Materials

Building things

The animal kingdom

Plants

Seasons and change

Sound

Changing materials

Mixing and making

Human lifestyle

Habitats

Space

Extraordinary scientists

Science

Y2 Science

Key Stage 1

Year 2

UNIT

In this lesson, we will learn what the acronym MRS NERG stands for and learn each of the characteristics of living things. We will then identify and sort a range of living and non-living things.

What are the characteristics of living things?

﻿Hi, everybody. My name is Miss Simkin. What's your name? I probably haven't taught you before. So I'm going to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about me. Before I became a science teacher, I was actually a type of scientist called a marine biologist. And that's because when I was your age, I really wanted to be a mermaid because I loved everything that lived in the sea. But sadly, I never could grow my mermaid tail or learn how to breathe under water by myself. So I had to learn to do the next best thing. And that's something called scuba diving. What's it called? Scuba diving. Scuba diving is where you get a tank of air on your back and you breathe through something called a regulator, and it sounds like this. Can you try it for me? Exactly. And then, because I could scuba dive, it means that I could become a marine biologist, and that's a type of scientist that studies living things that live in the sea. So I am really excited to teach you this unit of lessons, because for the next six lessons, we are going to learn all about living things and the habitats that they live in. Our lesson question today is what are the characteristics of living things? So we are going to learn how to spot if something is living. This is what we're going to do in today's lesson. We're going to start with our star words. Then we're going to learn all about Mrs. Nerg. Then we're going to decide if some things that I show you are living or non-living, and then at the end, we're going to do a sorting activity. And then right at the end of the lesson, you will have your end of lesson quiz, where you will have a chance to check how much you have remembered from this lesson. Today, you're going to need a piece of paper, a pencil, and a coloured pencil. So if you don't have those things, you can pause the video and go and get them now, please. We're also going to need our brains today, okay? Can you give your brain a gentle rub and a gentle knock, just to get it woken up? Brilliant. Now I want you to give it a shake. Shake your whole body and get the blood rushing to your brain. And then can you take some deep breaths for me? Brilliant. That's to get the oxygen that our brain needs. Oh, I feel much better and ready to begin now. What about you? Great. Let's start with our star words. We've got some quite tricky star words today, but I think you're ready for them. We're going to practise saying them a couple of times until they don't seem that tricky anymore. Okay. When I point at me, I'm going to say the word. And when I point at the screen, you're going to say the word out loud. Movement. Movement. Good job. Respiration. One more time. Respiration. Great. Sensitivity. Sensitivity. Brilliant. Nutrition. Nutrition. Good job. Excretion. Excretion. Great. Reproduce. Reproduce. Growth. Growth. Well done. I can tell I've got some really good scientists sitting in front of me. Those were tricky words, but you tried really hard. Now we are going to learn what all of those words mean in our lesson. It's time now for me to introduce you to Mrs. Nerg. Say hello, Mrs. Nerg. Now, Mrs. Nerg is what we call an acronym. That means she is a special way of helping us to remember something where each of her letters links to something. So when we write Mrs. Nerg like this. So you can see Mrs. Nerg. Each of these, each of the letters of Mrs. Nerg stands for something. So for example, the M for Mrs. Nerg stands for movement, but we'll talk about that in a second. Can you, please, write Mrs. Nerg down like this so you can see it here? Down like this on your page and leave yourself one or maybe even two lines between each letter. So Mrs. Nerg. Pause the video and set your page up like mine, please. Great. We're going to learn what each letter in Mrs. Nerg means. And Mrs. Nerg is a way of finding out if something is living or non-living because living things do all of the things that Mrs. Nerg reminds us of. So you'll see in a moment. The M for Mrs. Nerg stands for movement. What does it stand for? Movement. All living things move. Animals move around to get from place to place, and plants can move as well. They grow and they turn very slowly, but they can do it. They turn towards the light when they're growing. So the M in Mrs. Nerg stands for movement. Now each time we learn about a letter in Mrs. Nerg I would like you, please, to write down that word and then draw a picture to help you remember what that word means. So let me show you an example. Next to my M, I've written the word movement, and then I drew on a picture to help me remember. You don't have to draw the same picture as me. You could draw a different picture. Maybe you could draw somebody running to show movement. It's up to you. Whatever helps you remember it and helps it to stick in your head. Can you pause the video and write movement and draw your picture? Pause the video now. Great. Our next letter, follow on your finger. We've done M, what's coming next? The next letter is R, and R stands for respiration. All animals respire. During respiration, glucose, which is a type of sugar, reacts with oxygen from the air to release energy, and energy is what allows living things to do things, to grow and to move and to do all the other life processes. We need energy from respiration in order to do those things. So my picture to help me remember what respiration is reminds me of energy. What's your picture going to be to help it stick in your head? So R is for respirations. So you can pause the video and write respiration, and then draw your picture. Pause the video and do that for me now, please. Great, good job. What's our next letter? Can you point to it on the screen? Our next letter is S. S stands for sensitivity. What does S stand for? Sensitivity. Good job. All living things are sensitive. That means they can detect changes in their surroundings. So humans and other animals have their five senses that help us to detect our changes in surroundings. So we see with our eyes, we hear with our ears. Those are two of our five senses and they help us to detect what's going on in our surroundings. Plants are sensitive, too. They might not be able to see 'cause they don't have eyes, but they can still sense changes in temperature or light and know what's going on in their surroundings. So S stands for sensitivity. Can you write sensitivity and draw your picture? Pause the video to do that now. Great. What letter's coming next? Check with your finger. N, we've got the N in Nerg. And that N