Habitats in the School Environment

1. Habitats in the School Environment

2. Starting with ideas At the outset of the project, the children collected their ideas on large sheets of paper. They looked at some photographs taken around the school grounds. In groups, they wrote down all the creatures they thought would live in that environment.

3. Using Maps and ICT to record data In the big evergreen hedge we saw a little birds nest. There was a bit of plastic in it! The children used the photographs taken on the walk and copied them onto the map They learnt how to create text boxes in ICT so were able to apply this knowledge and make text boxes to put their annotations into.

4. Who lives here? Children had different levels of knowledge and the differentiation by outcome was used to plan progress. Behind the hump, in the tall tree we saw a medium sized birds nest. Normally in hedges like this there is nothing living in there. But there are ladybirds and ants in there.

5. Comparing Children’s Ideas Children recorded what they could see at each stopping pint along our route. In some places they were asked to draw the animals which they though might live in that place. Most children had very realistic ideas, some were more imaginative.

6. Using Puppets The children used puppets to think about the habitats from the animal’s point of view. The class asked the puppets questions about their habitats and lifestyles and the children were able to respond by talking via the puppet.

7. burrow Learning new vocabulary Download the template and make your own habitat fans! With the aid of our own ‘habitat fans’ the children learnt new vocabulary through first hand experience.

8. What did you enjoy most about the project? • Writing about the pictures on the big pieces of paper • Writing around the big pictures. Going out on the trip. Looking at the holes. Drawing pictures of the habitats. When we went outside and drew the pictures and went on the field.

9. What have you learnt that you didn’t already know? • There are different types of bushes, some trees are evergreen and some are not. Birds live in trees. Plants which are green all year round are called evergreen. Birds build nests in different types of bushes.

10. What would you like to do next? • Make a field and put lots of habitats in it. • Make a model habitat with animals and make a habitat game. Do some more writing and make an information sheet about habitats in ‘Big Writing’. Do some more work at home.

11. Which piece of information would you tell someone else? • We saw a bird’s nest in an evergreen bush. • Caterpillars live in bushes. Birds live in trees. There are different types of bushes – evergreen and not evergreen. There are lots of nocturnal animals.

12. Which activity did you like doing the least? • Writing because we always do writing. Walking around the field. Looking at the bird’s nest. Drawing pictures because I’m not very good at drawing. Putting our wellies on to go outside.