Resources required

Photocopied sheet of four puppies, all very different, with spaces for the next two generations to be filled in.

Learning activity

• Give out the photocopied sheet and discuss the different puppies. Which would be best at hunting in the wild? Which would survive best in a hard year? If they had puppies the next year, what might their puppies look like?

• Students should draw on the sheet to complete the diagram and then record their ideas.

• Discuss and explain the idea that life began as very simple living things that changed and developed over a huge period of time.

Learning outcomes

Explain how environmental pressures can lead to selection of the fittest animals andplants for survival and breeding.

Extension work

A cow and a wolf are both mammals with four legs. List the similarities they have and the ways they are adapted for their lifestyle, e.g. sharp teeth for cutting meat, flat teeth for eating grass - perhaps using labelled drawings.

Special needs

Higher ability could develop the ideas of adaptation into a presentation to the class.
Lower ability could draw a wolf and label the things it needs to be successful.