Year 5: Living things and their habitats
This list consists of lesson plans, activities and video clips to support the teaching of Living things and their habitats at Year Five. It contains tips on using the resources, suggestions for further use and background subject knowledge. Possible misconceptions are highlighted so that teachers may plan lessons to facilitate correct conceptual understanding. Designed to support the new curriculum programme of study it aims to cover many of the requirements for knowledge and understanding and working scientifically. The statutory requirements are that children are taught to:
• describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird
• describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals
Visit the primary science webpage to access all lists.
Turtle Life Cycle
A lifecycle is the different stages a plant or animal goes through during its life. This presentation is a great way of showing children the distinct stages of lifecycles with the summary table showing the similarities and differences between mammals, amphibians, reptiles and flowering plants. The table could even be extended to include insects and birds so they might also be compared.
Playing the Turtle lifecycle game helps children see distinct stages of lifecycles and how they may be affected by environmental factors.
One of the Crowd *suitable for home teaching*
Making a lifecycle wheel is a good way of showing the stages of a lifecycle. Templates are provided for the lifecycle of a locust and a butterfly but children could make their own wheels for different species. This would be a great way of comparing similarities and differences between different animals and would also make a great display!
The resource also includes a wealth of information and activity ideas relating to locusts including: identification, adaptation and food chains.
Life Cycles
Starting with an engaging video clip highlighting the stages in the life cycle a human, frog and poppy. Teacher’s notes provide a detailed lesson plan which incorporate subject knowledge, classroom activities, film clips, possible misconceptions and questions which check understanding.
Module 1: Life Cycles
These materials help children to understand about life cycles, food chains, interdependence and adaptation. Children look at the growth of cabbages and the life cycles of two insects, the cabbage white butterfly and the Ichneumon wasp.
Life Cycles Activity Pack
Activities link to work on comparing things that are living, dead and that have never been alive and exploring the life cycles of flowering plants and different animals. They are designed to help children develop scientific research and communication skills and provide opportunities for cross-curricular work.
Snap science: teaching framework - year 5
Two activities which support learning about the life cycles of plants and of reproduction as a specific stage of those life cycles. Children identify plants in their local area to visit several times over the year. They look for evidence of plant reproduction such as flowers, seeds heads, berries and fruits. They also record the numbers and types of pollinators they observe at different times of the year. In a second activity, children explore practically some of the methods for growing new plants without seeds, including planting bulbs and propagating plants by taking cuttings. They observe the growth of plants over time, collecting evidence and evaluating the effectiveness of growing plants without seeds.
Year 5 - stage 4
This resource allows pupils to explore ways in which plants reproduce without seeds. Through this lesson plan and supporting PowerPoint pupils learn about asexual reproduction in plants, have the opportunity to research different ways that this can be artificially used by growers and can consider the advantages and disadvantages of sexual and asexual reproduction in plants.
