To learn about tigers' diet and habitat

Key Stage 2

English

Wild Cats - Non-chronological reports

﻿Hello. My name is Mrs. Smart. Welcome to today's English lesson. In this lesson, we're going to be carrying out some research into tigers' diet and their habitats. This will prepare us for writing the diet paragraph and the closing paragraph of our non-chronological reports. Let's get started. In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some lined paper and a pen or pencil to write with. If you haven't got any of these items, just pause the recording and go and get them now. In our lesson today, we're going to start with an introduction. We're then going to move on to research and note taking about diets. Then we're going to find out more about tigers' habitats, and lastly, you're going to complete your independent task. How could we find out information about tigers for our non-chronological report? We've already done some research in this unit, about the tiger's appearance. Can you remember how we found out about the tiger's appearance? What did we do? Are there any other ways we could do research? Pause the recording and write down your ideas? There are lots of different ways that we can do research, but the three main sources of information that I thought we could use are non-fiction information texts. A bit like the one you can see on the screen. Websites, which are also non-fiction information texts, but they are on a screen and on the internet. And lastly, video. Videos are really good for finding out about wildlife in particular, because there are some fantastic documentaries. Now you might remember a few lessons ago, we did some research into tiger's appearance. And your task, was to annotate an illustration of a tiger with all of the information that you have found out. So we're going to be doing similar today, but we're going to be focusing on the tigers' diets and the tigers' habitats. Now, there are a few words that we learned earlier on in this unit. Subject specific vocabulary, linked to the tigers' diet that might help us to understand some of the texts we're going to read as part of our research today. So I'm just going to recap the meanings of some of these key words. Repeat after me. Prey. Prey, is an animal that is hunted and killed by another for food. Predator. A predator is an animal that hunts and kills other animals for food. Carnival. A carnival, is an animal that feeds on other animals. Now the main part of the tigers' diet is what we might call large-bodied mammals. And it particularly likes deer, and it likes wild pigs that you can see on the screen here. So, a little bit different from the pigs you might see in a farm yard. These are wild pigs. They're a little bit like boar. They are quite furry, whereas normal pigs have a more pink, pale skin. So, like we did when we researched about the tiger's appearance, we're going to read through a piece of text together. You're then going to have a chance to pause the recording and note down in bullet point form, any of the key parts from this text. So you don't need to write full sentences. You don't need to copy full sentences down. You're just going to jot down key words and phrases that you might then use in your own reports. So I'm going to read, and you need to follow on the screen. Tigers prey upon many wild animals, but usually prefer fairly large prey such as deer and wild pigs. Tigers occasionally take cattle from human habitations. They also may commandeer a kill from other tigers or leopards, and they sometimes eat carrion: animals that are already dead. Tigers may attack and eat humans. When this occurs, it is usually because the tiger is old or injured and cannot kill its natural prey. It may also be protecting its cubs. Skill in killing and obtaining prey is only partly instinctive. Maternal training is also essential for mastery. For this reason, tigers raised in captivity would not fare well if released into the wild. Unlike most members of the cat family, tigers are good swimmers. They cross rivers readily in search of prey. Pause the recording now and write down some bullet points of the key information in that paragraph. I went through the paragraph and fastly I highlighted some of the key bits of information. I then summarised that key information in bullet points. I'm going to go through them now and then you can pause the recording and write down anything that you don't have in your own notes. So firstly, we know tigers, they eat wild animals. They prefer large prey like deer and wild pigs, which were the images we saw earlier. But they also sometimes take cattle. That means cows. And they also might take livestock, which is a word for the animals that might be kept on a farm as parts of agriculture. Sometimes they commandeer kill of other animals. That means they take other animals' prey that other animals have caught and killed. They also eat carrion, which was that subject specific scientific word for animals that are already dead. So if they can't find an alive animal that they need to kill, they might find an animal that's died of natural causes or an animal has killed and then left it. They would eat that and that's called carrion. They may attack and eat humans. But I did mention that that's not very often and usually it's because they might be protecting their cubs or maybe that they are old or unwell and unable to kill prey. It says, that killing animals isn't always completely instinctive. That means, they don't just know from birth, how to kill animals. They actually have to be trained and taught by their mother. So maternal training, means training by their mother. And also that's why tigers raised in captivity... So tigers that grow up in the zoo and they've never lived in the wild wouldn't fare very well. They wouldn't do very well in the wild because they wouldn't know how to kill animals because they haven't had that training or that teaching from their mom. And lastly tigers surprisingly are good swimmers. Although most cats and wild cats don't like water, they are actually very good swimmers and are very happy to get into water and swim so they can catch some prey. So if there are any notes there that you don't have, you might want to pause the recording now and just jot them down on your own notes. We're now going to move on, to find out more about tigers' habitats. But there were three words we learned earlier in this unit linked to habitat that might help us to understand the text. I'm going to say each one and explain the definition and you're going to repeat the word back. Habitat. Habitat, is the natural home or environment of an animal, plants or other organism. Territory. The territory is an area of land that an animal defends. So it's that area that a tiger doesn't let another tiger come into that area. Climate. Climate, is the weather conditions in an area over a period of time. So it might be rain, it might be sun, it might be snow. And it's also the temperature. So, some tigers live in very cold temperatures like the Siberian tiger in Russia, and some tigers live in really hot, jungle habitats