stands for nutrition. What does it stand for? Great. All living things need nutrition. So food is eaten to provide energy by animals, but green plants can make their own food using sunlight. Can you write nutrition and draw your picture? Pause the video to do that now, please. Good job. What letter's coming next? E. E, ooh, is a bit of a funny one. E is excretion. What is E? Excretion. All living things excrete. That means that they get rid of waste products from their body. So humans breathe out some of their waste products. But we also get rid of waste when we go to the toilet. Plants don't go to the toilet, but they get rid of all their waste through those little holes at the bottom of their leaves. What letter's? Can you, I was about to go to the next letter without giving you a chance to draw your picture. Can you, please, write the word excretion and draw your picture? Pause the video to do that for me now, please. Great. Now can you tell me what's our next letter? R. The letter R stands for reproduce. And that means have babies. So all living things reproduce. Animals have young babies, and plants produce seeds, which more plants grow from. Can you, please, pause the video and write reproduce and draw your picture? Pause the video and do that for me now, please. Great, what's our next letter? Our last letter is G. G stands for grow. What does G stand for? Grow or growth I've written there. All living things grow. Animals grow from babies to adults, and seeds grow into plants. Can you please write growth and draw your picture. Pause the video and do that for me now. Brilliant. So now we've written everything that Mrs. Nerg stands for. Movement, respiration, sensitivity, nutrition, excretion, reproduction, and growth. Now, if something does all of those things, then we know that it's a living thing. So now that we've learned that, let's see if we can tell whether each of these things is a living or a non-living thing. So if it does all of the things in Mrs. Nerg, it's living. If it doesn't, then it's non-living. So here's an example. You can see there's a sentence stem at the bottom to help us. So I'm going to do this one for you. I can see on the picture there's a swan. So I'm going to say a swan is a hmm, is a swan a living or not, it's a living thing? So I'm going to say a swan is a living thing because, hmm, I'm going to choose one of my Mrs. Nerg processes to explain my answer. Which one should I choose? Well, I can see from the picture that this one has got some babies with it. We call baby swans cygnets. Now, because I can see it's got babies, I know that this one must reproduce. It must produce offspring. And so I can say a swan is a living thing because it reproduces. I'm going to say it one more time and then it's your turn. A swan is a living thing because it reproduces. Good job. Could I have said something instead of reproduces? Yeah, I could have said anything in Mrs. Nerg. I could have said a swan is a living thing because it moves, or a swan is a living thing because it respires. Okay. Let's have a go at this one. What is this? Tell your screen. It's a clock, exactly. So is a clock a living or a non-living thing? Let's think. Hmm. Does a clock reproduce? Does it have babies? No, it doesn't. Does it move? Oh, yes, it does. That's confusing, isn't it? 'Cause movement is in Mrs. Nerg but remember it can't just do one of the things in Mrs. Nerg, it needs to do all of them. And we already said that clocks can't reproduce. They can't have babies. Okay. So let's use the sentence stem to say a sentence about this clock. A clock is a non-living thing because it can't reproduce. Your turn. Great, good job. Okay, are you ready for the next one? It's a tree. Is a tree a living or a non-living thing? You're right. It's a living thing. How do you know that? That's right. You could have said anything in Mrs. Nerg. Because it moves, because it respires, because it needs nutrition. Well done. So can you have a go at fitting in the sentence stem below, a hmm is a hmm thing because hmm. Say it to your screen. Great. A tree is a not, ah, I nearly made a mistake. What mistake did I make? Is a living thing. I said it was a non-living thing. Oh well, let me try again. A tree is a living thing because it can respire. Let's have a look at the next object. What is this? It's a robot. Is a robot a living or a non-living thing? Hmm, this one's a bit confusing because a robot can move. It could also sometimes be sensitive. It can sense things. Some robots can see where the wall is and stop moving before they get there. But can robots reproduce? Can they have babies? No, they can't. What about grow, can robots grow? No, they can't. So it's a non-living thing. It's not living. Okay, let's have a go at filling in this sentence stem. A robot is a non-living thing because, because it can't grow. Well done. I'm going to say it and then you're going to say it. A robot is a non-living thing because it can't grow. Your turn. Good job. You are becoming experts on telling if something is living or non-living. So now we're going to do a sorting activity where I'm going to show you some pictures and you're going to decide if they're living or non-living. So here are your six pictures. You've got a daisy, a toothbrush, a horse, a piece of bread, a TV, and a bird, or a robin if you want to be specific. And I'd like you, please, to put them into two columns, living and non-living. And you can see I've done an example for you on the screen. Remember when you're deciding, you can think about Mrs. Nerg, and you've got it written down in front of you. So think does it do all of the things in Mrs. Nerg? If the answer is yes, then you can put it in living. If the answer is no, then you can put it in non-living. Pause the video and have a go at this for me now, please. Great, let's check your answers. So a daisy is living, so is a horse, and so is a bird. But a toothbrush, bread and a TV are non-living. Well done if you've got those correct. If you made a mistake, that's okay. Every time you make a mistake, our brain gets stronger. You can give yourself a tick in your different coloured pencil if you've got it correct. And if you made a mistake, that's okay. You can just correct it in your different colour now. Pause your video to mark your work. Great. You did such a fantastic job today! Well done. Now that we've learned what a living and non-living thing is, next lesson, we can learn all about habitats. If you would like to share your work with Oak National, then you can ask your parent or your carer to share your work and tag OakNational and hashtag LearnwithOak, and they can also tag @Teach_STEMinism. And then I will be able to see your work too. Don't forget to do your end of lesson quiz just before you go. And most importantly, don't forget to have a fantastic rest of your day. It was so great to see you for the science lesson. And hopefully, I will see you back here soon for another one. Bye, everybody.

