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Living Things and Their Habitats

Science Year 4 Help Our Habitats!

Your local council needs you! They want to turn an old industrial site in your town back to a wildlife haven. Which plants and animals would have lived here? What do they need to be able to live here again? Learn about wildlife and their habitats. How have their environments changed? What can we do to help them?

block outcomes Background Science

Session 1 Our environment

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Objectives

How has our local environment changed? Consider aspects of your school grounds that have changed and have a class debate about a hypothetical scenario that would bring about environmental change.

Science Objectives
i) How has our local environment changed? Consider aspects of your school grounds that have changed and have a class debate about a hypothetical scenario that would bring about environmental change.

Working Scientifically

  1. How has our local environment changed? Consider aspects of your school grounds that have changed and have a class debate about a hypothetical scenario that would bring about environmental change.

Other Curriculum Areas
English

  • Discuss what they are learning and to develop wider skills in spoken language.
  • Use language in a greater variety of situations, for a variety of audiences and purposes, including through drama, formal presentations and debate.

You Will Need

Provided Resources
Cameras to photograph the outside area, letter from school governors, good/bad evaluation sheets, teachers’ notes.

Additional Resources
Cameras to photograph the outside area, letter from school governors, good/bad evaluation sheets, teachers’ notes.

Lesson Planning

Teaching

  • Begin to consider how the local environment has changed and why these changes may have happened.

Activities

  1. Take a walk around their school environment.
  2. Consider how it might have changed.
  3. Begin to think about why the changes have happened.
  4. Take part in a class debate about a proposed change to an area in the school environment.

Investigation - exploring
Take a walk around their school environment and consider how and why changes have happened.

Vocabulary
 Environment, change, living thing, danger

Session 2 Other changes

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Objectives

Who made these changes? Consider natural and man-made changes to the environment. How living things adapt to these changes? Can you design a living thing that could survive all these natural environment changes?

Science Objectives
i) Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Working Scientifically

  1. Ask relevant questions and use different types of scientific enquiries to answer them.

You Will Need

Provided Resources

  • Independent task sheet
  • Adaptation PowerPoint

Weblinks
Clip about surviving life in a rock pool from https://www.bbc.co.uk
Article about threat of deforestation to orangutans (for extra information/example) from http://news.bbc.co.uk
News clip about endangered primates (extra information/example) from https://www.bbc.co.uk
Article about threats to koalas (extra information/example) from https://news.bbc.co.uk
News clip about injured animals after a bush fire in Australia from https://www.bbc.co.uk

Lesson Planning

Teaching

  • Consider some of the natural changes that could happen to an environment and to understand what some living things can do to survive such changes.

Activities

  1. Think about regular changes such as tides and seasons.
  2. Consider if the changes are natural or man-made.
  3. Design a living thing that could withstand a huge range of changes to their environment.
  4. Begin to think about some big changes such as climate change.

Investigation - exploring
Consider natural and manmade changes to the environment.

Vocabulary
Change, adapt, danger, threat

Session 3 Climate change

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Objectives

What is climate change? Conduct an experiment to investigate how the greenhouse effect works. Use the results to discuss how people are causing climate change.

Science Objectives
i) Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Working Scientifically

  1. Set up simple practical enquiries and comparative and fair tests.
  2. Make systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, take accurate measurements using thermometers.
  3. Record findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts and tables.
  4. Report on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions.

Other Curriculum Areas
Mathematics

  • Interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and time graphs.

Lesson Planning

Teaching

  • Use a simple enquiry to demonstrate the effect of a greenhouse and relate this to climate change.

Activities

  1. Look in more detail at climate change.
  2. Explain what they already know about it.
  3. Conduct an experiment that highlights what the ‘greenhouse effect’ is.
  4. Record temperatures over time on a table and a graph.

Investigation - exploring, analysing
Look in more detail at climate change.

Vocabulary
Climate, change, danger, greenhouse, thermometer, test, carbon dioxide, results, graph, table

Session 4 Impact of change

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Objectives

What are some of the impacts to living things if an environment changes? Become an expert on one particular reason for environmental change. Create an information poster about what you have learnt and what people can do to help.

Science Objectives
i) Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Working Scientifically

  1. Identify differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes.

You Will Need

Provided Resources

  • Impact PowerPoint
  • Notes worksheet

Additional Resources

  • Poster paper
  • Cress mound and mud mound (see Teachers’ Notes)
  • Watering can
  • Small plastic houses (monopoly)

Weblinks

Clip about impact of environmental issues on our planet from BBC Teach
Why the orangutan is in danger from orangutan.org
Why bumblebees need our help from bumblebeeconservation.org
Countryfile clip on how to help hedgehogs
Butterfly conservation project from https://butterfly-conservation.org/

Lesson Planning

Teaching

  • Recognise that changes to an environment can be dangerous to living things and to begin to understand what can be done to reverse some of the changes.

Activities

  1. Explore what the impact of some environmental changes are, both positive and negative.
  2. Learn about bumblebees and what the impact of their declining numbers are.
  3. Look at the potential impact of deforestation.
  4. Understand what they can do to help minimise the impact of climate change.
  5. Understand some of the changes that have caused the number of hedgehogs to decline.

Investigation - analysing
Look at some information on the impacts to living things if an environment changes.

Vocabulary
Impact, change, positive, negative, danger, living thing

Session 5 Help our habitat

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Objectives

Can we make a positive impact to a local environment? Using your knowledge of environments, habitats and food chains, redesign a designated area in order to change it for the better.

Science Objectives
i) Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Working Scientifically

  1. Identify differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes.
  2. Use straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support findings.

Extended Writing Opportunities
Persuasive writing: Following the class debate about a proposed change to an area in the school environment, write a persuasive letter to the school governors setting out your view about what should happen next.

Lesson Planning

Teaching

  • Plan positive changes to a local environment and use evidence to answer questions about why they are making the changes.

Activities

  1. Work in a group to plan how to make positive changes to a small local area (school based or wider community if possible)
  2. Consider the people who may use the area and think about out how they might use it.
  3. Consider the other living things, including bees and hedgehogs, who may use the area when planning.
  4. Draw a plan of how they would change a local environment for the better.

Investigation - classifying, identifying
Plan how to make a positive change to a small local area considering the impact on people and other living things.

Vocabulary
Change, positive, living things, environment

Session 6 A positive impact!

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Objectives

Let’s make a positive change! Put your plans to redesign a particular area into action. Use this task to reflect on the types of actions you could take at home to improve the environment.

Science Objectives
i) Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Working Scientifically

  1. Use straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support findings.

Other Curriculum Areas
English

  • Discuss what they are learning and develop their wider skills in spoken language.
  • Use language in a greater variety of situations, for a variety of audiences and purposes, including through drama, formal presentations and debate.

Extended Writing Opportunities
Information writing: Create an information poster about the impacts on living things if an environment changes. Explain on the poster what people can do to help.

You Will Need

Provided Resources

  • PowerPoint presentation.

Additional Resources

  • An environment that you are changing
  • The final class plan from Session 5
  • Tools/seeds/resources needed to make the changes

Lesson Planning

Teaching

  • Know that if an environment changes it can be dangerous to living things and to explain why.

Activities

  1. Know that changes to an environment can pose a danger to living things.
  2. Give examples of some changes that have been dangerous for the living things in that area.
  3. Put their positive plan for a local area into action.
  4. Be able to describe the changes they are making.
  5. Explain to others, which living things will benefit from the changes they are making.

Vocabulary
Danger, positive, change, danger, environment, living things

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