| Living things & the processes of life - Interaction of living things with their environment - Introducing living things - G2 |
  Teacher's Guide
LT-A3.1 |
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3. Don’t go for unusual or fancy garden plants unless you have a good knowledge of them. The children will probably know such things as grass, buttercups, daisies, roses, daffodils, dandelions, clover, snowdrops and hyacinths and may have access to some of these. It would be nice if you could extend their knowledge to include some wild flowers such as lady’s bedstraw, cowslips, nettles etc which may be found on waste ground and hedgerows. Simple guides to wild flowers can help here. You may find insects associated with them and could point out the need for wild flowers to support our insects and birds. It is unlikely that the children will have seen many wild animals except maybe the odd mouse, hedgehog or fox although they may be familiar with a range of animals from stories. Worksheet A17 (G) could be used for the children to identify common wild animals either orally or by writing or copying their names. They should be more familiar with birds although probably not able to name many. A few which could be easily identified are blackbirds, robins, sparrows, pigeons, seagulls, crows, starlings and bird-table birds such as bluetits, coal-tits, chaffinches and greenfinches. Some of these may be seen from the classroom window. Simple games of ‘Who am I?’ (I am large and mostly white with a big yellow beak and make a loud screeching sound, who am I? -seagull) etc could be played to help the children remember the names of the birds and animals. The children will know a few invertebrates - spiders, flies, bees and wasps and possibly woodlice, worms, butterflies and moths. They could draw pictures of creatures they find and make a display on the wall. Snails, spiders and worms can all be kept easily in the classroom for a few days using perspex tanks, aquaria or improvising with a lemonade bottle as follows :- |
 Activity
Cut a large lemonade bottle in half (at least 2 or 3 litre size) and put a small amount of moist soil in the bottom. Add a few twigs from a shrub or bush that the creature likes to eat and perhaps a small stone or two. Put the animals in - e.g. 2 or 3 snails, and replace the top half of the bottle and sellotape in place. Remove the bottle lid and cover the opening with some gauze, Jaycloth or kitchen towel and secure with an elastic band. Only keep the animals for a couple of days, replace leaves every day and make sure the habitat remains moist. |
