Year 2: Living things and their habitats
Living, Dead, and Never Alive
Curriculum Requirement
Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive
Living
Living things need to move, breathe, grow, and take in food (nutrition) to get energy.
Bee
A flying insect that is vital for pollinating flowers.
How to identify: Look for its fuzzy, black and yellow striped body, four wings, and the buzzing sound it makes.
💡 Fun Facts
- A bee is alive because it moves, breathes, and needs nectar (food) from flowers to survive.
- A single honeybee may visit up to 2,000 flowers in one day.
- Bees communicate the location of good flowers to each other by performing a special 'waggle dance'.
Oak Tree
A large, long-living tree common in British woodlands.
How to identify: Look for its lobed leaves and its distinctive fruit, the acorn.
💡 Fun Facts
- An oak tree is living because it grows, makes its own food from sunlight (photosynthesis), and reproduces by creating acorns.
- Some oak trees can live for over 1,000 years and provide a habitat for hundreds of other species.
- Its roots can spread out for several times the width of its canopy, anchoring it and absorbing water.
Grass
A plant with long, narrow leaves that covers fields and lawns.
How to identify: Look for its green, blade-like leaves growing directly from the ground.
💡 Fun Facts
- The grass on a field is made of thousands of individual living plants that make their own food from sunlight.
- There are over 10,000 different species of grass in the world.
- Grass has roots that help to hold soil together and prevent it from being washed away by rain.
Dead
Dead things were once living, but no longer are. They do not need food or energy, but they are often recycled by nature.
Fallen Leaf
A leaf that was once part of a living plant.
How to identify: Look for its dry, often brown and curled appearance on the ground, especially in autumn.
💡 Fun Facts
- A fallen leaf is dead, but it's not wasted! Worms and bugs will eat it, turning it into new soil that helps other plants grow.
- The colours of autumn leaves are actually in the leaf all year round, but they are hidden by the green chlorophyll until it breaks down.
- A thick layer of dead leaves on the ground can provide a warm, safe place for insects and small mammals to hibernate over winter.
Log
A piece of a tree trunk or branch that was once part of a living tree.
How to identify: Look for a piece of wood on the ground, often with bark still attached and showing signs of decay.
💡 Fun Facts
- A log was once alive, but now that it's dead, it provides a vital habitat and food source for fungi, insects, and other minibeasts.
- The rings you can see on the end of a log show how many years the tree was alive.
- As a log rots down, it slowly releases its stored nutrients back into the soil for other plants to use.
Seashell
The hard, protective outer layer of a sea creature that was once alive.
How to identify: Look for its hard, often beautifully patterned or shaped structure, commonly found on beaches.
💡 Fun Facts
- A seashell was the home of a living mollusc, like a snail or a clam. When the animal dies, it leaves its shell behind.
- The spiral shape of many shells is created as the animal grows, adding a new, larger chamber onto its home.
- Over thousands of years, old seashells get broken down by the waves to become grains of sand.
Never Been Alive
Things that have never been alive were not born or hatched and do not need energy, grow, or reproduce.
Stone
A solid piece of rock, made up of minerals.
How to identify: Look for its hard, solid texture and natural, often irregular shape.
💡 Fun Facts
- A stone has never been alive; it doesn't need to eat, breathe, or grow.
- Some stones on Earth are billions of years old, making them much older than any living thing.
- Rocks are constantly being broken down by wind and rain into smaller pieces, eventually becoming sand or soil.
Plastic Bottle
A man-made object created in a factory.
How to identify: Look for its light, flexible, and transparent or coloured plastic material, often with a screw cap.
💡 Fun Facts
- A plastic bottle was made in a factory and was never alive.
- It can take over 450 years for a single plastic bottle to break down in the environment.
- Plastic is made from oil, which is itself formed from the remains of tiny living sea creatures that died millions of years ago.
Water
A natural liquid compound essential for all known life.
How to identify: Look for its clear, liquid form in puddles, rivers, or lakes.
💡 Fun Facts
- The water in a puddle has never been alive, but it is essential for all living things to survive.
- It is made of tiny molecules (H<sub>2</sub>O) that have been on our planet for billions of years, even before the dinosaurs.
- Water is one of the only substances on Earth that can be naturally found as a solid (ice), a liquid (water), and a gas (water vapour).
Activities
Sorting Walk
Go for a walk and give each small group three bags labelled 'Living', 'Dead', and 'Never Alive'. Have them collect small items for each bag and discuss their choices afterwards.
Concept Cartoon
Show pupils a cartoon of a winter tree with no leaves and ask: 'Is this tree living or dead?' Use their answers to discuss how something can be living but dormant.
Sketch examples
Draw a sketch of one living thing, one dead thing, and one thing that was never alive
Reflections
Self-Reflection (Exit Ticket)
On a sticky note, ask pupils to write down one thing they saw on their way to school today that was living, one that was dead, and one that was never alive.
Paired Reflection (Think-Pair-Share)
Ask pupils to discuss with a partner: A car moves and needs fuel to work. Why isn't it alive?
Group Reflection
In small groups, pupils can discuss the question from the 'Concept Cartoon': Is a tree in winter with no leaves living or dead? They must agree on an answer and be able to explain their reasoning.
Whole Class Share-Out
Ask the class: A log is dead, but it's full of living things like bugs and fungi. What does that tell us about the connection between living and dead things in nature?
Habitats
Curriculum Requirement
Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other
Nature Examples
Pond Habitat
A small body of freshwater that provides a home for a huge variety of life.
What it provides: Water, food (plants and insects), and shelter (under lily pads and stones).
