Body plan

Okay kiddo, let's talk about body plans. So, imagine if you wanted to build a house. You need to have a plan of what the house will look like, right? A body plan is like a plan for building an animal's body!

Now, every animal has a different body plan. Think of your pet dog and your pet hamster. They have very different body plans! Some animals are tall and skinny, while others are short and round. Some have many legs, while others only have two.

In fact, scientists have come up with a way to group animals based on their body plan. They call these groups "phyla". Animals with similar body plans are put into the same phylum.

Now, let's talk about how this body plan is built. Just like a house needs a foundation, walls, and a roof, an animal's body plan has different parts too. The foundation is the body cavity, which holds all of the important organs. The walls are the muscles and the bones that hold everything together. And the roof is the outer layer, which protects the animal from the environment.

But how does an animal know how to build its body plan? Well, it's all in the genes! Every animal has a set of genes that tell it how to build its body. These genes control things like how many legs an animal will have, or what shape its body will be.

So, there you have it, kiddo! A body plan is like a plan for building an animal's body, and it's controlled by special genes that tell the animal how to grow and develop.