Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 mins

Tune In: What is a habitat?

15 mins

Find Out: What makes them different?

30 mins

Take Action: What lives where?

5 mins

Reflection

Tune In: What is a habitat?

Step 1

Let students know that we are going to explore the different places where things live around the world.

What do we call a place where animals and plants live?

Your students might come up with a few suggestions, such as ecosystem, environment, or biome. Biome will show up if you have Minecraft players in the classroom! Write down all their answers until we hear ‘habitat’. Write this one at the top of the board.

Step 2

Explain to students that today, we are going to explore different habitats around the World. Start by showing the student this video:

Seven Worlds, One Planet | Perfect Planet | Frozen Planet II | Green Planet | Planet Earth III (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEb1K33kwgI)

At the end, ask your students: What different places or habitats did they see?

Record the students’ answers on the board. As students start to get stuck, you may want to rewatch the video a second time and get them to take note of any additional habitats to expand your list. It may include words like:

jungle	desert	rivers	tundra
forest	grasslands	wetlands	saltmarsh
ocean	reef	swamps	woodlands

Extension: Sometimes, students might be able to describe a habitat but not know the word for it. Keep a note of these habitats, and follow up with research later. This can be a tricky task, so one of the easiest ways is to take a note of the animal they saw in that habitat, look up where it lives and, based on the results, narrow down the habitats until they think they have the one they were trying to describe.

Find Out: What makes habitats different?

Step 1

We have identified a LOT of different habitats here. All of these habitats are on the same planet, but some of them are similar, and some of them are different. What are some of the factors that may change from habitat to habitat? Students may suggest:

temperature (cold, cool, warm, hot)
plant presence
animal presence
precipitation/rainfall
soil/ground
sunlight
salinity (we’re getting to some tricky ones now!)

Learning support: If students are getting stuck, ask them to compare a desert and a snowy forest. What are the differences between these two habitats? Is the temperature the same? The plants?

Step 2

Now we’ve identified some different habitats and what makes them different, we want to know:

Why does an animal live in one habitat and not another?

This is a BIG question! Let’s break it down to looking at koalas. Why do koalas live in Australia and nowhere else? Australia has gum trees (almost all eucalyptus species are native to Australia).

Ask your students: What do gum trees provide for koalas? Your students may suggest the following:

food (they only eat gum leaves)
water (they get all of their water from gum leaves)
shelter (they are protected at the tops of these tall trees)

Shelter can be a bit of a tricky one. Remember the factors we talked about for habitats? These factors provide different types of shelter. For example, koalas live in a place where the temperature is right for them. There are two sub-species of koala. The northern koala found in Queensland has a smaller body mass and shorter, lighter-coloured fur better suited to the warmer temperatures. The southern koala found in Victoria has a larger body mass and fluffier darker-coloured fur, making them better suited to the cold climates. Both habitats provide shelter by having the right temperature range for these animals. The changing climate is beginning to impact the historical population ranges of animals. We’ll dive deeper into this later in this unit.

Step 3

Now we can answer the question:

What is a habitat?

It is a place where an animal or plant's needs are met: food, water, and shelter.

Take Action: What lives where?

Step 1

Let’s explore this further. Show this video to your students:

Habitats: What is a habitat? - Discovery Education UK (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrSWYE37MJs)

At the end of the video, ask your students:

Why does the polar bear live in the Arctic?
Why do pandas live in forests?
Why do brown bears live in woodlands?
How does each habitat meet the needs of each of these different bears?
How does this habitat provide them with food, shelter, and water?

Step 2

Now, we’re going to do some research.

Ask your students: Can you think of any jobs where you would need to research habitats? They may suggest:

marine biologists
rangers
zoo keepers
documentary producers
or veterinarians, just to name a few!

Step 3

Provide your students with a copy of the worksheet. In pairs, they will need to identify one animal, the habitat it lives in, and how this habitat meets its needs. Then, they will need to do the same thing for one plant.

Plants still need the same three things from their habitat (food, water, shelter), but they get these things differently. They may need ‘full sun’ to produce their food or ‘sandy soil’ so they don’t get too much water. Some plants survive well in sunny spots, others need shade.

You will need to provide students with material to do their research. One option is to provide them with a range of reading material, including books from the library or information leaflets. Your local nursery might have good information about plants and their requirements, and your local council may have information about plants and animals native to your area.

Literacy extension: Rather than using reading material, students could practice phrasing questions to do online research. For example:

What habitat does a red kangaroo live in?
What does a red kangaroo eat?
Where does a red kangaroo sleep?

Assessment: This worksheet provides a formative assessment opportunity to check students’ understanding of habitats and how they meet the needs of what lives in them.

By the end of this lesson, your board might look like this:

If you have used butcher's paper to record this lesson, it would be great to keep it on the wall for students to refer back to. In particular, this list of jobs will grow throughout the unit.

Reflection

Today, we have looked at habitats and used some research skills to find out more about them. Ask the students to answer the following questions on their worksheets:

What is one job where you would need to know about habitats?

What is one thing you would need to be able to do if this was your job?

What is a Habitat?

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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