Sort Animals and Plants into Biomes

Teach students about the ecosystems and biomes with a SORT about animals and plants that live in different biomes. In this station, students sort a variety of plants and animals into one of four biomes, savanna, temperate forest, freshwater, or ocean biomes.

What is Included in the Ecosystems Sort Station

Included in the Sort about Ecosystems are:

• Reading passage about Biomes
• Larger table-group color sorting cards that include a colorful image, description, and name of the plant or animal
• Smaller cut and paste sort for individual students
• Differentiated questions in short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice formats. Worksheet and task cards are included for some options.
• Answer key

Read about Biomes

This sort includes a reading passage about Biomes. The reading passage is written at a third-grade reading level and goes into detail about each of the biomes in the sorting activity: savanna, temperate forest, freshwater, and ocean.

Students use the reading passage and the bullet points on each of the sorting cards to determine how the plants and animals survive.

For instance, the baobab tree has the following bullet points:

• Stores up to 26,000 gallons of water in its trunk to get it through the long dry season.
• Found in Africa

After reading the description in the reading passage about the Savanna biome, students can determine that the baobab tree lives in the savanna because it is found in Africa and lives in a place with a long dry season.

Collaboratively Sort Plants and Animals into Biomes

There are two ways to do this sort. One way is in groups where students collaboratively read over the descriptions and analyze the images of each plant or animal to organize them into their natural biomes.

Students can organize the plants and animals into four different natural biomes: Freshwater, Savanna, Temperate Forest, and Ocean. Some of the animals included in this sort are baobab tree, sea anemone, platypus, and woodpecker, in addition to those that you see above.

This sort has colorful images that students analyze, as well as descriptions of how the animals and plants survive in their environment.

Cut and Paste Sort Option

The second way to do the sort is a cut and paste option. Students can do both options: sort color option as a whole group and the cut and paste option individually. Or you can choose to have students do only one option.

The cut and paste option is all in black and white and a worksheet format. Students look at the image, read the brief description, and determine which biome the plant or animal belongs to.

The cut and paste option works great as a follow-up activity or even a homework activity.

Differentiated Responses

Like all of our science stations, differentiated responses are available for students to demonstrate their understanding. The differentiated responses are available in several formats: short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice. A task card version is also available.

How to Purchase the Ecosystems Science Station

This Ecosystems Sort Science Station can be purchased on Teachers Pay Teachers. It is sold individually and part of a whole Ecosystems -Biomes and Biodiversity Science Stations. Also available is a Third Grade NGSS Science Station BUNDLE.

Also available is a 5E Unit all about Ecosystems and Biodiversity. This 5E unit goes in-depth on Magnetism using the 5E process.

Would you like a Free Science Station?

I have a set of free science stations for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Click here or the image below to access them.

More Blog Posts about the Science Stations