Book 5

Fur, Feathers, and Bark: Animal and Plant Coverings

Synopsis

All living things, including plants and animals, have a surface that acts as a boundary between their insides and the outside world. Fur, Feathers, and Bark looks at the variety of forms this surface takes, including the functions of insulation and camouflage. We can observe the coverings of many different kinds of living things in our everyday world and investigate their structures, their adaptations, the ways in which these help their owners to fit their environment, and any manufacturing processes used to adapt the coverings for human use (for example, into fibres or fabrics).

Levels: 1-4

Strand: Living World

Achievement aim:
AA2: Investigate and understand relationships between structure and function in living organisms.

Concept overview

Use the concept overview, which is also on the inside front cover of the book, as a reference for the concepts that relate to Fur, Feathers, and Bark: Animal and Plant Coverings.

• The concepts are the building blocks for the column: each column is defined by a "big idea".
• The arrows show the links between concepts and how they might build in sequence. Teachers can choose to develop a narrow focus by moving up the template or a broad focus by following arrows across.
• Each "big idea" shows how a fully developed understanding of the supporting concepts might look. Such an understanding might not be achieved until level 7 or 8. The big ideas are included here to help you build appropriate concepts with your students, whatever their age.

Read the concept overview. To view it, you will need Acrobat Reader.

A picture pack is available in schools to support activities in the book.

Writers – Rosemary Hipkins, Peter Llewellyn
Specialist Adviser – Dr Bob Brockie

Links with other titles in the series

Book 3. Birds (L1-4, Living World: AA2)
Book 7. The Bush (L3-4, Living World: AA1)
Book 35. Is This a Plant? (L1-2, Living World: AA1)
Book 52. Is This an Animal? (L1-2, Material World: AA2; Physical World: AA2)
Book 53. Keeping Warm (L1-2, Material World: AA2; Physical World: AA2)
Book 54. Insulation (L3-4, Living World: AA1)
Book 55. Fabrics (L3-4, Material World: AA1, AA2, AA4)
Book 56. Mammals (L3-4, Living World: AA1)

Assessment resources

Visit the 'Building Science Concept' page on the Assessment Resource Banks (ARB) website to find ARB resources that assess the 'big idea' learning outcomes referred to in the concept overview for this title.