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Animal, Vegetal, Mineral

This game is relevant if you have previously defined what are an animal, a plant and a mineral with non transformed examples. Indeed, the propositions above are all (or almost) transformed materials and substances.

The first step is to define the terms "animal", "plant" and "mineral" (with examples either during an outing or an image):

  • mineral is a non-living matter, often solid. Ex: sand, a rock. A mineral does not move, does not breathe, does not reproduce.
  • plant is a living being that needs only soil, water and light to live and develop. A plant does not move or very little but it reproduces and breathes. Ex: a tree, an algae.
  • An animal is a living being that needs to eat to grow. Often (but not always) an animal moves to find food. Ex: an ant, a tadpole. An animal breeds and breathes.

The second step is to find by-products or parts of an animal, a plant and a mineral (with examples to support).

  • Lava (molten rock), sand (crushed rock) or a pebble (eroded rock) are three examples of minerals because they originated from the rock which is a mineral.
  • A fruit, a leaf, a seed, a flower are parts of a plant.
  • A feather, a parchment (animal skin), ink (cuttlefish), ossicles are all of animal origin because they are parts of animals.

The last step is the eduMedia animation. It consists in discovering the animal, vegetal or mineral origin of objects transformed by man (or animal). It is therefore an investigative process that will have to be conducted with the student to go back to the origin of the product.

  • A can is made of aluminum. It is a metal extracted from an ore (bauxite) and processed by man in a metallurgical plant. Its origin is mineral. This is also the case of salt, which is a mineral dissolved in seawater that man extracts by evaporation.
  • A piece of furniture is an assembly of wooden planks carved by man. This wood comes exclusively from the trunk of a tree. Its origin is therefore vegetal. The same applies to sunflower oil or maple syrup which come respectively from pressed seeds and boiled sap.
  • The leather of a shoe comes from the skin of an animal prepared in a tannery, then sewn. Cheese is also of animal origin because it consists of fermented milk that is then matured.

Drag each thumbnail onto its category.

Photo credits. All photos come from the Pixabay website (licence CC0 1.0) except sugar (CSIRO - Licence CC BY 3.0), coral (NOAA Photo Library - Public domain), glass (All rights reserved Verre-avenir).

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