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Classification is putting living things into groups when they have specific things in common, including the way they look and what they do.

Animals can be divided into two groups:

1. Vertebrates - animals with a backbone, like fish and mammals.
2. Invertebrates- animals without a backbone, like insects, spiders and crustaceans.

Vertebrates can be then classified into five main groups:

• fish
• reptiles
• birds
• amphibians
• mammals

Most of the world's species are invertebrates, so there are lots of different ways to group them. Some of the groups that we classify them into are:

• molluscs, like slugs and snails
• crustaceans, like shrimps
• arachnids, like the black widow spider
• worms, like earthworms
• insects, like butterflies or beetles

Plants are classified into two main groups:

1. Plants that make seeds.
2. Plants that don't make seeds.

These two groups can be split into many smaller ones. Plants that make seeds are either flowering plants or conifer trees. Plants that don't make seeds are either ferns or mosses.

Microorganisms are too small to see without using a microscope. They are classified into two main groups:

1. Bacteria
2. Fungi

Viruses are also microorganisms but are not living things. Living things can all:

• feed
• grow
• reproduce
• get rid of waste by going to the toilet.

Viruses don’t need to feed, they copy themselves rather than grow and they don’t need to go to the toilet. So we classify viruses into their own group.