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!

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.

What is a desert?

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.

Sorting and Grouping

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.

Classification Keys

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.

Animal Adaptation

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.

Plant Adaptation

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.

Food Chains

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.