like the Sumatran tiger. He lives in Sumatra in Indonesia. Now we already know, that tigers are only found in Asia and that they range from different countries or different areas of Asia, including Eastern Siberia in Russia, parts of North Korea, China, India, and Southeast Asia to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. And we've looked at before how those different subspecies of tiger vary slightly depending on where they can be found. But those different areas and those different countries have very different environments and very different habitats. So there might be different plants growing there, there might be different animals living there. There might be different weather, there might be different temperatures. Now, I'm going to read through this piece of text about the tigers' habitat, and then you're going to have a chance to pause the recording and note down some of the key words or phrases. I'm going to read and you can follow along on the screen. Tigers have been hunted for at least a thousand years. They are prized as trophies and as a source of skins for expensive coats. Certain body parts are harvested to use in Asian medicines. Tigers are also killed on the grounds that they pose a danger to humans. At the beginning of the 20th century, the world's tiger population was estimated at 100,000. In the early 21st century, fewer than 4,000 were left in the wild. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, I-U-C-N, has classified all tigers as endangered species. Pause the recording and write down any key words or phrases in bullet points now. I picked out these key areas of key words and key phrases that I want to include in my notes. We're then going to read another piece of text, and then I'm going to show you all of my bullet pointed notes all together. Again, I'm going to read for you and you can follow along on the screen. In the 1970s, most countries where tigers live banned tiger hunting for sport. The trade in tiger skins was also outlawed. Although poaching has contributed to the decline in the number of tigers, loss of habitat is another problem. Rapidly growing human populations have reduced both the quantity and the quality of habitats. Forests and grasslands favoured by the tiger are cleared for agriculture. As a result, tigers not only have less roaming room, but also find less prey. With less prey available, tigers are forced to hunt livestock for food. When tigers attack livestock, humans often kill the tigers in retaliation. Pause the recording now and write down any extra key words or phrases that you want to add to your notes about the tigers' habitat. I selected the following parts of key information from that paragraph. I then summarised from both paragraphs, these bullet pointed notes. I'm going to read them through and explain, and then you'll have an opportunity to pause the recording and copy down anything that you want to include in your own notes. Hunted for 1,000 years, trophies, skins, and Asian medicine. So sadly, tigers have been hunted for 1,000 years and that's because they are used as trophies. So people show off if they've managed to kill a tiger. So they're a little bit like a trophy that you might win. They use the skins. So people make things like rugs or coats out of their skin, their beautiful fur. And also parts of their body are used in Asian medicine. They're also killed sometimes by humans because they think that tigers pose a danger to humans. They think that tigers will kill humans. Which they don't very often, but they do sometimes as we learned in the diet section. Their population has dropped from 10,000 to 4,000 in the wild. And that has made them an endangered species. So they are at risk of becoming extinct. That means they're at risk of ceasing to exist. That they won't exist in the world anymore and they'll never exist again, which would be incredibly sad. Luckily, governments and different conservation organisations have now tried to ban tiger hunting. Generally, it is banned in those different areas of Asia. The trade of tiger skins has been outlawed. So that means people selling tiger skins is against the law. But they have also lost areas of their habitats because of agriculture. Agriculture means farming. So farmers have cleared areas of land where normally tigers would roam, to create fields to grow crops or fields to keep animals. This gives tigers less roaming room. So less space to roam and to walk around. And we know tigers often have these really large territories, which they defend. And it also gives them fewer prey available. Unfortunately, tigers do hunt livestock. So that's the sort of animals that farmers might keep. So mainly cows or cattle, but it might be things like goats and sheep, and pigs. And because they kill the farmers' livestock, humans often retaliate. So, they get the tigers back by then killing the tiger. If there are any notes there that you want to copy down on your own, pause the recording and copy them down now. So, hopefully you have got some really substantial notes that are going to help you to write your diet paragraph and your closing paragraph. So in our closing paragraph, we will talk about the tigers' habitats and some of those dangers or risks that the tiger faces in its habitat. If you haven't got very many notes, so you want to add to them, please go back through the recording and add to your notes. The more notes you've got, the easier writing those two paragraphs will be. So your task today, I want you to try and answer the following questions, using the information that you have learned today. And you can look at your notes or you can see if you can try and remember. So you might want to copy down the questions and then you can either answer in full sentences or simply in bullet points. It's absolutely fine. So the questions are: What do tigers eat? How do they learn to catch prey? Which countries can tigers be found in? Or maybe I should say countries and regions. And what dangers do the tigers face? So what factors are causing the population of tigers to decrease? So have a go at answering those questions and see what you can remember from today's learning. In today's lesson, we had an introduction where we talked about how we could research information about tigers. We then did some research using texts and took some notes about the tigers' diet. And then did the same, but learning about the tigers' habitats. And lastly, you are going to complete your independent task, where you are going to answer those four questions and see how much you can remember about the tigers' diets and the tigers' habitats. Well done. You've finished your lesson for today. If you'd like to, please share your work with your parents or carer. I'm sure they'll be really interested to know all of the information you found out today about tigers' diets and habitats. Well done. I'll see you in your next lesson. Goodbye.

To learn about tigers' diet and habitat

To learn about tigers' diet and habitat

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UnitEnglish / Wild Cats - Non-chronological reports

English