In lesson five pupils should be taught to: Re-cap ways to compare and contrast vertebrate groups Explore possible ways of grouping animals by making simple keys The following summary is based on notes and guidance from the National Curriculum. The pupils will be classifying living things and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions, discussing their findings with peers and the staff. The teaching activity ‘tabletennis’ could be used to allow students to discuss scientific terminology before comparing and contrasting using the Venn diagram. The students decide on two animals or are given two pictures of animals, they then state a key word / feature of the animal in turns until one person can’t go. The person who spoke last gains a point or wins the table tennis rally. The pupils have the opportunity to group and classifying living things, carrying out simple comparisons using Haribo Phantasia sweets or the pictures provided. The students can then use the sweets to complete the Venn diagrams and recap their knowledge from the previous lesssons. Covering the same material more than once but in a slightly different way, will enhance learning / retention and is based on work by Ebbinghaus on learning curves. The students can also be given the chance to work independently by finding out more facts using secondary sources of information. In this lesson students were given the Haribo Phantasia sweets and allowed time to group the sweets into different categories based on the knowledge gained in the previous lessons. The sweet sort activity, identifying different animals features and adaptations can be used as a stimulus to talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying. They should begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships between plants that share similar features. Pupils should explore possible ways of grouping a wide selection of living things that include animals. The students can use their work from Venn diagrams and classification keys. They have been designed to allow pupils to identify differences between plant groups easily and the activities should flow, the differences between plant groups written in the Venn diagrams can be used in the boxes of the ‘yes’ / ‘no’ identification keys. The Venn diagrams are a resource to assess the pupils knowledge and for them to record the similarities and differences between different plant groups. The activities have been specifically designed to provide the scaffolding needed for pupils to put plants into groups Pupils are given scientific words to read and opportunities to spell scientific vocabulary correctly to build their confidence and to use their growing spelling knowledge in a scientific context. The word list, phonetic sounds and definitions have been provided which could be used during their weekly spelling test. The students will record their findings using simple scientific language and by completing keys and tables.

In this fourth lesson pupils should be taught to: Explore possible ways of grouping flowering plants and non-flowering plants. Recognise plants can be grouped into categories such as flowering plants (including grasses) and non-flowering plants, such as ferns and mosses Identify different trees by observing differences in their leaves. Use simple keys to identify leaves from local trees. The following summary is based on notes and guidance from the National Curriculum. The pupils will be classifying living things and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions, discussing their findings with peers and the staff. The teaching method ‘snowball fight’ could be used to gain an understanding of the students current knowledge about different plant species. The pupils have the opportunity to group and classifying living things, carrying out simple comparisons using a simple table and fact sheet and by investigating a local wildlife area / forrest school area. The students can then use the facts in their tables to complete the Venn diagrams. They can also be given the chance to work independently by finding out more facts using secondary sources of information. In this lesson students were split into small groups to investigate the outdoor area / plant species. Each group was either led by a teacher / TA or by an able student to make the activity more engaging and to make sure the table contains all the facts needed for the next activity. The table named indentifying different plants and the plants themselves can be used as a stimulus to talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying. They should begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships between plants that share similar features. Pupils should explore possible ways of grouping a wide selection of living things that include plants. The students can use their plant identification tables or the fact sheets to complete the Venn diagrams and classification keys. They have been designed to allow pupils to identify differences between plant groups easily and the activities should flow, the differences between plant groups written in the Venn diagrams can be used in the boxes of the ‘yes’ / ‘no’ identification keys. The Venn diagrams are a resource to assess the pupils knowledge and for them to record the similarities and differences between different plant groups. The activities have been specifically designed to provide the scaffolding needed for pupils to put plants into groups Pupils are given scientific words to read and opportunities to spell scientific vocabulary correctly to build their confidence and to use their growing spelling knowledge in a scientific context. The word list, phonetic sounds and definitions have been provided which could be used during their weekly spelling test. The students will record their findings using simple scientific language and by completing keys and tables.

This activity has been made to accompany a lesson for the unit animals including humans. It can be used to produce a model of the human teeth and identify the different teeth found in the human mouth. It can also be used to provide the basic idea of the shapes of each tooth to produce a model out of modeling clay or plasticine. This model is quick to make and only requires scissors and glue. The model is anatomically correct and based on a real set of teeth.

