Animals Around Us
Primary 3 · Science and Elementary Technology
Animals Around Us
Lesson 2 of 3
13 min
Let's begin
At break time Ishimwe lies down on the grass and keeps very still. He is not sleeping. He is watching.
An ant hurries past his hand on six tiny legs. A bird flaps across the football pitch without touching the ground once. A grasshopper springs away from his shoe in one enormous jump.
Three animals, three completely different ways of getting from here to there. Why? Today you will find out — and you will also find out what each of them eats.
An animal cannot choose how to move. It moves with the body it was born with. Legs are for walking. Wings are for flying. Fins and a strong tail are for swimming. And if an animal has no legs at all, it must slide its whole body along the ground.
The cow, the goat, the dog, the mouse — and you — all push against the ground with legs. A goat has 4 legs. A hen has 2. An ant has 6. A spider has 8.
A bird has wings. It beats them downwards against the air, and the air pushes it up. Butterflies and bees fly too.
The little isambaza fish of Lake Kivu has no legs and no wings. It has fins to steer with and a strong tail to push with. It bends its body left, right, left, right — and shoots forward through the water.
A snake has no legs. An earthworm has no legs. They stretch and squeeze their long bodies, gripping the ground with their belly, and slide slowly forward.
A frog and a grasshopper have short front legs and big, folded back legs. They straighten those back legs suddenly, like a spring letting go — and away they fly through the air. A rabbit does the same thing when it runs.
Take one duck and watch it all day. Do not guess — watch.
Morning, in the yard: it waddles about on two legs. That is walking.
Midday, in the pond: it paddles along with wide, webbed feet. That is swimming.
Evening, when the dog barks: it beats its wings and lifts over the fence. That is flying.
So a duck moves in three ways: walking, swimming and flying.
Here is the big lesson: an animal is not stuck with only one way of moving. A frog hops and swims. A hen walks and flaps up into a tree. So watch the whole animal before you decide.
Animals are also different in what they eat. There are three groups.
They eat grass, leaves, fruit and grain — never meat. The cow, the goat, the sheep and the rabbit are plant eaters. So is the mountain gorilla, which spends its day eating leaves and stems in the forest.
They eat the flesh of other animals. A cat catches a mouse. An eagle carries off a chick. A lion in Akagera hunts a zebra. A crocodile waits, very still, in the river.
A hen pecks maize grains — and then snaps up a grasshopper and swallows it. A pig eats peelings and worms. A dog eats leftovers and bones. And you? You eat beans and bananas and meat. You eat both too.
Uwase gently opens her goat's mouth and looks inside.
What she sees: wide, flat teeth at the back, and no long pointed fangs anywhere.
What the goat does with them: it moves its jaw round and round, side to side, like a grinding stone.
Why that matters: grass and leaves are tough and stringy. They must be crushed and ground before they can be swallowed. Flat teeth do exactly that job.
So: the goat is a plant eater.
Now do the same test on a cat. Its teeth are long, sharp and pointed — made for gripping and tearing. Tearing what? Meat. So the cat is a meat eater. The teeth told you before you ever saw it eat.
Tip
Two little tricks to remember:
For moving — look at the body. Legs → walk. Wings → fly. Fins → swim. No legs → crawl. Big back legs → hop.
For eating — look at the teeth. Flat teeth grind plants. Sharp, pointed teeth tear meat.
Answer first, then tap Show answer to check.
A crocodile has long, sharp, pointed teeth. Plant eater or meat eater?
Answer: Meat eater. Sharp pointed teeth are for gripping and tearing flesh. They are no good at all for grinding grass.
How does an earthworm move, and why can it not walk?
Answer: It crawls, stretching and squeezing its body along the ground. It cannot walk because it has no legs at all.
Mutesi's hen eats maize in the morning and catches a termite in the afternoon. Which group does the hen belong to?
Answer: It eats both plants and animals. Never decide after seeing only one meal — watch the animal all day.
Which of these moves in more than one way: a snake, a duck, or an earthworm?
Answer: The duck. It walks, it swims and it flies. The snake and the earthworm can only crawl.
A rabbit has strong back legs and wide flat teeth. Without watching it, predict two things: how does it move, and what does it eat?
Answer: It hops (those strong back legs work like a spring), and it eats plants — grass and leaves (flat teeth grind them). The body of an animal tells you its story.
What you learned today
Quick check
Match the body to the way the animal moves.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
