Offspring resemble parents

Activities to try

1. 1

   Match the family yard

   Why it works: Offspring are like their parents (so you can tell whose young it is from shared features that came from the parent) but not identical copies — and siblings vary from each other too. This holds for plants as well as animals.

   1. Match a jumbled pen of young (foals, puppies, and a plant lane of young plants grown from the parents' seeds) to the parent each one most resembles by dragging or placing them.
   2. When you place a young correctly, name the shared feature you used as evidence (e.g. 'same coat pattern', 'same petal colour'); across the whole set, try to name at least three different shared features (such as eye colour, petal colour, fur type).
   3. Right after each correct match, tap or state ONE way that young differs from its parent (a white paw, a different patch of colour, a different tail shape).
   4. Look at a line-up of five puppies from the same mum and dad and point out how each one is a little different from the others.
   5. Do the same for the plant lane: match young plants that have grown true leaves or flowers to the parent plant by flower colour or leaf shape, then name a difference.
2. 2

   Tap-to-reveal family portrait

   Why it works: Shared features connect young to parent, while flagged differences show the young is not a perfect copy — a clean reference view of resemblance-with-variation.

   1. Look at a parent-and-young portrait (e.g. a mare and foal, or a parent plant and a young plant grown from its seed) and tap a feature on the young.
   2. See the matching feature light up on the parent, and read that it is a feature the young got from its parent.
   3. Tap across a litter or seedling group to see each one flagged as a little different — 'variation'.
   4. Say in your own words which features are shared and which are individual differences.
3. 3

   Check: like but not identical

   Why it works: A child who holds the idea can name both the inherited similarities and the individual differences, and (toward Year 6) explain that young animals, and plants grown from seed, usually get a mix of features from two parents rather than being a copy of one.

   1. Match babies to parents and explain the feature that justified each match.
   2. Answer whether siblings from the same parents are identical or varying, and give a reason.
   3. Find the 'odd one out' difference within a litter or seedling group.
   4. Respond to a reasoning prompt: a puppy has its mother's floppy ears and brown fur, but a differently shaped tail and a white patch she lacks — are the puppy and its mum exactly the same, or not, and why?