Science Vocabulary Ideas: Collaborative anchor charts for inherited traits and learned behaviors

I was thinking about how many of our anchor charts are teacher-made.  Sure, we get student input, but what if we had a way to really include students in our anchor chart-making process?  Collaborative anchor charts are made by groups of students after completing a task.

To make a collaborative anchor chart for science vocabulary, 4 to 8 students work both together and individually under the teacher’s guidance to complete a task, talk about it, and write about it.  In this post, I’ll share an example of how students made a collaborative anchor chart about inherited traits and learned behaviors.

Prep

• I hung up 8 cards with a photo and description of either an inherited trait or learned behavior around the room.
• I set up the skeleton for the anchor chart since we were short on time.  Students can do this instead if you prefer.
• I printed and placed a photo of each organism taped to a sticky note and a lined sticky note at each seat.

Activity

First, students each selected one of the photos based on where they chose to sit that day.  We reviewed our focus vocabulary: organism, instinct, inherited trait, learned behavior, offspring, and species.

Pairs of students walked around to all 8 cards and discussed whether the characteristic described was inherited or learned and WHY. Then, we went over the cards as a whole group.

For the photo each student chose, they individually explained whether the characteristic was inherited or learned and why.  Then, they placed their sticky notes on the T-chart and each presented their card.  Successful activity!  This strategy helped students get some good practice with related vocabulary and they had multiple opportunities to speak, listen, and explain their thinking both verbally and in writing.

Want more charts?

See more collaborative anchor charts for other science topics.