In this lesson, we will learn what a habitat is and look at examples of habitats. We will also build simple food chains of organisms that live in woodland, pond and savannah habitats.

What is a habitat?

﻿Hi everybody, it's Miss Simkin back again for your next science lesson. Now, I actually have a special assistant with me for today's lesson. This is Charlie and Charlie is my dog, and Charlie loves science. He's really excited to be learning all about habitats today. So let's get started. Say bye Charlie. Our lesson question today is what is a habitat? and this is what we're going to be doing in today's lesson. We're going to start with our star words, going to do a bit of a recap. See what we can remember from last lesson. Then we're going to learn what a habitat is, and look at some different habitats. Then we're going to look at food chains and then you'll have the chance to do your end of lesson quiz. We've got lots of great learning to do today. For this lesson, you are going to need a piece of paper, a pencil, and a coloured pencil, and your brain. If you don't have any of those things, can you pause the video and go and get them now please. Great, just before we begin let's wake up our brains, a gentle tap, a bit of a shake, and three deep breaths. Good job, I feel ready to go. Let's start with our star words. I'm going to say them, and then you're going to say them. Habitat, organism, natural, food chain, good job. Now, we're going to learn what a habitat is during the lesson, and the same with the food chain. But I'm going to explain what the word organism and what the word natural means before we start, An organism is a word that you'll hear me say a lot during this unit. An organism just means and living thing. So a plant or an animal, they are both types of organism. Natural, means something that you would find in nature. Something that hasn't been made by humans. Let's see what you can remember from last lesson. Last lesson we learnt about the characteristics of living things, and we had somebody called MRS NERG to help us remember them. Can you remember what the M in MRS NERG stands for? I'm going to give you a clue with my actions, are you ready? Can you remember what the M stands for? It stands for if you know say to your screen, movement, good job. Can you remember what the G in MRS NERG stands for? I'm going to give you a clue. What do you think the G stands for tell your screen, grow, good job well done, Today we are going to learn what a habitat is. A habitat is the natural home of an organism. Can you say that with me? A habitat is the natural home of an organism. Good job. Okay, let's see if you can remember. A... is the natural... of an organism. What are those gaps? Can you say it out loud to your screen? A habitat is the natural home of an organism, good job. Let's say it one more time. And can you do the home action when we get to that word please. A habitat is the natural home of an organism, good job. Okay now I'd like you to get your pencil and your piece of paper ready. And I want you to write down the definition please. A habitat is the natural... of an... The second gap was one of our star words, it begins o, pause the video and write down your definition of a habitat for me now please. Great, what you should have written is this A habitat is the natural home of an organism. Well done if you got that correct. That means your memory is on fire today. Just double check for me that you've spelled organism correctly 'cause it's quite a tricky word. Pause the video and correct your spelling if you need to. Okay, I'm going to show you an example of a habitat now. So a habitat is the natural home of an organism. It's where plants and animals live. And this is an example of a habitat. This is a woodland habitat. So you can see that there are plants like trees, and bluebells and grass living in the habitat. And there would be lots of animals living in this habitat too. Maybe woodpeckers, or owls, or robbins, or woodlice, or mice or... Can you think of any other animals that would live in a woodland? Maybe foxes or badgers. This is another habitat. It's a pond habitat. What kind of animals or plants would live in a pond? Tell your screen, great ducks, fish, maybe frogs. With plants you might get reeds or Lilly pads, or sometimes you see algae, which is like the fluffy green stuff that you might see on the surface of the water. Good job. And here is another example of a habitat. This is a Savanna habitat. Now this is not the kind of habitat that you would find where we live, but you might find a Savannah in a country like Kenya in Africa. What kind of animals do you think might live on a Savannah? I'm going to give you a clue. A giraffe is one of them. What other animals might live on a Savannah? Tell your screen. Great, maybe lions, or antelope, or baboons. Good job, or elephants, just remembered elephants. Those are all examples of habitats, because they're the natural homes of lots of organisms, plants, and animals. I've got a question for you, is a zoo a habitat? What do you think? Well, it might be a habitat because animals live in the zoo. But, remember we learned that a habitat is the natural home of an organism. That means it hasn't been made by humans. Is the zoo natural? No, a zoo is not natural, because it's been made by humans and the animals have been put there by humans. They're not living there naturally. So that means a zoo is not a habitat. Because even though animals live there, they haven't chosen to live there. Humans have put them there. I've got another question for you. is a birdhouse a habitat? Well again, bird live there. So it might be, it's been made by humans, but, do birds have to live there? Do humans make birds live in bird houses? No they don't. They might choose to live there. And if they do then that's natural. So a bird house could be a habitat. I've got a task for you now, there are seven organisms, plants and animals on the screen. There's a woodpecker, a duck, a lion, a butterfly, a giraffe, a frog, and a tree. Which habitat does each organism belong to? Can you get your pencil and can you write down, so you would write woodland and then next to woodland, all the animals that you think live in the woodland habitat. And then do the same for pond and Savannah. Pause the video and complete that task for me now please. Great, let's check our answers. If you've got it correct, you can give yourself a tick. If you made a mistake that's okay, just correct yourself in your different coloured pencil. So a woodpecker, a butterfly, and a tree an Oak tree. They come from the woodland. They live in the woodland. A duck and a frog live in a pond habitat. And a lion and a giraffe live in a Savanna habitat. Well done if you've got those correct, if you need some time to mark your answers, just pause the video here. The next thing we're going to learn about is food chains. Now a food chain shows us what eats what in a habitat. So here's an example of a food chain from our pond habitat. You can see at the beginning of the food chain is a plant. So our food chains, if there's ever a plant in a food chain, it's always at the beginning. So you've got your plant, which is pond weed here. And you can see that arrow shows it's eaten by shrimp. And then there's another arrow to show the shrimp are eaten by the frog. So it goes pond weed, shrimp, frog. The pond weed is eaten by the shrimp. Can you put your finger on the pond weed for me, don't touch the screen, but just go right up next to it and say, the pond weed is eaten by move it along the arrow. Good the shrimp. Brilliant. And then the shrimp is eaten by, what's the shrimp eaten by? the frog, good job. Okay so that's an example of a food chain. 'Cause you can see the chain of food what's eaten by what. Now, let's see if you can draw the food chain for the woodland. We've got the Oak tree, the squirrel, and the owl. And I've been really kind this time. And I put them in the right order. So can you draw your Oak tree big eaten with the arrow to show it's eaten by the squirrel, and then another arrow to the owl. So your arrows should be facing this way. So tree, to squirrel, to owl, let me just show you the pond one again. Can you see the way that your arrows are facing? They show is eaten by, okay. Can you pause the video and draw your food chain for the woodland habitat. Good job. Now, let's have a go at drawing the food chain for the Savannah. This time I've made it a little bit trickier. I haven't put them in the right order. Which picture is going to come first? What did I say about plants? Where do they come in The food chain? They come first, good job. Then think what eats the plant, and then what eats that animal? Okay, so it's going to go tree, animal, animal. And again you need to draw your arrows between them. Pause the video and draw your food chain of a Savannah now. Great, so your food chain should have gone tree, giraffe, lion. Is that what you did? Good job. If you got your giraffe and lion the wrong way round, that's okay you can swap them over now. Remember a giraffe is a herbivore. That means it just eats plants. Whereas the lion is a predator. So a predator and a carnivore eats animals like the giraffe. So it should go tree, giraffe, lion. If you need some time to correct your food chain, that's okay, you can pause the video and do that now. Great, I've got a food chain now that has a mistake in it. Can you spot the mistake in this food chain look really closely, well done if you've spotted it. If you haven't I'm going to give you a hint, it's something to do with the arrows. Yes, the arrows are facing the wrong way. Remember they need to face the other way. They need to show what's being eaten by what? So it should go, the pond weed is eaten by the shrimp. Not the shrimp is eaten by the pond weeds. That doesn't make sense. Well done if you spotted it. Great job today, you've worked really really hard. I hope you're impressed with your work and with your food chains. Just before you go, can you remember please to take the end of lesson quiz? That would be fantastic. Have a lovely rest of your day everybody. And I will see back here for another science lesson very soon. Next lesson we're going to learn about microhabitats. Bye, have a good day.

In this lesson, we will learn what a microhabitat is and look at some examples of microhabitats. We will then build our own microhabitat, a bug hotel!

What is a microhabitat?

