Crazy about Crayfish!

We end the 4th grade year with a science unit on Animal Adaptations and a focus on crayfish! This kids always look forward to this unit in May each year of 4th grade. I start by buying some live crayfish to keep in the classroom. I buy enough so each table group can have one crayfish to observe. These animal cannot be released into the environment, so I ask students to take them home as pets at the end of the unit. They are actually interesting to keep as pets! I keep the crayfish in a large plastic tub with a bubbler and places for the crayfish to hide. I use large cut PVC pipes that I hot glue into the tub before I had water. You need to also add water conditioner to get the chlorine out of the water. Crayfish eat lots of different things, including fish flakes, crayfish pellets, bloodworms, and even carrots. You can get live crayfish from a few different places like, bait stores, Carolina Biological, or Amazon.

We start with a live crayfish lab so kids can get more familiar with these amazing animals. For this lab I give each group a crayfish in a plastic container. I use the plastic shoebox containers from my local Dollar Tree. Buy this lab from my TPT store if you are interested!

We have a few crayfish related bulletin boards in our classroom during the unit. One of those includes vocabulary words. I place these vocabulary words into a narrow pocket chart.

These are a great way to get kids to better understand the vocabulary related to crayfish. Buy these vocabulary words here.

We also make a diagram of the crayfish and place the cards onto the diagram. Just trace the picture of the crayfish onto a sheet of bulletin board paper.

This diagram is a great way for kids to see the names of the different external parts of the crayfish! This diagram helps students as we do out crayfish dissection as well! Buy this pack here.

We also do a dissection of a crayfish with crayfish purchased at the BioCorp or Carolina Biological. The BioCorp crayfish take longer to get, but they are a lot cheaper! I get one crayfish per pair of students. Doing a dissection of the crayfish is not a requirement of the unit.

This dissection lab pack focuses in on the adaptations of crayfish. Buy this dissection lab pack here.

Think about learning about animal adaptations with crayfish! They are a great animal to use in the classroom and they get the kids really excited about science!