Living Things and their Habitats Year 3 and 4 Planning and Resources

Living Things and Their Habitats Year 3 and 4 planning and resources. Part of Creative Curriculum Topic: A World of Living Things (Living Things and Habitats). Ideal for teaching a mixed age range. Can be used as a complete scheme of work or individual lessons.

Planning includes success criteria, key skills and questions, and links to other resources. Each lesson includes an introduction presentation and a Creative Learning Challenge. These are designed to allow all children to show you what they have learnt, by allowing the children to choose how they show their learning (written, drawing, drama, using technology).

Driving Question: How could we, as scientists, improve the habitat in our school grounds to support a world of living things. Our planet is full of remarkable animals, it is an incredible world of living things, but what is special about something that is alive? Question, problem solve and classify. First you will discover MRS GREN and how living things are grouped according to their features. You will become a trainee zoologist and design a zoo of the future. Can you help classify the animals? What do straws and Post It Notes have to do with branching trees? What environmental dangers do living things face? Finally, can you make a positive impact to a local environment? Using your knowledge of environments, habitats and living things, redesign an area of our school grounds to change it for the better and support a world of living things.

Lesson 1: How do we know something is alive? MRS GREN and the 7 life processes.

Lesson 2: Can you sort living things into groups? Explore criteria for sorting living things into groups. Using Venn and Carroll diagrams.

Lesson 3: Can you classify species from the wild? Similarities and differences between vertebrates and invertebrates. Generating closed questions ready for classification.

Lesson 4: Straws and Post It Notes! Can you construct a branching tree? Exploring classification keys. Show the characteristics of living things in a table and create a branching tree using straws and paper.

Lesson 5: How can we protect the environment? Exploring environmental dangers. Research project on an endangered species.

Lesson 6: Can you make a positive impact to a local environment? Using everything they have learnt, carry out a survey on an area in the school grounds. Use tables, tally charts etc to record and then think about the environment and how could it be improved to support a variety of living things.

There is a PDF and an editable version of each file (PowerPoint).