Year 4 Science Unit on Habitats

This unit is designed for year 4 but could be adapted to fit into other year groups. Ultimately the unit is focused on better understanding different animals and plants and the positives and negatives of natural and artificial habitats. In this unit, children will spend time classifying different animals/plants, creating their own habitats, debating the positive and negative aspects of artificial habitats. It develops the following skills:

• Using and making simple guides or keys [sorting, grouping, comparing, classifying] to explore and identify plants and animals.

• Making a guide [sorting, grouping, comparing, classifying] to local living things.

• Raising and answering questions based on their observations of animals and what they have found out about other animals that they have researched.

Lesson 1: Children build classification keys to better understand different animals and plants

Lesson 2: Children learn about different habitats and learn to distinguish between them

Lesson 3: Children create their own zoo and debate the ethics of zoos as habitats for animals

Within this unit plan there are hyperlinks to other resources associated with the plan.