Explorify at home: Habitats
This collection of activities about habitats is ideal to do at home with your little explorers.
Explorify at home is a series of science activities for parents and carers of primary school children who are learning at home. We define activities by age and curriculum topics in Explorify, but these collections are also suitable to do all together as a family of mixed aged children. Or if your little scientist just wants to explore further, pick something from the other age sections for inspiration.
This collection is all about habitats. The activities we’ve selected here help you to look at lots of different habitats. Watch together and look closely – describe the different habitats you can see and look at how different living things interact within their habitat.
For children aged 5 to 7
In the swim!
First, watch this video: In the swim shows lots of different marine life. Encourage your children to think about the different fish they see and talk about:
How do these animals move through the water?
Why are they coloured or patterned differently?
Why do some fish live in shoals and others live alone?
Now watch this video showing seasonal habitat change. Habitats change over time and in one year, a habitat responds to seasonal changes. Watch the season changes in this video below. It is a time-lapse sequence showing one woodland area changing in a year but speeded up a bit.
Hands-on activity: Make a picture diary (or take photographs if you can) to show the changing view in a garden or from your window on a weekly basis.
For children aged 7 to 9
To flee or not to flee!
First, watch this video: Ever wondered why animals run? Most animals are running to find food or to escape from predators. Some run on four legs, some on two. Watch a variety of animals running in this video 'To flee or not to flee'. Look carefully to see how they run and to work out where their habitat is. Can you work out why they are running?
Hands-on activity: Try different ways of running. Can you run with your hands by your side?
For children aged 9 to 11
Design a bug hotel!
First, take a close-up look at this image in the activity Design a bug hotel. Some creatures exist in the harshest of habitats, adapted to survive and thrive where there may be little water, very low or very high temperatures, and may need to find novel ways to survive by slowing their metabolism. During winter, insects become dormant and need to find somewhere safe to shelter that will protect them from cold and from drying out too.
Hands-on activity: Make a bug hotel using a range of materials to provide some places for insects to shelter. Ther is more information on creating a bug hotel on the BBC website.
