Animals, Food Chains & Adaptation 5-11

Animals Over Winter

Quality AssuredCategory:SciencePublisher:CREST Awards

Children will think about the different survival strategies animals in temperate regions employ in order to survive through the winter. Children will compare these strategies to adaptations exhibited by animals in the Polar Regions, and will identify the similarities and differences between the ways in which animals are adapted to survive the changing environmental conditions in winter.

Adaptation - design a species

Quality AssuredCategory:SciencePublisher:National STEM Learning Centre and Network

How do animals survive in different habitats?

This creative activity is designed to teach 7 to 11 year olds about the concept of adaptation – the process whereby a species evolves characteristics that enable it to survive in a particular habitat.

Using the marine environment as an example, children learn about how different species are adapted physically or behaviourally to survive in a particular type of habitat.

Web of Wildlife (Age 7 to 11)

Quality AssuredCategory:SciencePublisher:Wildscreen ARK (previously ARKive)

This resource, produced by ARKive, is designed to teach Key Stage Two children about food chains, food webs and interdependence in different habitats around the world. A presentation using high quality images introduces the structure of simple food chains, food webs and how different organisms within ecosystems depend on each other for food.

Children carry out activities in small groups to identify sort and construct food chains for five different habitats. These are British woodland, British coastal waters and the less familiar habitats of African savannah, Arctic tundra and Antarctic. There is also a key words activity in which children become familiar with the key scientific vocabulary used in the topic.

Included for each habitat are: activity worksheets, images of different species, information texts on species, examples of completed food webs and arrows for constructing food webs. There are also detailed teachers’ notes on how to run the activities.

Animals Over Winter (Age 7 to 11)

Quality AssuredCategory:SciencePublisher:Wildscreen ARK (previously ARKive)

This resource, produced by ARKive, is designed to teach Key Stage Two children about the strategies animals adopt to survive winter in temperate zones and about the adaptations exhibited by animals in the polar regions.

Children compare these strategies and identify similarities and differences in the ways animals are adapted to survive throughout the winter. They then sort different animals according to whether they migrate, hibernate, store food or grow a thick coat in order to survive over winter.

The final activity involves looking at two case studies on species that are adapted to cold environments, then producing their own case study choosing from a given list of species. Included are a classroom presentation, activity sheet and answers, extension activity ideas and detailed teachers’ notes.