Label the Parts of a Whale – Diagram Worksheet for Kids

All 13 parts on the diagram

Show the list

Start here: 6 main parts 6

Flukes The two wide halves of the tail. They lie flat and beat up and down to push the whale along, unlike a fish's upright tail.
Dorsal fin The fin on the back. A humpback's is short and varies from almost nothing to curved.
Pectoral fin The flipper, the whale's front limb. A humpback's is about a third as long as its body, with bumps along its front edge.
Blowholes The nostrils, on top of the head. The whale breathes through them at the surface. Baleen whales have two. Toothed whales have one.
Baleen Plates that hang from the upper jaw in place of teeth. The whale strains krill and small fish from the water through them.
Blubber A thick layer of fat under the skin. Laced with fibers and blood vessels.

The humpback's head: 6 5

Eye The eye, just behind the corner of the mouth.
Rostrum The upper jaw and snout. A humpback's is thin, and knobbly with tubercles.
Tubercles The round knobs on a humpback's head and jaws. One of the marks of the species.
Lower jaw The lower jaw, which closes up under the baleen.
Throat grooves Pleats running from the tip of the lower jaw to the navel. They stretch open so the mouth can take in a huge gulp of water.

A toothed whale: 2 2

Melon The mass of fat in the forehead of every toothed whale. Scientists think it focuses the sounds used in echolocation.
Teeth A toothed whale's teeth, in place of baleen. Toothed whales catch fish and squid rather than straining food.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-27. (1) Wikipedia, Humpback whale, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpback_whale : a thin rostrum, flippers about a third of the body length, tubercles on the head, a short dorsal fin varying from nearly nothing to curved, grooves from the tip of the lower jaw to the navel, baleen plates lining the upper jaw, tail flukes. (2) Wikipedia, Whale, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale : blowholes are modified nostrils on top of the head; blubber under the skin; baleen whales strain krill and plankton; throat pleats let the mouth expand. (3) Wikipedia, Cetacean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean : the fluke set horizontally and moved up and down, unlike a fish's tail; forelimbs are flippers; nearly all have a dorsal fin. (4) Wikipedia, Blowhole (anatomy): baleen whales two blowholes, toothed whales one. (5) Wikipedia, Blubber: a thick layer of vascularized fat under the skin of all cetaceans, laced with collagen fibres. (6) Wikipedia, Melon (cetacean): a mass of fat in the forehead of all toothed whales, thought to focus the sounds of echolocation. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-05 by script. The outline of the whole humpback (back, belly, flipper, dorsal fin, flukes, mouth line, eye, the sweep of the throat grooves) was read off a public domain plate: Megaptera novaeangliae, United States National Marine Fisheries Service, 1987 (Wikimedia Commons, Megaptera novaeangliae NOAA.jpg; public domain). Changed from the plate: the flipper a little longer, the far fluke raised so both halves show, the dorsal fin a little taller, and in the head view the lower jaw turned open and the baleen added. The close-up of the blubber and the dolphin head are own drawings; public domain NOAA Fisheries and NASA photographs of dolphins were looked at for form, not traced. Not to scale between views. Licence: own drawing; outline after a public domain plate

How it works

To label the parts of a whale, write a name on the line for each of thirteen numbers. They are on three drawings: a humpback from the side, its head with the mouth open, and a toothed whale's head.

Read the full guide

Whale diagram labeling worksheet for kids: word bank

In alphabetical order: baleen, blowholes, blubber, dorsal fin, eye, flukes, lower jaw, melon, pectoral fin, rostrum, teeth, throat grooves, tubercles. Four numbers are on the whole humpback, one of them in the round close-up of a cut into its side. Seven are on its head and two on the toothed whale.

Whale labeling: the names that get mixed up

Two pairs get swapped on the head. Rostrum and lower jaw are the top and the bottom of the open mouth, lines 7 and 9. Tubercles and throat grooves are the knobs above the mouth and the pleats below it, lines 8 and 10. On the whole whale, the flukes are at the tail end and the dorsal fin is on the back.

Flipper is right on line 3: it is the everyday name for the pectoral fin.
For a shorter sheet, choose the six main parts under Start from: flukes, dorsal fin, pectoral fin, blowholes, baleen and blubber.

Questions and answers

What are the bumps on a humpback whale's head?

Tubercles. They are rich in nerves and may work as a sense organ. Among large whales only the humpback has them, on its head and along the front edge of its flippers.

What comes out of a whale's blowhole?

Its breath. The whale breathes out hard at the surface, and the water vapor in the breath condenses in the colder air. That is the spout, known as the blow, and its shape differs between species.

Does a humpback whale have teeth?

No. A humpback is a baleen whale: baleen hangs from its upper jaw in place of teeth. That is why the teeth and the melon on this sheet are on a second head, a toothed whale's.

What does Megaptera mean?

Giant wing. Megaptera is the humpback's genus name, from Ancient Greek, and it refers to the large front flippers. They let a humpback swim in any direction.