1. Inherited & Acquired Traits
Mrs. Serena’s Favorite Things ©
Adapted by Mrs. P

2. How are Offspring Like their Parents?
Vocab Alert
Young plants and animals are called offspring.

3. Compare and Contrast. Describe ways that they young tiger cub and its
parent are alike and different.

4. Inherited Traits
Offspring inherit certain traits from their parents. An inherited trait is a characteristic that is passed from parents to offspring.

5. For example: *Eye color and hair color. *A flower’s color or shape.
*The number of arms and legs you have.

6. A frog’s skin color is inherited. How does it help the frog survive?
Did you know?
The traits of an animal or plant often help it survive in its environment.
THINK ABOUT IT!!!
A frog’s skin color is inherited. How does it help the frog survive?

7. Acquired Traits
An acquired trait is a trait that that an animal, plant or person develops through interactions in their environment.
Scars on a manatee
Leaves turned brown
Pierced ears

8. Can you identify the acquired traits and the inherited traits?

9. Inherited trait Acquired or Inherited?
An oak tree has leaves that look similar to other oak trees.
Inherited trait

10. Acquired or Inherited?
A person has green eyes.
Inherited trait

11. Acquired or Inherited?
A mouse with a cut tail.
Acquired trait

12. Acquired or Inherited?
A brown calf has brown parents.
Inherited trait

13. Inherited trait Acquired or Inherited?
A fish has gills to breathe underwater.
Inherited trait

14. Acquired trait Acquired or Inherited?
A tree bent due to the harsh wind blowing.
Acquired trait

15. Acquired or Inherited?
A shark has scars.
Acquired trait

16. Acquired trait Acquired or Inherited?
A plant has growths from insect bites.
Acquired trait

17. Now its your turn….
Let’s make an Inherited traits chart & Acquired traits chart. You will need 1 sheet of copy paper.

18. Now its your turn….
Write Inherited traits on one side of your paper in the center. Put a circle around it. Do the same for Acquired traits on the back side of your paper.

19. Your paper should look like this….
Inherited traits

20. The back of your paper should look like this….
Acquired Traits

21. Now its your turn….
Now you will write at least 3 or more things for each side. Write it neatly. Draw a circle or oval around each one and connect it with a line to the circle in the middle.

22. For example your paper should look like this….
Inherited Traits
Eye color

23. The back of your paper should look like this….
Acquired traits
Pierced Ears

24. You may work on this within your group. You have 10 minutes.
Now its your turn….
You may work on this within your group. You have 10 minutes.

25. Exit Ticket

26. Explain the difference between an inherited and acquired trait.
Give one example of each.
Your exit ticket will look like this but be smaller. Answer the question and give examples.