Animals & Nature · Unit 1
What Is an Animal?
What makes something an animal, and what every animal needs
Animals are one branch of life among several, and the features that define the group are less obvious than they look: not fur or legs or movement, but a set of shared characteristics that includes a sponge and excludes a mushroom.
The unit covers what separates animals from plants and from things that were never alive, what every animal needs to survive, the body parts that do those jobs, and the senses animals use to find out about the world.
This unit breaks down into 19 short steps and 112 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 2. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.
- Steps
- 19
- Questions
- 112
- Difficulty
- 1-2
What this unit covers
- Living and Not Living
- What Animals Need
- Animals and Plants
- Animal Body Parts
- Animal Senses
Where this fits
The first unit in the track. Animal Groups is the natural follow-on.
Where people slip
Not all animals move around, and moving does not make something an animal. A barnacle spends its adult life fixed in place, and a Venus flytrap moves and is a plant.
How the unit is structured
What Is an Animal? runs as 19 short steps that unlock in order. 14 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 2 as you progress.
Challenge rounds
Example questions
30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 112 in the unit altogether.
Animal Body Parts
- Choose all that applyLevel 1
1. Which help an animal survive in cold places? Pick all that apply.
- Thick furcorrect
- A layer of fatcorrect
- Small earscorrect
- Thin bare skin
Thick fur, fat layers and small ears all reduce heat loss.
- Match the pairsLevel 1
2. Match each animal to what covers its body.
Answer: Cat = Fur; Robin = Feathers; Snake = Scales; Frog = Damp smooth skin
Different animal groups have different body coverings.
- Multiple choiceLevel 1
3. What is an exoskeleton?
- A hard case on the outside of the bodycorrect
- A bone inside the leg
- A layer of fur
- A type of nest
It is a hard covering on the outside of the body, like a beetle's shell.
- Build the sentenceLevel 2
4. Build a sentence about body plans.
Answer: Body plans shape how animals live
Body plans shape how animals live.
- Fact or fibLevel 2
5. Body plan strongly influences how an animal can move and feed.
Answer: True
True. Symmetry, skeleton and limbs shape an animal's whole way of life.
- Fill the blankLevel 2
6. Animals with a backbone are called ____.
- vertebratescorrect
- mammals
- insects
- reptiles
Vertebrate means having a backbone made of vertebrae.
Animal Senses
- Fact or fibLevel 1
7. A snake uses its tongue to help it smell.
Answer: True
True. It flicks its tongue to pick up smells from the air.
- Picture questionLevel 1
8. 👁️ Which sense does this body part belong to?
- Sightcorrect
- Hearing
- Smell
- Touch
Eyes are for seeing.
- True or falseLevel 1
9. Owls can hear tiny sounds in the dark.
Answer: True
True. Their sharp hearing helps them hunt at night.
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
10. Which senses are found in some animals but not humans? Pick all that apply.
- Electroreceptioncorrect
- Magnetoreceptioncorrect
- Ultraviolet visioncorrect
- Touch
Electroreception, magnetoreception and ultraviolet vision are all beyond human senses.
- Match the pairsLevel 2
11. Match each animal to a sense it is famous for.
Answer: Dog = Smell; Owl = Hearing; Eagle = Sight; Catfish = Taste through the skin
Different animals have different super senses.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
12. Why do many hunting animals have eyes facing forward?
- To judge distance when huntingcorrect
- To see behind them
- To see in colour only
- To sleep better
Forward eyes judge distance well, which helps in chasing prey.
Animals and Plants
- Fact or fibLevel 1
13. Some animals stay in one place all their lives, like adult barnacles.
Answer: True
True. Not all animals move about as adults.
- Fill the blankLevel 1
14. Plants stay in one place because they have ____ in the ground.
- rootscorrect
- legs
- wings
- wheels
Roots hold a plant and drink up water.
