Skip to content
Oak National Academy
Oak National Academy
Teachers
Pupils
New
New
Year 6

Carl Linnaeus and classification

I can describe the work of Carl Linnaeus and his contribution to how we classify living things.

Download all resources
arrow-right
Share activities with pupils
arrow-right
New
New
Year 6

Carl Linnaeus and classification

I can describe the work of Carl Linnaeus and his contribution to how we classify living things.

Download all resources
arrow-right
Share activities with pupils
arrow-right
warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
View new resources
arrow-right

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Taxonomy is the science of naming, describing and grouping all living things.
  2. Scientists have improved classification of organisms over time as they've been able to make more accurate observations.
  3. Carl Linnaeus is most famous for creating a system of naming living things.
  4. His ideas on classification have influenced generations of biologists during, and after, his own lifetime.
  5. His system for naming and classifying living things is still used today.

Keywords

  • Scientist - A scientist is a person who learns about science and carries out enquiries.

  • Organism - An organism is a living thing.

  • Taxonomy - Taxonomy is the science of naming, describing and grouping all living things.

  • Classify - To classify things is to sort them into groups.

  • Carl Linnaeus - Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist and taxonomist who created a scientific naming system for living things.

Common misconception

Pupils may think that animals are classified according to their habitat, for example aquatic animals, or by their method of movement, for example creeping animals.

Explain that Aristotle classified animals into water, air and land groups, but there are problems with this method, e.g. this would put birds, bees and bats in the same group. Use the examples in the lesson to make clear the correct groupings.

Practice task A is a great opportunity to carry out some formative assessment on pupils’ learning about classification in the unit so far. Make note of which groups are being forgotten or confused by pupils so that these can be recapped and discussed as a class or revisited again in a future lesson.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Large paper for Task A would be helpful. Access to the internet and books for research.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Skip lesson video

Loading...

Starter quiz

Download starter quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
Scientists sort living things into groups based on similarities and between their observable characteristics.
Correct Answer: differences, difference, different
Q2.
What do we do when we classify things?
put them into enclosures in zoos
Correct answer: sort them into groups
provide them with a food source
move them from one habitat to another
Q3.
What is an organism?
Correct answer: a living thing
a non-living thing
a body part within a living thing
a group of living things
Q4.
Match the living things to the correct group.
Correct Answer:penguins, ostriches, blue tits ,birds

birds

Correct Answer:guinea pigs, whales, bats ,mammals

mammals

Correct Answer:bees, butterflies, ants ,insects

insects

Correct Answer:snails, octopuses, slugs ,molluscs

molluscs

Correct Answer:sharks, clownfish, salmon ,fish

fish

Q5.
Animals that do not have a backbone or interior skeleton are called .
Correct Answer: invertebrates, invertebrate
Q6.
What do these living things all have in common?
An image in a quiz
they are all mammals
Correct answer: they are all vertebrates
they are all herbivores
they all lay eggs

Exit quiz

Download exit quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
Why didn’t scientists working centuries ago, like Aristotle, identify micro-organisms as living things?
they didn’t think they had the characteristics of living things
Correct answer: they didn’t know they existed because there was no way to see them
they didn’t understand what a living thing was and what it did
Q2.
The science of naming, describing and grouping all living things is called .
Correct Answer: taxonomy, taxonomist, taxonomists
Q3.
What is Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus famous for?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: developing systems for classifying and naming organisms
developing systems for looking after living things
inventing classification
discovering micro-organisms
Q4.
Carl Linnaeus created the binomial system for living things that we still use today. What is the binomial system used for?
discovering organisms
finding organisms
growing organisms
Correct answer: naming organisms
Q5.
Which of these names for this organism uses the binomial system?
An image in a quiz
crane fly
daddy long legs
Correct answer: Tipula lunata
Alis volatilia multa longa crura
Q6.
The language usually used to give organisms names according to Linnaeus’ binomial system is called .
Correct Answer: Latin