Science Scheme | Year 6 | Block 2: Evolution and Inheritance | Lesson 1: What are Characteristics and Why do they Matter?
Introduce your Year 6 pupils to the fascinating topic of evolution and inheritance with this engaging science lesson on characteristics. Designed to meet the Year 6 science curriculum, this lesson builds foundational knowledge by exploring how living things can be grouped based on their features. Children learn what characteristics are, how they help us classify living things, and how fossils give clues about animals from the past.
Through guided discussion, classification activities and hands-on fossil sorting tasks, pupils begin to understand that living things have changed over time. This lesson also revisits key concepts from earlier in primary science and lays the groundwork for deeper learning on inheritance and evolution in later lessons.
What’s included:
- Structured lesson plan with clear objectives
- Slides introducing characteristics, classification and fossils
- Differentiated worksheets featuring modern and ancient organisms
- Plenary questions to assess understanding
- Vocabulary support for key terms like characteristics, fossils, species
Teaching tip
Use this lesson to refresh prior knowledge of classification and fossils from earlier key stages. Encourage discussion around physical traits that link different species and prompt children to draw comparisons between modern animals and ancient ones using fossil evidence.