In this first lesson pupils should be taught to: • Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways • Use a keys, tables and diagrams to help group animals • Identify and name a variety of living things from their local and wider environment The following summary is based on notes and guidance from the National Curriculum. The pupils will be classifying living things and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions, discussing their findings with peers and the staff. Instead of using written methods, discussion could also be assessed whilst the students complete the grouping of invertebrate and vertebrate table to gain an understanding of their knowledge. A snowball activity could be used where one pupil remains by their work and the other moves around the room. The student that stays can discuss why they have placed each animal either in the vertebrate column or the invertebrate column. The pupils have the opportunity to group and classifying invertebrate species by observing and recording the features of a range of invertebrate species. I like to take the students to an area on the school grounds where they can collect and observe living organisms. The students can use pooters to prevent harm to the organisms and use small containers with holes to collect them for their observations in the classroom. Magnifying glasses are another good resource to use, so the students can observe the organisms in more detail. They can complete the garden detectives sheet and the fact files sheet during the investigation or when they return to the classroom. The students can also be given the chance to work independently by finding out more facts using secondary sources of information which have been provided. The resources can be used as a stimulus to talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying. They should begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships between animals that share similar features. Pupils should explore possible ways of grouping a wide selection of vertebrate species using the classification key. The Venn diagrams are a resource to assess the pupils knowledge and for them to record the similarities and differences between different invertebrate groups. There is one for a summary that gets the students to compare invertebrates and vertebrates. The activities have been specifically designed to provide the scaffolding needed for pupils to discover invertebrate groups such as snails, slugs, worms, spiders and insects The students will record their findings using simple scientific language and by completing keys and tables.

In this second lesson pupils should be taught to: • Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways • Use a keys, tables and diagrams to help group animals • Identify and name a variety of living things from their local and wider environment The following summary is based on notes and guidance from the National Curriculum. The pupils will be classifying living things and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions, discussing their findings with peers and the staff. Instead of using written methods discussion could also be assessed through a snowballing activity, one student stays at the station and describes their ideas to other students as they rotate around the classroom. The pupils can use the animal adaptation card sort to classifying vertebrate groups focusing on their features. The pupils can use the card sort activity if their knowledge of animals is limited, alternatively be provided with the blank table and prompts if there knowledge is more in depth. The pupils carry out simple comparisons using Venn diagrams to compare and contrast different animals with certain features. This builds upon the knowledge learned in lesson one and will reinforce how classification of different animals with backbones can be performed. This uses Ebbinghaus pedagogy theory about memory and current scientific research that repetition of the material in a different context or activity will aid memory retention. The resources can be used as a stimulus to talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying. They should begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships between animals that share similar features. The animal habitats activity can be used in conjunction with the animal cards. The students decided where the animals would live based on their features (adaptations). The activity gives the opportunity to describe / justify why they have decided each animal would be found in that habitat based on its features. The last activity involves the use of Venn diagrams, they have been designed to allow pupils to compare and contrast animals based on their adaptations. These diagrams focus on the features of animals and the pupils can place the animal cards or animal pictures in the different regions. To save printing this activity can be used on the board and pupils simply copy the activity int their books. The Venn diagrams are a resource to assess the pupils knowledge and for them to record the similarities and differences and see which animals share certain features.

In this first lesson pupils should be taught to: • Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways • Use a keys, tables and diagrams to help group animals • Identify and name a variety of living things from their local and wider environment The following summary is based on notes and guidance from the National Curriculum. The pupils will be classifying living things and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions, discussing their findings with peers and the staff. Instead of using written methods discussion could also be assessed through an activity like question, feeling, learning. The pupils have the opportunity to group and classifying living things, carrying out simple comparisons using Carroll diagrams and Venn diagrams. They can also be given the chance to work independently by finding out more facts using secondary sources of information. In this lesson sweets have been used to make the activity more engaging. I also like to make use of secondary resources with more information such as top trumps cards including deadliest predators, creatures of the deep and deadly 60. The resources can be used as a stimulus to talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying. They should begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships between animals that share similar features. Pupils should explore possible ways of grouping a wide selection of living things that include animals. The Carroll diagrams, classification key and Venn diagrams has been designed to allow pupils to identify differences between vertebrate groups. The Venn diagrams are a resource to assess the pupils knowledge and for them to record the similarities and differences between different vertebrate groups. The activities have been specifically designed to provide the scaffolding needed for pupils to put vertebrate animals into groups such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Pupils are given scientific words to read and opportunities to spell scientific vocabulary correctly to build their confidence and to use their growing spelling knowledge in a scientific context. The word list, phonetic sounds and definitions have been provided which could be used during their weekly spelling test. The students will record their findings using simple scientific language and by completing keys and tables.