I agreed to deal with the INVERTEBRATES. 

Invertebrate animals are more present in our lives than we  think; that's why I decided to entitled this unit: WHAT INVERTEBRATES LIVE AROUND US?

As usual, I follow the steps described in the post "How I plan a CLIL unit or project". These are the activities that I planned:

1) DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERTEBRATES AND INVERTEBRATES.

 I  created a presentation with several slides. In slide 1 there were two groups of animals: Group 1 (vertebrates) and Group 2 (invertebrates). The title of this slide was : "What are the differences between these two groups of animals? 

Students could already identify the characteristics of vertebrates, so the next questions were "What do vertebrates and invertebrates have in common?"/"What's the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates?" First  they brainstormed ideas related to these two questions and then each group exposed their statements with the whole group. As they were saying things in common and differences, I was writing them in a Jamboard.

2) HOW DO WE CLASSIFY VERTEBRATES AND INVERTEBRATES?

Then I went back to slide 1 and I asked them if they knew how to classify vertebrates. Once they named correctly the five groups of vertebrates, I asked them if they knew how to classify INVERTEBRATES. Here they started struggling...

3) CLASSIFICATION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF INVERTEBRATES

The next step was to discover how to classify INVERTEBRATES and their characteristics. In order to help them construct their own knowledge, they watched videos and filled in the information in the template. This activity can be done in small groups or in pairs. Below you can see an image of the template and you have the link to the videos: Invertebrate videos

4) SUMMARISING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF INVERTEBRATES

When they had filled in all the information, we put it in common. Then they summarised the information in a structure like the one in the image. It is a creation by Ideas Clase ABC and I got it from his Teacher Pay Teachers store (click on the image)

5) OBSERVING INVERTEBRATES AROUND US

The next step was observing invertebrates around us: in the playground, in the lake, in the river, in the sea, in our meals... They had to take photos of the invertebrates they found and identify the group they belonged to and their name (if possible).

6) CREATING A PICTURE BOARD

They showed the photos to their classmates and discuss if they agreed with the group each invertebrate belong to. Then we created a picture board classifying the INVERTEBRATES in ARTHROPODS, ECHINODERMS, MOLLUSKS, CNIDARIANS, SPONGES and WORMS.

Children loved discovering that invertebrates were so different from each other and that there were millions of it in the world and... that we eat some of them!

ANALYSIS OF THE UNIT

Kids love animals and since they are little they come across all types of small animals while they are playing wherever they are.

If I had to implement this unit again, I would include an activity for students to investigate about an INVERTEBRATE they have found or an ENDANGERED INVERTEBRATE.  After their investigation, they would expose it to their classmates.

It would have also liked to create posters to foster the care of oceans for the wellbeing of certain invertebrate, like polyps or sponges.

I hope you have liked this unit and that it inspires you to plan a unit for your students.

Eva💕