﻿Hi, everybody. It's Miss Simkin, back again for your next science lesson. I hope that you are well, and you're excited for today's lesson because today we've got lots of learning to do but we've also got some making to do. We are going to continue with our learning on habitats, but today we are going to learn about a particular type of habitat called a microhabitat, and we're actually going to make our own microhabitats as well today. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to start with our star words. We're going to do some quick recap of our learning. Then we're going to learn what a microhabitat is, and look at some examples. Then we are going to build a bug hotel! And at the end of the lesson, you will have a chance to do your end of lesson quiz. For today's lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, a coloured pencil, a different colour, so you can mark your answers and your brain. If you don't have any of those things, could you pause the video and go and get them now, please? Great. Okay, now that you've got everything that you need, let's get our brains ready for the lesson. Do you remember what we do? First thing, gentle tap to wake it up, then a shake to get the blood flowing and then three deep breaths, so our oxygen, so all the oxygen goes to our brain. Ready? Great, now we're ready to begin. You might also need some materials for building the bug hotel, but don't worry, I'll explain what you need for that when we get there. Our Star Words for today are these. I'm going to say them and then you're going to say them. Organism. Habitat. Microhabitat. Environment. Great, good job. An organism is a living thing, it could be a plant or an animal. A habitat, we learnt about a habitat in our last lesson, and I'm actually not going to remind you of the definition because we're going to do it in our recap session and I want to see what you can remember. A microhabitat is a new type of habitat that we're going to learn about today and an environment is someone's surroundings. So my environment at the moment is my living room where I'm recording this lesson. What's your environment at the moment? Great! Let's recap. So last lesson we learned about a habitat. This was our definition of a habitat, but it's got some gaps in it. Can you remember what goes in those gaps? A habitat is the natural, I'm giving you a clue with my actions. What goes in that first gap? Say it to your screen. Good job! A habitat is the natural home, of an, hm. What's the next gap? It was one of our star words, begins with an O. An organism, good job! So the whole definition should say, a habitat is the natural home of an organism. Your turn. Great, well done! Now we are going to look at a microhabitat. A microhabitat is a type of habitat, but when you put the word micro in front of the word. Micro is a prefix that means really, really, really, really small. So what do you think a microhabitat might be? That's right! It's a really small habitat. So this is our definition. You can see the picture showing you the action. It's really, really, really, really small. Can you show me the action for microhabitat? Good job! A microhabitat is a small habitat, that's different to the surrounding environment. So there's two key parts of that. So the fact that it's very small, but also that it's different. So an example, would be a rock pool. If you've ever been to the seaside, you might have seen a rock pool before. A rock pool is a small habitat, it's much smaller than the rest of the beach. It's also different to the rest of the beach, which might be sandy. Whereas a rock pool is just a small little pool in a rock, so it's different to the rest of the sandy beach. So there's two things that a microhabitat is can you remember? Small and different, good job! Okay. Can you fill in the gaps in this definition? You can say them out loud. A microhabitat is a small, mm, that is, mm, to the surrounding environment. What should go in those gaps? Say it to your screen. A microhabitat is a small habitat that is different to the surrounding environment. Well done if you've got that correct. Let's practise it one more time. A micro habitat is a small habitat that is different to the surrounding environment. Good job! Okay. Now you've got the same definition, but it's got some different gaps in it. This time could you write your answer down on your piece of paper. A, mm, is a, mm, habitat that is different to the surrounding environment. Pause the video and write down your definition please. Good job! The answer is, a microhabitat is, a mm, sorry is a small habitat that is different to the surrounding environment. Give yourself a tick if you wrote microhabitat. Give yourself a tick if you wrote small. If you made a mistake, that's okay, remember mistakes, make our brains stronger. You can just correct yourself in a different coloured pencil. Pause the video if you need some time to do that now. Great. Now here is an example of a microhabitat. Have a look, what can you see? That's right, there's a log and it's got two turtles on it. Now it's the log here that's the microhabitat because a log is quite small, especially compared to the rest of the habitat, which is this big pond. And it's also different to the rest of the habitat. The pond is the main habitat and that log is different. And within that microhabitat, there could be lots of things living in it. So there are lots of insects that love rotting wood. So flies might want to lay that eggs on the floating wood. Woodlice love living inside rotting word. Might have ants, beetles, lots of things, not just turtles using it as a float. So that's one example of a microhabitat. Another example we spoke about a bit before, but this is, now you can see a picture. This is a rock pool. It's that pool of water in the middle of the rock. Can you get your finger and can you point to one of the rock pools? Great! Now this is a small habitat. You can see it's almost just the size of a puddle. So it's a microhabitat and it's also different to the rest of the beach. What kind of things do you think might live in a rock pool? Say it out loud to your screen. That's right! You might find little fish or snails. You can see that there's some algae and some seaweed. Might be starfish, sea urchins, sea anemones. There's lots of things that you can find in a rock pool. And if you live by the sea or you ever get the chance to visit the sea, then going rock pooling is a really fun thing to do. And you can climb and see and investigate what's inside each rock pool. Now in this of the lesson, we are going to design a bug hotel. So we're going to make our own microhabitat. So it's going to be different to the surrounding habitat and it's going to be small and hopefully lots of bugs will be able to live in our microhabitat. So I'm going to go through the instructions and then I'm going to show you how I make my bug hotel. And then if you'd like to, you'll have the chance to make your own. So first of all, listen to the instructions. Second, watch me make mine. And third, you can make yours if you want to. So here's how I'm going to make my bug hotel. The first thing I'm going to do, is I'm going to cut the top and the bottom of a plastic bottle. If you're doing this at home, when it's your turn, you need to ask your parent or carer to cut the top and bottom of the plastic bottle for you. Because cutting with scissors, especially something that's round and an awkward shape can be quite dangerous, okay? So that's important. Then I'm going to collect some sticks and leaves and bark. And I'm going to fill my plastic tube with those materials. Then I'm going to choose a good spot for my microhabitat. Now I need to think about the kind of environment that insects like. So most insects like cool, moist conditions. So a shady area next to a hedge or under a tree would work quite well, okay? If you don't have a plastic bottle, then you can still take part in this because you could actually make your bug hotel a bit like this picture here, where you take the leaves and the barks and the twigs and instead of putting them inside the plastic bottle, you need to carefully build them up, so they have a structure, a bit like that. Okay, I'm going to show you how I'm going to make my bug hotel now and then you'll have a chance. Okay, now I'm going to show you how I made my bug hotel. So remember, step one is to ask your parent or carer to chop the top off a plastic bottle. So I've got quite a big one here, but you could definitely use a small one as well. Okay. It doesn't need to be very, very long. And so I'm going to do that now. Cut the top off. So, cut the top off, and now I'm going to do the same for the bottom. Like I said, it doesn't need to be very long. So I'm going to cut it about here. There we go, okay. So now I have a plastic tube with a hole all the way through the middle. Okay and this is going to help me structure my bug hotel. Then step two was to collect some leaves, some twigs, some bark, any kind of dry things that you see on the ground. Now, it's important not to collect living things. So don't pull any flowers or leaves or twigs from a tree or a bush. Just see what you can collect on the ground, things that have already fallen off. If you have a garden, then you would be able to do this in your garden. If you don't, then next time you go on a walk with your parent or carer, then you can collect some of these things as you go. That's what I did. So here are some of the kind of dried twigs and leaves and seeds and bits and bobs I found during my walk. Then step three is to fill your plastic container with these. So, what you need to do, is if you start with the sticks, that's the easiest thing to do and you just put them in like this. So you go into the hole like this and you can start to build up your structure. You can see we've got one here with bits of leaves on it, which is great. I might even just bend that round. Get it all in. It's okay to have gaps in between, because those are the gaps that your bugs are going to crawl between, but you want to try and fill it. The aim is that when you kind of tip it like this, most of the things will stay in because they're quite tightly packed together. Okay. So I'm going to keep filling my bug hotel. And that's about half full there. 'Kay. And then when you've got only leaves and little bits left, that's what you're going to push into the gaps between all of your twigs. Okay? If you've got any big leaves, you might want to put them in before it gets too full, like this. You're just slotting everything in, to your bug hotel. And then the last step is to find somewhere to put your bug hotel. So again, if you've got a garden, then you might be able to find somewhere under a bush or a tree to put it there. If you don't, then you could probably just put it next to your front door, where if you have a little window ledge under there, it's best not to put these in parks or public spaces because some people might think that this plastic is littering and it might just get picked up and put in the bed or it might contaminate a part of the environment. Okay? So that is the start of my bug hotel, I'm going to keep putting things in. If you want, you can now pause the video and have a go at making your own bug hotel. If you don't have a garden and you need to wait until your next walk or when your parent or carer is free to cut up your plastic for you, then that's okay. You know how to make a bug hotel now. You can save that activity for another day, when it suits you better. Well done for all of your hard work today. You should be really proud of what you've learned about microhabitats. And if you've already made your bug hotel, then fantastic. If you're saving it for another day, then good luck and I hope you enjoy it! Just before you go, don't forget to do your end of lesson quiz, please. Have a fantastic rest of your day. And hopefully I will see you back here for another science lesson soon. Bye everybody.

In this lesson, we will learn all about the conditions in a desert habitat. We will also learn about some of the organisms that live in a desert.

What lives in a desert habitat?

