The Co-operative s Green Schools Revolution. out what wild creatures need in their environment

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1 SUGGESTED TIME: 60 MINS + TIME TO MAKE HABITATS Age group No. of pupils in cohort Classroom support (to be completed by teachers) Just like us, wild creatures need a place to live. But when humans need land for building, we often deprive wildlife of their homes. But we can be Habitat Heroes and share the land with wildlife, making sure we protect their habitats and also build them new places to live. This lesson and its follow-up activity helps children understand the importance of homes for wild creatures and shows them how to be Habitat Heroes, creating different environments to encourage wildlife. Learning objectives To know that wild creatures rely on their habitats for health and survival. To know that human activity can reduce or remove natural habitats. To list different habitats and the creatures that live there. Success criteria Children should be able to: List the things wild creatures obtain from the right habitat, including food, water and shelter. Identify examples of how human activity might change a natural habitat. List common habitats and some creatures that live in them. Curriculum links England Science Sc2 1.b. Animals, including humans, move, feed, grow, use their senses and reproduce; c. relate life processes to animals and plants found in the local environment. 2.b. Humans and other animals need food and water to stay alive. 5.a. Find out about the different kinds of plants and animals in the local environment; b. Identify similarities and differences between local environments and ways in which these affect animals and plants that are found there; c. care for the environment. Geography 3.c. Recognise how places have become the way they are and how they are changing. 5.a. Recognise changes in the environment.

2 Curriculum links continued Wales - Foundation stage Knowledge and understanding of the world Investigate indoor and outdoor learning environments, as well as including natural conditions as they arise. Recognise how people s actions can improve or damage the environment. Observe differences between animals and plants, different animals, and different plants in order to group them. Identify some animals and plants that live in the outdoor environment. Creative Development Make choices when choosing materials and resources. Design and make simple products. Scotland Sciences I can explore examples of food chains and show an appreciation of how animals and plants depend on each other for food. SCN 1-02a. Social studies I can consider ways of looking after my school or community and can encourage others to care for their environment. SOC 1-08a. Northern Ireland The world around us How plants and animals rely on each other within the natural world; Interdependence of people, plants, animals and place. Ways in which living things depend on and adapt to their environment; Positive and negative effects of people on places. Positive change and how we have a responsibility to make an active contribution. The arts Look at and talk about resource material to stimulate their own ideas. Experiment with a range of media, materials, tools and processes.

3 Resources Habitat Heroes guides. Habitat Heroes poster. Co-operative Farm Habitat Heroes website: Habitat Heroes IWB activity. My Helpful Habitat template. Art materials for children to draw or make and label a habitat. Habitat-building materials. Refer to each Habitat Heroes guide for a list of things you ll need. Teaching activities Introduction (WALT) using appropriate pupil language. What are habitats and what do habitats provide? Ask the children to name some different places in your area where they d find wild creatures living. Ideas might include gardens, woodland, verges, fields, wasteland, upland or wild country, parks and rivers or lakes. List the children s ideas. Expand the list to include places further afield in the UK. Ask children what they think the word habitat means and discuss their ideas. By highlighting how the children s family homes meet their needs, explore the idea that habitats are places where creatures live and find shelter, food and water. Clarify that each place children thought of can provide habitats for wildlife, and that many places can provide lots of different types of habitats. Pick one of the places the children listed (e.g. a park or garden) and think about how it might provide different sorts of places for wildlife to live (like grass, hedgerows, wooded areas, streams, soil, and quiet corners that might be dry or damp). Development Independent, paired and group activity Who lives where? Play this game in the Habitat Heroes IWB activity. Ask the children to identify each wild creature and take turns drag-and-dropping them into what they think are the correct habitats. Talk about each habitat to identify their key features, for example cool and wet in a pond, cool and damp in a corner, warm and dry in a sunny grass area or wall. Help the children to understand that wild creatures don t always like their homes to be the same as ours but that, just like us, they do need the right kind of habitat to stay healthy and happy. Let s be helpful humans! If wild creatures don t like the same habitats as us, what happens when we come along and build our own habitats, like homes, roads, schools or shops? Ask for ideas and establish that our activities can reduce or remove natural habitats. Use the web link to start a discussion on how The Co-operative is restoring habitats on its farms, places where activities needed to grow our food can take away the places wildlife use to find their own food or shelter.

4 Differentiated activities SEN/G&T Help less able children by providing a word list that will help them draw and label up their habitat. Include descriptions (eg dry, wet, warm, cool) as well as things (leaves, soil, rotting wood etc). More able children can choose their own words and write sentences to describe their habitat. Plenary Use the My helpful habitat activity sheet with your class. The children can draw and label a habitat and the creatures that would live there. They should think in terms of nouns and adjectives to describe the habitat. Remind the children about how The Co-operative helps to attract wildlife on its farms. Ask them for their ideas on how they could attract wild creatures back to your school, or their gardens, and what that wildlife might be. Use the Habitat Heroes poster to stimulate the children s thinking. Establish that humans can help wildlife by building new habitats that are just like those we remove. See if the children can identify some examples of these, like garden ponds, bug boxes etc. Explain that you re all going to make some habitats, either in the school grounds or at home, so that wild creatures have somewhere to live. AfL assessment opportunities (WILF) Children can: Name wild creatures and link them to habitats. Identify different habitats in your community, such as the local park, playground or garden. List the main things habitats provide (food and shelter) and describe how a creature gets these from its favourite habitat (for example, a hedgehog finds dry leaves and minibeasts to eat under a hedge). Describe some of the effects human activity can have on wildlife habitats and explain how we can help wildlife. Extension/ homework Let s be Habitat Heroes! Tell the children they re going to be Habitat Heroes by making the shelter ideas in the Habitat Heroes guides. Place your creature-houses in appropriate places around the school or advise children where to put them in their gardens. Monitor your habitats using the ideas in the guides and see what wildlife you attract! Art habitats: using coloured paper and shredded tissue paper, children can make 2D and 3D habitats for the classroom or a foyer display, adding photos or drawings of the creatures that live there. us a photo of your new habitat! greenschoolsrevolution@co-operative.coop

5 Follow-up lesson School safari: take the class on a tour of your school grounds, looking for places where wildlife might live. As well as spotting birds and mini beasts, be detectives and look for clues. Can the children find webs, holes, droppings or other signs that wild creatures live in your school grounds? Whole-school activity Set up a Green Schools Revolution committee in your school to help look after your habitats, monitoring, rebuilding and adding more over time. Share your ideas in an assembly, foyer display or campaign. Invite parents into school to explore your habitats and encourage them to make some together with their children.

6 My Helpful Habitat Name: The wild creatures I want to protect are: These creatures like their habitat to be: Draw your habitat here. Label it with your creature names and show why they like this habitat! Biodiversity: activity sheet