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Desert Life

Original price £12.00 - Original price £12.00
Original price
£12.00
£12.00 - £12.00
Current price £12.00
SKU S34CS40200
Key Stage 2Animals including humansLiving things and their habitatsPlantsScienceYear 3Year 4
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Use these Desert Habitat KS2 lessons to teach your class all about desert plants and animals in this fun, fact-filled science scheme of work for Year 3/4!

 
#TheCompleteSeries6lessons

Children will first explore what the desert habitat is like, before being introduced to a variety of animals who live there. They will learn how to group and then identify animals using classification keys. Children will then find out how both animals and plants have adapted to survive in the desert. Finally, they will explore ‘who eats who’ by looking at desert food chains.

#Lesson1Whatisadesert

In this first lesson, children recap on what a habitat is, and discuss a variety of different habitats. They then focus on the desert habitat in particular, finding out about its features and its ability to support life. In their independent activities, children record what they have learnt about this habitat, and draw their own sketch of a desert, based on their knowledge. Alternatively, children can research different types of desert habitats around the world.

 

 

What's included:

  • Lesson plan
  • Slides
  • Activity ideas
  • Desert Fact Cards
  • Differentiated worksheets
  • Deserts of the World Sheet
#Lesson2SortingandGrouping

Children will develop their knowledge of desert animals in this lesson, and learn different ways in which to group them, including into vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as breaking this down further into mammals, birds, reptiles, arachnids and insects. In their independent activities, children will use or write definitions of these groups to sort picture cards of desert animals. Alternatively, they will explore and sort desert animals into nocturnal and diurnal groups.

 

 

What's included:

  • Lesson plan
  • Slides
  • Activity ideas
  • Desert Animals Picture Cards
  • What Am I? Differentiated worksheets
  • Night Time or Day Time? Sheet
#Lesson3ClassificationKeys

In this lesson, children use and expand on their knowledge of grouping animals by using classification keys. As a class, they identify individual desert animals using a key, and discuss how a key works/is made. Children will use a different key to identify desert animals in their independent work, or in the Fancy Something Different? activity, they can create their own classification key for a chosen group of animals.

 

 

What's included:

  • Lesson plan
  • Slides
  • Activity ideas
  • Differentiated worksheets
  • Desert Animals Classification Keys
  • Desert Animal Picture Cards
#Lesson4AnimalAdaptation

How do animals survive in the desert? In this lesson, children first recap on what all animals need in order to survive. They learn that many animals have had to adapt to their environment in order to give them the best chance of survival. As a class, children look at and discuss a range of different adaptations of specific desert animals. In their independent work, they will explain how these specific adaptations help different animals. Alternatively, they can create their own creature with adaptations that would help it to survive in the desert.

 

 

What's included:

  • Lesson plan
  • Slides
  • Activity ideas
  • Differentiated sheets
  • Information Sheet
  • Create a Creature! Sheet
#Lesson5PlantAdaptation

What types of plants survive in the desert? This lesson begins with children comparing and contrasting a selection of plants from both a woodland and a desert habitat. They then discuss what a plant needs in order to survive, and how a desert environment can impact on these needs. Children learn about the saguaro cactus, and explore how it has successfully adapted to life in the desert. In their independent activities, children use this information to explain how the cacti survive in the harsh environment. In the Fancy Something Different? option, children conduct a simple experiment to test the usefulness of the saguaro cacti’s waxy coating.

 

 

What's included:

  • Lesson plan
  • Slides
  • Activity ideas
  • Differentiated worksheets
  • Saguaro Sponge Experiment Sheet
#Lesson6FoodChains

Who eats who? In this final lesson, children learn how plants and animals in the desert are linked by what they eat. They learn what a herbivore, carnivore and omnivore are. Children then look at different desert food chains, and identify the producer and consumers in each one, as well as the predators and prey. In their independent activities, children sort sets of animals into food chains. Alternatively, they can create their own food chains based on information cards about desert plants and animals.

 

 

What's included:

  • Lesson plan
  • Slides
  • Activity ideas
  • Picture Cards
  • Differentiated worksheets
  • Food Web Cards
  • Who Eats Who? Information Cards
  • Who Eats Who? Food Chains Sheet
Free Overview (Medium-Term Plan)

Download a free overview to support your teaching of this scheme of work.

Free Assessment Grid

Download a free, editable assessment grid to support your teaching of this scheme of work.

Curriculum Objectives covered

Year 3 Plants Objectives

  • identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers
  • explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant
  • investigate the way in which water is transported within plants

Year 4 Living things and their Habitats Objectives

  • recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
  • explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment 

Year 4 Animals including Humans Objectives

  • construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey

Customer Reviews

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M
Mrs G

Useful and helpful resources

K
Kate Hi

Great specific follow on for aninals and living things, looking at desert animals. Great for linking to other topics.