﻿Hi, everybody. It's Miss Simkin here for your next science lesson. I hope that you're having a good day. And I hope that you are excited to learn all about the organisms, that means the animals and the plants, that live in desert habitats today because that is our lesson question. What lives in a desert habitat? In today's lesson, we are going to start with our star words. Then we're going to look at what a desert habitat is like, then we're going to learn about the desert organisms. Then we're going to do a matching activity. And then at the end of the lesson, you have a chance to see how much you have remembered in the end of lesson quiz. For this lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, a coloured pencil but you might want all of your colouring pencils today because we'll be doing some drawing and you're going to need your brain. If you don't have any of those things, you can pause the video now and go and get them please. Great, then that's just wake our brains up and then we'll be ready to begin. So a gentle tap. Hello, and then a shake to get the blood flowing and three deep breaths to get the oxygen. Ready? Good job. Let's say our star words. I'm going to say them and then you're going to say them. Desert cold, dry, hot, camel, cactus, scorpion. Good job. So a desert is the type of habitat we're going to be learning about today. Cold is when something's a low temperature. Can you do an action for cold? Good job dry mean something that's not very wet and hot is the opposite of cold. It's when something's a high temperature. Can you do the action for hot? Well, maybe because you're sweating. Show me your action. Great. A camel, the cactus and a scorpion are the organisms we're going to be learning about today. Remember an organism is anything that's alive, so it could be a plant or an animal. Let's start with some recap. Can you remember what a habitat is? A habitat is the natural join the action of an organism. What goes in that gap? Can you say it for me? Great. A habitat It's a natural home of an organism. Good job. And last lesson we looked at micro habitats. Can you remember why I'm saying it in that voice? A microhabitat is a? Mmmh, habitat. What goes in that gap? Say it to your screen. Great. A microhabitat is a small habitat that is? Mmmh, to the surrounding environment. Can you remember what goes in that gap? Is microhabitat the same or different to its surrounding environment? Say it to your screen. Great. It's different. So a microhabitat is a small habitat, that's different to the surrounding environment. Good job. Today we're going to learn about desert habitats. So this is a picture of a desert. And in the day deserts are very very hot, hotter than the hottest summer day here in the United Kingdom. But this is something that might surprise you in the nighttime desert are very very very cold. And deserts are very dry. It doesn't rain in a desert, where it rains very very little. So does it feel hot? When are they hot? During the day. When are they cold? Good. And then dry. This is a map of the world. And you can see the red parts show you where the deserts are. So there's a big patch of desert environments here in Northern Africa and parts of the middle East. There's a big patch of desert environments in the middle of Australia. And then you've got some smaller places where you can find deserts to some small patches in North America and South America and down towards the South of Africa as well. And then a little bit here on this Island next to Africa, which is called Madagascar. You might have seen a movie about Madagascar. Because that's where the deserts are in the world. Can you get your finger and can you point to the desert that's in Australia. Great. That's down here. What about the deserts that are in Northern Africa? Great. There's the ones here. Good job. Okay. What I would like you to do next please, is to write a sentence on your piece of paper with your pencil on how you would describe a desert. A desert. Deserts are? You write three things that desert are. Giving you a clue. Pause the video and write your sentence about deserts please. Great, Good job. Let's Mark your work. Did you write something like this? Desert are hot during the day they're cold during the night, and they're very dry. The main words you need to get in there are hot, cold, and dry. So if you've written those words, you can give yourself a tick each time. And if you miss one of them out, that's okay. You can add it in now with your different coloured pencil. If you need some time to mark your work, then pause the video and do that now, please. Great. Now let's learn about some of the organisms that live in a desert in a desert. I keep saying that word wrong today, which is silly. Coz it's the word main word in our lesson. Maybe I need to practise it. Desert, desert, desert. Good job. Do you want to practise too? Well done. So the first desert organism we're going to learn about is the camel, maybe one of the most well known animals that lives in a desert. Now a camel is really suited to a desert habitat. It would have a much better chance of surviving than I would or you would if we turned up in a desert. Because we don't have the same things that our camel has, that helps us to survive in a desert. Now a camel can go a whole week without water. Which is a really long time. How long can it go without water? Say it to your screen. A whole week exactly. Camels also have really long eyelashes that's to keep the sand out of their eyes and their nostrils. So the holes in their nose, they can actually close them. They've got a flat that shuts close on their nostrils to keep the sand out as well, which is really clever. Whereas we can't do that. So we get lots of sand up our nose in a desert sand storm. Now lots of people think that camels can hold water or store water in their humps. That's actually not true, but they can store fat in that humps. And this fat is like an energy store. It's a food store. So it means that they can go a long time without food as well. Can you point to the camel and start tell me one thing that it has that helps it survive in the desert. Good job. Did you choose nostrils? I chose the nostrils one of my head, the next organism we're going to look at is the cactus, the spiky spiky, cactus. So cactuses are also really well suited to live in the hot dry desert. They've got spiky spines on them. Can you say spiky spine and show me your spiky spine. And those spines protect them from being eaten by other organisms. So even if a camel comes across a cactus, it's not going to be very tempted to bite into it because it's going to get a mouth full of spiky spines. They also can store water inside their flesh. So if you were to break into a cactus you'd see that it was very like juicy like full of water. And they've got really long roots to help them find water that's far away underground. Okay. So they've got spiky spines. Show me the action. Good. They've got long roots. Show me your action. And they store water. So maybe we can do something like this. Coz they're storing the water. They're storing it inside them. We might be able to think about action. Maybe this water your choice, whatever is going to help you remember it. Okay. So let's practise one more time. Show me your action for spiky spines. Good job. Show me your action for long roots. Good job. And show me the action that you've chosen for Storing water. Good job. Well done. Okay. And then our last desert an organism that we're going to learn about today is the scorpion. Scorpions are actually part of the same family as spiders. They're part of the arachnid, arachnid family. I'm going to say. And then you're going to say arachnid. Good. How many legs do spiders have? Can you show me on your fingers? That's fine. Spider has eight legs. And so just as scorpion let's count them. So don't count this big pincers at the front, but let's count its legs because arachnids all have eight legs. So let's check. One, two, Three, four, five. You can see it's hiding behind it's opisthosoma six, seven, eight. So it does have eight legs. So great. Yeah, it's part of the arachnid family. Scorpions are also nocturnal. That means that they're mostly active at night time, which is good if you live in a desert, because remember it's really, really hot in the day. So it's better to be active at night when it's much cooler. Scorpions can also go a whole year without food. I can't even go a day without food. It's very impressive. And scorpions are pretty fearsome little creatures because if they're threatened, they can curl their tail up. And they've got a very poisonous stinger on the end of it. Show me your poisonous stinger. Exactly. So you wouldn't want to get stung by a scorpion. Okay. So those are three desert organisms. What we're going to do now is I'm going to ask you please to draw a picture of each of our organisms and label it. So we've got camel, cactus and scorpion. Can you make sure that underneath your picture, you leave about two or three lines, a space where you can write some facts. Okay. So draw three pictures and leave a space under each picture. Pause the video and do that for me now, please. Great. You haven't already, you can add some colour to your pictures or you can add some colour at the end of the lesson. What we're going to do now is I am going to show you some facts about each organism. There are facts that we've already learned that you've already heard, but I want to see if you can remember which fact matches which organism. Okay? So are you ready for your first one? Here is your first fact. Has a poisonous stinger. Which organism is this about? Is it the camel, the cactus or the scorpion? Say it to your screen. Good job. It's the scorpion. So now can you write this fact underneath your picture of the scorpion. Be careful with the spelling of the word poisonous is on the screen. So look carefully. Pause the video and write this fact for me now. Good job. Okay. Are you ready for the next fact? Has spines to stop other animals from eating it? Which organism is this about? Say it to your screen. That's right. It's the cactus. Can you please write this fact underneath your picture of the cactus. Pause the video and do that for me now. Great. Lets look at our next fact. Has nostrils to keep the sand out. Sorry. Has nostrils that closed to keep the sand out. That's the important bit, that they can close. Which animal is this about? Say it to your screen. That's right. It's the camel. Good job. Can you write this fact underneath your picture of the camel. Pause the video and do that for me now, please. Okay. We've only got two facts left. You're doing great. Good job. Can go a year without food. Which animal was this? Or I should say which organism. That's right. It's the scorpion. Good job. Can you write this fact underneath your scorpion. Pause the videos do that now. Great okay. And here's our last fact of the day. Can go a week without water. Which organism was this? Tell your screen. It was the camel. Good job. Can you write this fact underneath your camel please. Pause the video and do that for me now. Great. Well done. You have worked really hard today. Good job. I hope that you've learned lots about deserts and the animals and plants that live in them. You can test your memory in the end of lesson quiz. Thank you for all of your hard work today. In our next lesson we're going to be learning all about rainforests and two of my favourite animals. I can't wait. So hopefully I will see you back here for another science lesson soon. Bye everybody.