💡 Fun Facts
- Dragonflies spend the first part of their lives as nymphs living underwater in ponds before they become flying adults.
- Some plants, like water lilies, have their roots in the mud at the bottom of the pond but their leaves and flowers float on the surface.
- A single drop of pond water can contain hundreds of microscopic living things.
Woodland Habitat
An area of land covered with trees, providing a rich and varied environment for wildlife.
What it provides: Food (acorns, berries, insects), shelter (in trees, under logs, in leaf litter), and safety from predators.
💡 Fun Facts
- A woodpecker's long, sticky tongue is perfect for pulling insects out of holes it drills in tree bark.
- Woodlands have different layers, from the high canopy to the shrubs and the woodland floor, each providing a home for different species.
- Many woodland flowers, like bluebells, bloom early in the spring to catch the sunlight before the tree leaves grow and create too much shade.
Hedgerow Habitat
A line of bushes and trees that acts as a boundary for a field.
What it provides: Food (berries, nuts, flowers), shelter for nesting birds, and a safe travel route for animals.
💡 Fun Facts
- Hedgerows act like 'motorways' for wildlife, allowing animals like dormice and hedgehogs to move safely between different habitats.
- A single hedgerow can contain hundreds of different species of plants and insects.
- Many hedgerows in the UK are hundreds of years old and are protected by law.
Activities
Build a Bug Hotel
Use natural materials like hollow stems, pine cones, and logs to build a simple shelter for insects in the school grounds. This provides a man-made micro-habitat.
Habitat Diorama
Give pupils a shoebox to create a model of a habitat (e.g., woodland floor, pond). They can use natural materials, clay models, and drawings to show the plants and animals that live there.
Who Lives Here?
Show pictures of different animals (e.g., a fish, a badger, a worm) and ask pupils to draw the ideal home (habitat) for each one, thinking about its need for food, water, and shelter.
Reflections
Self-Reflection (Two Stars and a Wish)
Ask pupils to write down: ⭐ Two things a habitat must provide for an animal to survive. 🌠 One question they still have about a habitat.
Paired Reflection (Think-Pair-Share)
Ask pupils to discuss with a partner: How is our classroom like a habitat for us? What are its main features?
Group Reflection
In small groups, pupils can look at a picture of an animal they haven't studied (e.g., a camel or a penguin) and make a list of what its habitat must be like based on what they can see.
Whole Class Share-Out
As a class, discuss: We built a bug hotel. What other simple things could we do around our school to create new micro-habitats for wildlife?
Food Chains
Curriculum Requirement
Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food
Woodland Food Chain
Oak Tree (Producer)
A large, common tree that makes its own food using energy from the sun.
How to identify: Look for its distinctive lobed leaves and acorns.
💡 Fun Facts
- A large, healthy oak tree can have around 200,000 leaves, all working to make food for the tree through photosynthesis.
- It is a 'producer' because it is at the start of many food chains, producing the first energy.
- A single oak tree can be a habitat for over 500 different species.
Caterpillar (Primary Consumer)
The larva of a moth or butterfly that eats plants to grow.
How to identify: Look for its long, segmented body, many legs, and evidence of it chewing on leaves.
💡 Fun Facts
- A caterpillar's main job is to eat! In just a few weeks, it can increase its body mass by more than 1,000 times.
- It is a 'primary consumer' and a 'herbivore' because it is the first animal in the chain to eat the producer.
- The holes you see in leaves are often a sign that a caterpillar has been eating there.
Blue Tit (Secondary Consumer)
A small, colourful bird that eats insects.
How to identify: Look for its bright blue, yellow, and white feathers and acrobatic behaviour.
💡 Fun Facts
- This tiny bird is a skilled acrobat and can easily cling to the thinnest branches to find insects.
- It is a 'secondary consumer' and a 'carnivore' (or insectivore) because it eats the primary consumer.
- A pair of blue tits might need to find 1,000 caterpillars a day to feed their chicks.
Sparrowhawk (Tertiary Consumer)
A powerful bird of prey that hunts smaller birds.
How to identify: Look for its broad wings, long tail, and fierce yellow eyes. It flies with a distinctive 'flap-flap-glide' pattern.
💡 Fun Facts
- A sparrowhawk has incredible eyesight that's up to eight times sharper than a human's, allowing it to spot small prey from high in the sky.
- It is a 'tertiary consumer' and a 'top predator' as it is at the top of this food chain.
- Female sparrowhawks are much larger than the males.
Activities
Food Chain Mobiles
Create a hanging mobile showing a simple food chain, with drawings of the producer at the bottom and consumers hanging below.
Human Food Chains
Ask pupils what they had for lunch. Trace the ingredients back to their source. For example, a cheese sandwich comes from wheat (a plant) and milk from a cow, which ate grass (a plant).
Producer, Predator, Prey
Introduce these terms. Play a game where pupils are given a card with a plant or animal on it and they have to find the others in their food chain.
Reflections
Self-Reflection (Exit Ticket)
Ask pupils to quickly draw a simple, three-step food chain they remember from the lesson (it can be different from the ones listed).
Paired Reflection (Think-Pair-Share)
Ask pupils to discuss with a partner: What do you think would happen to the blue tits and sparrowhawks if all the caterpillars in the woodland disappeared?
Group Reflection
In small groups, pupils can discuss the 'Human Food Chains' activity. Ask them to trace the ingredients of a pizza back to their sources.
Whole Class Share-Out
Ask the class a challenging question to foster curiosity: All food chains seem to start with a plant or algae. Why can't a food chain start with an animal?