how can I arrange a slide with a smaller font and aligned

Question

I am trying to find a way to make the font in a smaller font and arrange them

\documentclass[11pt] {beamer}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{ the title of elepants}
\begin{itemize}
\item  {\footnotesize how the animal survive}
\item  {\footnotesize response }

\small Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea. Three species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), the African forest elephant (L. cyclotis), and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea; other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mastodons, anancids and stegodontids; Elephantidae itself also contains several now extinct groups, such as the mammoths and straight-tusked elephants.
All elephants have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk (also called a proboscis), used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water, and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. Elephants' large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. Their pillar-like legs can carry their great weight. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs.


\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end {document} 

Answer 1

if you like to have all itemize lists in your presentation with smaller fonts as they are defined as default, than just add to preamble for example:

\setbeamerfont{itemize/enumerate body}{size=\footnotesize}
\setbeamerfont{itemize/enumerate subbody}{size=\scriptsize}

with this and considering @Sigur comment where he pointed to Gonzalo Medina answer which solve justifying of text, the mwe is:

\documentclass[11pt] {beamer}
\setbeamerfont{itemize/enumerate body}{size=\footnotesize}
\setbeamerfont{itemize/enumerate subbody}{size=\scriptsize}
\usepackage{ragged2e}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{The title of elephants}
text
\begin{itemize}
\item   how the animal survive
\item  response

\justifying
Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea. Three species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), the African forest elephant (L. cyclotis), and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea; other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mastodons, anancids and stegodontids; Elephantidae itself also contains several now extinct groups, such as the mammoths and straight-tusked elephants.

All elephants have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk (also called a proboscis), used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water, and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. Elephants' large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. Their pillar-like legs can carry their great weight. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs.
\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end{document}