- Multiple choiceLevel 1
15. Which of these is true of nearly all animals?
- They eat other living things for energycorrect
- They make food from sunlight
- They live only in soil
- They never move
Animals must eat other living things, because they cannot make their own food.
- Sort into groupsLevel 1
16. Sort each living thing as an animal or a plant.
Answer: Bee = Animal; Fox = Animal; Oak tree = Plant; Grass = Plant
Animals move and eat. Plants stay put and make their own food.
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
17. Which are true of animal cells? Pick all that apply.
- They have a nucleuscorrect
- They have a flexible cell membranecorrect
- They contain mitochondriacorrect
- They have rigid cell walls
They have a nucleus, a flexible membrane and mitochondria, but no cell wall.
- Odd one outLevel 2
18. Which one is NOT an animal?
- Seaweedcorrect
- Jellyfish
- Sea urchin
- Coral
Seaweed is an alga, not an animal.
Living and Not Living
- Choose all that applyLevel 1
19. Which are signs that something is alive? Pick all that apply.
- It growscorrect
- It uses energycorrect
- It responds to its surroundingscorrect
- It is heavy
Growing, using energy, responding and reproducing are all signs of life.
- Fact or fibLevel 1
20. All animals were once babies.
Answer: True
True. Every animal starts small and grows.
- Multiple choiceLevel 1
21. Which of these is a living thing?
- A catcorrect
- A rock
- A spoon
- A cloud
A cat is alive. It grows, eats and breathes.
- Odd one outLevel 1
22. Which one is NOT alive?
- A toy carcorrect
- A frog
- A worm
- A daisy
A toy car is made by people and never grows.
- Fill the blankLevel 2
23. Removing waste products from the body is called ____.
- excretioncorrect
- digestion
- circulation
- migration
Excretion clears out substances the body cannot use.
- Sort into groupsLevel 2
24. Sort each thing as living, once living or never living.
Answer: A goldfish = Living; A wooden log = Once living; A plastic cup = Never living
Wood was once part of a living tree, while plastic never lived.
What Animals Need
- Choose all that applyLevel 1
25. Which do animals need? Pick all that apply.
- Foodcorrect
- Watercorrect
- A safe place to livecorrect
- A television
Food, water and shelter are needs. A television is not.
- Fact or fibLevel 1
26. An animal can live for years with no food at all.
Answer: False
False. Every animal needs food to get energy.
- Fill the blankLevel 2
27. The natural home of an animal is called its ____.
- habitatcorrect
- holiday
- harvest
- hobby
A habitat has everything the animal needs.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
28. What is a habitat?
- The natural place where an animal livescorrect
- An animal's favourite food
- A kind of nest only
- A zoo cage
A habitat is the place where an animal naturally lives and finds what it needs.
- True or falseLevel 2
29. An animal that loses its habitat may struggle to survive.
Answer: True
True. Without the right place to live, food and shelter disappear.
- Type the answerLevel 2
30. What term names the maximum population an environment can sustain?
Answer: carrying capacity
Carrying capacity depends on food, water, space and shelter.
Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.
How you practise
This unit mixes 11 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.
- Build the sentence
- Choose all that apply
- Fact or fib
- Fill the blank
- Match the pairs
- Multiple choice
- Odd one out
- Picture question
- Sort into groups
- True or false
- Type the answer
Practise What Is an Animal?
112 questions across 19 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.
Play this unitRead about What Is an Animal?
Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.
More units in Animals & Nature
- Pets and Farm AnimalsThe animals we live and work with, and how to care for them
- Animal GroupsMammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and creatures without backbones
- Habitats and HomesWhere animals live, from rainforest to polar ice, and the homes they build
- Baby Animals and FamiliesEggs and live young, animal parents, and growing up
- What Animals EatDiets, teeth, hunting, and how energy flows through a food chain
- MammalsFur, milk and warm blood, from bats and whales to big cats
- BirdsFeathers, beaks, flight and song across the bird world
- Reptiles and AmphibiansScales and slime: snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, frogs and newts