In this lesson, we will learn about the conditions in a rainforest habitat. We will also learn about some of the organisms that live in a rainforest.

What lives in a rainforest habitat?

﻿Hi, everybody, it's Miss Simkin here to teach you a science lesson today. Today, we are going to be learning all about the rainforest habitat, and I promised you last lesson that I was going to teach you about two of my favourite animals. So, let's get started. Our lesson question today is what lives in a rainforest habitat? In today's lesson, we're going to start with our star words, then we're going to learn what a rainforest habitat is like, then we're going to learn about the organisms that live in a rainforest. Remember, an organism is a plant or an animal. Then, at the end of the lesson, we're going to do a matching activity, just like we did with deserts last week. And then, at the very end of the lesson, you will have a chance to see how much you have remembered in your end of lesson quiz. For today's lesson, you're going to a piece of paper, a pencil, a coloured pencil, but you might want more than one today because we're going to do some drawings again, and you're going to need your brain. If you don't have those things, can you pause the video and go and get them now, please? Great, now that we've got everything that we need, it's time to wake our brains up. Give it a gentle tap, now give it a big shake to get the blood rushing, and then three deep breaths so all the oxygen goes to your brain. Ready? Ah, great, now we can start. These are our star words for today. I'm going to say them, and then you're going to say them when I point at the screen. Rainforest, habitat, organisms, compare, tamarin, poison dart frog. Good, that one's long, let's try it again, poison dart frog. Great. So the rainforest is the habitat that we're going to be learning today. A habitat, can you remember, what was our action to help us remember what a habitat is? If you know it, show me. Great, it's this, and why was this our action? What does this represent? Ah, oh yes, a habitat is the home or the natural home of an organism. And what's an organism? We spoke about it during our lesson agenda. It's a plant or a ... Animal, great. The next word on our list is compare. Today, we're going to be comparing two things. That means we're going to be seeing what's the same about them and what's different about them. And then, tamarin and poison dart frog are both animals that we're going to be learning about today. Before we start, let's do some quick recap on the desert habitat, which we learned about last lesson. How would you describe a desert? I'm going to give you a clue with my actions. Tell your screen. Great, a desert is very hot during the day, it's very cold at night, and it's very dry. Good job. Now, let's move on to our new habitat for today, rainforest habitats. Here is a picture from a rainforest. Rainforests are humid. My turn, humid, your turn. Humid means when the air is very moist, there's lots of water in the air. It can feel quite sticky and muggy when it's humid. So, when is it humid here? It's humid when, on a really hot day, when then it suddenly turns to a thunderstorm and you can feel that humidity in the air, it's still hot and sticky, but there's water in the air. There's also lots of rain in rainforests, that's why they're called rainforests. It rains lots and lots and lots in a rainforest. And there are lots of trees in a rainforest, so it's called rain forest, it's like rain plus trees, OK, and both of those things are really important because it means the animals and the plants in a rainforest need to be able to survive in those conditions. Did you know that it can take 10 whole minutes for a raindrop that falls from the sky to travel to the ground of a rainforest? That is because there's so many leaves from all the trees getting in the way, that instead of just going to the ground it does like boom, boom, boom and keeps bouncing off different leaves. OK, there are three things that a rainforest is. Humid, what could our action be for humid, maybe something like this 'cause it starts with water in the air. Can you show the action for humid? Good, and then lots of rain, you have the water falling down. Show me your action for rain. And then lots of trees. What could our action be for trees? Maybe standing up like this, like a tree, or like this, your arms are out. Great, can you show me the action for humid? Lots of water in the rain. Show me the action for rain and show me your action for tree. Good job. Here is a map of where the rainforests are in the world. So they're the green bits that you can see on the map. So, you can see there's some small bits of rainforest in North America and Central America. There's a big patch of rainforest here in South America, in Brazil and some countries. Do you know what that rainforest is called? It begins with an A. It's the Amazon rainforest. My turn, Amazon rainforest. Good job. There's also some rainforests here in the middle of Africa, we see it on the west side. And then, you've got around some of the edges of Australia, lots on this island down here, which is New Zealand. And there, you've got lots of rainforests on these islands, which are Indonesia and Malaysia. And then, up here in Southeast Asia as well. So lots of rainforests in the world. Can you get your finger, and can you please point to the big rainforest that begins with an A? Good job, that's over here in Brazil, and it's called the, say it to your screen, the Amazon, good job. OK, now, can you please get your pencil and your piece of paper ready, and can you write a sentence to describe a rainforest? Rainforests are, remember the actions that we did to help you. Pause the video and write your sentence for me now, please. Great, good job. You might have written something like this. Rainforests are humid, rainy and they have lots of trees. The words in bold are the key ones to include. So can you give yourself a tick each time you've written one of those words and can you add them in with your different-colored pencil if you've missed one of them out? Pause the video if you need some time to mark this question. Good job, OK. Now, I'm going to show you a picture of a rainforest next to the picture of the desert. We're going to compare them. I would like you to tell me what are the differences between the rainforest and the desert, and I wonder if you could write down a few of your ideas. What are the differences between the rainforest and the desert? Pause and video and write down or think about some of your ideas. Good job, OK. So, these are some of my ideas. I wonder if you thought the same. I thought the differences were, well, the rainforest is very wet, and the desert is very dry. There's lots of trees and plants in the rainforest, but there aren't very many in the desert at all. And I said that the rainforest was humid, whereas the desert is just hot and dry. Did you get anything that was the same as me? Good job. OK, now, we're going to look at some of the organisms that live in a desert. And here is one of my first favourite animals. This was my favourite animal when I was in Year Two, when I was the same age as