It’s Time for a Monster Mashup! Inherited Traits Project

Looking for an exciting way to assess your students’ understanding of inherited traits and learned behaviors? Give the Monster Mashup Science project a try! This enjoyable and captivating activity combines science, writing, and art by encouraging students to create a parent monster and its offspring, documenting the traits and peculiar behaviors they inherit.

This printable resource pack includes a variety of materials and activities to help reinforce understanding of learned behaviors and inherited traits. It also provides additional writing activities to encourage cross-curricular instruction, which is always a plus!

This resource download includes the following resources.

• 8 Monster Parent Cards featuring physical traits and information about parent behavior
• Monster Traits Brainstorm – Students will brainstorm ideas for a monster family. They will decide which physical and behavioral traits they prefer.
• 2 Monster Offspring Organizers – Students will use the two parent cards they selected during the brainstorming to determine which traits the offspring will inherit and which they will learn from their parents. Then, they will write to explain why they chose those traits and whether the offspring inherited traits from one parent or both.
• Monster Offspring Comparison – Students will compare and contrast the two monster offspring to determine which traits they did/did not share.
• Monster Family Artwork – Students will draw their monster family to show what traits were both inherited and learned.
• Monster Family Mashup Reflection- Students will reflect on the similarities and differences between siblings based on their monster family appearance.

Download and Print Your Monster Traits Project Today!

This resource is available as an easy-to-use Google Slides or Printable PDF Resource file. To get your copy, click the dropdown arrow on the download button to select your preferred file format. Make your copies, pass them out to your students, and you’re ready to begin!

This resource was created by Brittany Kellogg, a teacher in Ohio and Teach Starter Collaborator.

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