you, and I first saw it in London Zoo. This is called a tamarin. My turn, tamarin. It's type of monkey, and it's actually, its full name is the golden lion tamarin. I'm going to say it, and then you're going to say it. Golden lion tamarin. Good job. Now, I loved this animal because it was so brightly coloured, and it was really small and cute. Golden lion tamarins are only kind of that size, and it was really good if you were ever playing a game of Hangman 'cause golden lion tamarin is, one, a really long word, so it's quite tricky for other people to guess, and two, not many other people had golden lion tamarins as their favourite animals, so people often didn't guess it, then I would win. A golden lion tamarin lives in the rainforest in South America. It's an omnivore. That means that it eats, can you remember, what do omnivores eat? Omnivores eat both plants and animals. So, golden lion tamarins eat a mix of things. They eat fruit and seeds, but they also eat insects and small birds and lizards and frogs. They spend their whole life in the trees, which is why it's so suited to living in a rainforest. And its territory, that means the distance that it travels in its home is 100 acres. How many acres? 100, which is the same size as 65 football pitches. Well, imagine if your home was that big, 65 football pitches. But sadly, there are only 1,500 tamarins left in the wild. So they're endangered, there's not very many of them left. Can you remember, what do golden lion tamarins eat? See if you can remember any of the one things that it eats and say it to your screen. Good, fruit, insects, birds, seeds, frogs. Well done if you remembered any of those. OK, the next organism that you find in a rainforest is a type of plant called an orchid. My turn, orchid. Great, there are lots of different types of orchids that grow in the rainforest. They are brightly coloured and this is to attract insects. And most importantly, again, they're suited to live in the rainforest because they grow on trees. Orchids in other countries or orchids that live in different habitats that don't live in the rainforest grow on the ground. But these orchids are actually able to grow on the branches of trees so they can grow really high up, which suits the rainforest, doesn't it, because we've learned that a rainforest is fill of trees. Why is it good that an orchid can grow on trees? Tell your screen. Good, because a rainforest is full of trees. Good job. OK, are you ready for my next favourite animal? It's the poison dart frog. Not only does it have a really cool name, these frogs are really tiny. They're quite like really small animals. I don't know why, but it's really tiny, they're like this size, and they come in these beautiful bright colours. So the one on the screen is blue, but you also get them in bright yellows and bright reds and bright oranges and bright greens, and they just look amazing. Now, there's a reason for those bright colours. It's not just 'cause this mist that can light the bright colours. The reason that these frogs are brightly coloured is because their bright colours send a message to predators, and they say, warning, warning, I am poisonous, do not eat me. OK, so the predators have learned that things that are that brightly coloured are poisonous, and so, it keeps them away. And the frogs are poisonous. That's why they're called poison dart frogs. But another really cool thing about them is that the indigenous people who used to live in the South American rainforest where these frogs come from, they knew that these frogs were poisonous, and so, they used it to their advantage. They used something called a dart, which is when you have like a hollow tube, like a straw or a bit of bamboo, like this, and you put a really sharp thing in it, that's the dart, and then you can blow it out like that, and the dart will blow out, and it will land in whatever it is that you're trying to catch, maybe you're trying to catch a bird to eat, OK? So that's what a dart is. Can everybody make a dart with their hand? So you need a circle in your hand, and you're going to practise blowing it, OK? Get your dart ready and then one, two, three. Good job. Now, the indigenous people who lived in the rainforest, they used to take their darts, and they'd rub them on the backs of these frogs, so they get their poison all over them, and then their darts would be poisonous, too, and then, when they blew them , whatever they hit would not just get a dart in them, they would get a poison dart in them. So that's why they're called poison dart frogs. What are they called? Good job. OK, let's see how much of that you remembered. We are going do to a matching activity, just like we did last week with our desert organisms. So the first thing I'd like you to do, please, is to draw a picture of each organism. So can you draw a picture of the tamarin, the orchid, and the poison dart frog, and make sure that you leave some space below each picture because that's where you going to write your facts in a moment. Pause the video and do that for me now, please. Great, OK. I'm going to show you a fact, and then you need to tell your screen which organism it is about. Is it about the tamarin, the orchid, or the poison dart frog? So, grows on trees. Which organism grows on trees, tell your screen. Yes, it's the orchid, good job. So can you write that fact underneath your orchid? Grow on trees. Pause the video and write your fact. Fantastic, are you ready for the next one? OK, has a territory of 100 acres, or 65 football pitches. Which organism is this about? Tell your screen. Great, it's the tamarin. Well done, can you pause the video and write this fact underneath your picture of the tamarin? Pause the video now. Good job. OK, next one. Brightly coloured to attract insects. Which one was this, there were two that were brightly coloured, but which was to attract insects? Tell your screen. Yes, that's right, it's the orchid. Can you write this fact underneath your picture of the orchid? Pause the video and do that for me now. Great, good job. Which organism was brightly coloured to ward off predators, can you remember? That's right, it's the poison dart frog. Good job. Can you please write this underneath your picture of your poison dart frog? Pause the video and do that for me now. Great, OK. And which animal was very poisonous? The clue's in the name, say it to your screen. Good, it's the poison dart frog again. Can you please pause the video and write this underneath your picture of the poison dart frog? Pause the video for me now. Good job. And our last fact. Which animal was an omnivore that eats fruit, flowers, amphibians and insects? Great, it was the tamarin. Can you write this fact underneath your picture of a tamarin? Pause the video and do that now. Well one, great job today. I hope you're really proud of the work that you've done. You've been working so hard in this unit, All About Habitats. Remember, just before you go to make sure you complete your end of lesson quiz, please. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day, and thank you for listening so carefully to my favourite animals. I will see you back here for another lesson soon. Bye, everybody!

In this lesson, we will learn about the habitats that can exist within urban environments and the organisms that live in them.

Can a city be a habitat?

﻿Hi, everybody. It's Miss Simkin here, ready to teach your next science lesson. I hope that you are ready to be scientists today. It's great to see you back here. So in today's lesson, we are going to be learning about habitats. And we are going to answer the question: Can a city be a habitat? This is what we're going to do in today's lesson. We're going to start with our star words and some quick recap, like we always do. Then we're going to answer the question: What is a city? Then we're going to look at what lives in a city. And then we're going to look at something called urban green spaces. And we are going to make our own poster. At the very end of the lesson, you'll then have a chance to see how much you can remember in your end of lesson quiz. For this lesson, you are going to need, please, a piece of paper, a pencil, a coloured pencil, and you might want more than one colouring pencil today because we're going to be drawing a poster and you're going to need your brain. If you don't have any of those things, could you pause the video and go and get them for me now, please? Great. Okay. Let's wake up our brain so they're ready to do some learning. Start with a gentle tap and then shake your body. Get the blood flowing to your brain. And finally, three deep breaths. Great, to get the oxygen flow into our brains. I feel ready to begin now. Do you? Let's start with our star words. I'm going to say them, and then you're going to say them. Urban. Rural. City. Pet. Organism. Great. Let's talk about what these words mean. So a city is an area where lots of people live really close together, which means there have to be lots of buildings close together for those people to live in. Urban and rural are two types of places. So we use urban to describe things like towns or cities where you have lots of people and lots of buildings. And we use rural to describe places that are in the countryside, so where there's not as many people and there's not as many buildings. Can you take a second and think for me, do you live in an urban area, so a city or a town, or do you live in a rural area in the countryside? Just have a think for me, maybe even look out your window and see how many buildings you can see. Great. So I live in a city. I live in an urban area with lots of buildings close together. And that's the habitat that we're going to learn about today. Okay. Our next word is pet. A pet is an animal that's kept in our home. So my dog, Charlie, is my pet. And an organism is any living thing. So it could be a plant or an animal. Let's start with some quick recap. Can you remember our definition of a habitat? Use the picture to help you. A habitat is the natural... of an organism. What's meant to go in that gap? Say it to your screen. Home! Great. Now, can you say the whole definition for me? A habitat is... Great job. So far, we've looked at rainforest habitats and desert habitats. So there's a picture of both on the screen. How would you describe a rainforest habitat? Can you say it out loud? Rainy, humid, and lots of trees. Good job. How would you describe a desert habitat? Can you say it out loud? Dry, hot. When is it hot, during the day or the night? The day. And cold, when is it cold? In the night. Good job. Okay. Now that we've done our recap, let's start with our learning for this lesson. What is a city? So here is a picture of an urban area and here is a picture of a rural area. Have a close look for me, pause the video and can you make a list, you can either say it out loud or write it down of the differences you can see between the pictures? So for example, I can see that there is lots of grass in the rural picture, but there's not lots of grass in the urban picture. What other differences can you see? Pause the video and make your list. Great. So you can see in the urban area that there's lots of buildings, that the buildings are very tall and there's not many trees or grass. These are some of the things that you might have said. Whereas in the rural area, we don't have that many buildings. I can only see two buildings here. And then there's some buildings back here just in the distance, and back here. But there is lots of green. There's lots of grass and lots of trees. So those are some of the differences that you might have spotted. So this is a city and it's the habitat that we're going to be learning about today. We're going to think about what animals live in a city. We know that lots of humans live in cities and we are a type of animal, but what about any other animals? Can you have a think for me? What organisms can you find in a city? If you live in a city, then think about what you might be able to see, what animals and plants you might be able to see when you walk to school. If you don't live in a city then maybe you visited a city before. What animals did you see on your visit? Pause the video and have a think. Hmm. So some of the animals you might have come up with were pigeons, seagulls, foxes, squirrels, birds, maybe rats. There are lots of animals in the city. We're going to learn about a few more of them today. Now, did any of you say cats or dogs? Well, you're right. Cats and dogs do live in a city, but do they count as having a city as its habitat? So think about our definition of a habitat. It's the natural home of an organism. Now, pigeons, for pigeons, the city is their habitat because although the city has been built by people, the pigeons have chosen it as their habitat. Nobody's forced the pigeons to live there. But what about pets? Do pets have a choice about where they live? No, they don't. Okay. They don't count as part of the city habitat because they're not living there freely. They're not wild animals. Humans have put them in the habitat, a bit like the zoos. Remember, zoo animals didn't count, zoos don't count as a habitat because the animals are put there, they're not wild. Okay? Let's learn about some animals that do count that do have the city as their habitat. So the first is pigeons. Now, pigeons live in large numbers in cities. And almost any city that you visit will have lots of pigeons. They like to find bits of food that have been dropped on the floor. And they like to make their nests on the window ledges or on the roofs of buildings. Where do they make their nests? Good job. Another animal that is common in cities, although you do get them in the countryside as well, is foxes. Now, it's not that common to see a fox during the day in a city, but foxes are quite active at night. They're nocturnal animals and you'll often see them rummaging through the bins because that's where they find most of their food in cities. They go through people's rubbish bins. And even if you haven't seen a fox before, you might have woken up and seen a bin that's been made a big mess of outside of your house or on your street before. It was probably a fox that did that. Where do foxes like to get their food? Say it to your screen. From bins! Good job. Another animal that lives in the city is a rat. And cities are full of rats. Rats live everywhere that humans do. You might not see them very often, but they are often living in the drains and underneath the pavements or within the walls of buildings. Where do rats live? So in drains or in walls of buildings. They can live almost anywhere. And our last animal that we're going to talk about today is the squirrel. So again, squirrels can live in the countryside as well, but they're very common in cities. They tend to build their nests, which are called dreys. What are they called? My turn, dreys. In trees. So although there aren't as many trees in cities as there are in the countryside, there are still trees on most streets and in some parks, and this is where squirrels make their nests. Okay. So here is a picture that represents a street in a city. So you can see a tree, some buildings, and then a rubbish bin on the side. It's just a quick picture that I drew. I'm going to put something on the screen, and I want you to tell me which of those four animals would you find there. So what were the four animals we looked at again? Can you remember? So pigeon, fox, squirrel or rat. Okay? Which animal would you find here? Say it out loud. Great! A squirrel. Squirrels make their nests in trees. Which animal would you find here by the rubbish bin? Say it out loud. Great! A fox. That's where they find their food or most of their food. What animal would you find here on the top of a building? Say it to your screen. That's right, a pigeon. That's where they make their nests. And what animal might you find underneath the road in the drains? Say it to your screen. That's right, a rat! Good job. Okay. In the next part of our lesson, we're going to learn about urban green spaces. So we know that cities are full of buildings and people, but there are still green spaces in these urban places. So here's a picture to show you one. You can see this big park in the middle of a city. So parks, meadows, heath, and commons are all types of green space that you would sometimes find in towns and cities. And they're a really important part. They're important for lots of animals like butterflies and bees and birds, and also humans. Humans who live in cities love having green spaces because it's great to go to the park to go do exercise, to spend time outside. And butterflies and bees and birds love them as well because that's where they make their nests or get their food from flowers. So it's important that we look after our urban green spaces. So your final task of the lesson is to make a poster about green spaces. These are the steps you need to follow. First of all, you need to choose a title. So I would start with a blank piece of paper. It could be lined, it could be blank, but I'd probably start a new page, and I would write my title at the top, either here or here. So our poster is going to be about saving green spaces. So you might want to choose your title as save our green spaces, which is what it says on here. Save our green spaces! So that's the first thing you're going to do. You're going to make your title. Posters are best when they're bright and colourful and eye-catching, so you can pause the video and write your title. Draw your title for your poster for me now, please. Great. Step two is to draw a picture of a green space. So you need to draw a picture of a park or a heath or a common, maybe think about a favourite green space that you like to visit. So pause the video and draw a picture of that. That can take up most of your page. Pause the video and do that now. Brilliant! Now, the next thing you're going to do is you're going to draw some of the things that find green spaces really useful and need us to save green spaces. So in your picture, I'd like you to include a picture of a butterfly and a bee and a bird and a human. So you can draw yourself or another person enjoying the green space. Okay? Can you draw at least one of these four things and then label it as well? So write next to it, human, bird, bee, butterfly. Pause the video and do that for me now, please. Great! If you haven't already, you can go back and add some bright colours to your poster now. Good job! So just before we end the lesson, can a city be a habitat? Let's think about that question. So a habitat is a natural home of an organism. What do you think? Can a city be a habitat? Hmm. You might think no because a city is made by humans. It's not natural. But remember, it can be made by humans as long as the animals, the organisms that live there choose to do it freely, if they live there naturally. So pigeons, foxes, rats, and squirrels all choose to live in city habitats. So a city can be a habitat. Great job today! You have worked really hard and I hope that you are proud of your Save our green spaces posters. If you would like to share your work with Oak National, so maybe the work you've done today or any of your work from the rest of our habitat lessons, then you can do that by asking your parent or carer to share your work on social media and tagging @OakNational or #LearnwithOak. They can also tag @Teach_STEMinism and then I will be able to see your work too. Well done for all of your great learning on habitats. Just before you go, make sure you do your end of lesson quiz, which is your last one of this unit. Thank you so much for being such fantastic scientists. And I hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye, everybody!

Unit Overview: Habitats

National Curriculum

Unit Question

Lessons: