Notes for Teachers & Parents

Notes to teachers

Learning about the environment can be exciting and fun, but we recognise that it is not always easy to get outdoors and see a real woodland. Here we have created a copy of our beautiful Pancake Wood so that children can enjoy and learn about it from the comfort of the classroom.

Invite the children to take the Pancake Woodland Challenge! Here they can explore the woodland and find out about all the creatures that live there. They will learn how plants and animals are specially adapted to the woodland environment and see how the woodland grows and changes over time. They can even have a go at managing Pancake Wood themselves to make sure that all the plants and creatures have the conditions they need to stay happy!

Don’t forget to visit our downloadable resources page to find some linked investigations.

The RFS Pancake Woodland Discovery Zone is a classroom educational resource which can be used to help deliver specific attainment targets within the Key Stage 1& 2 National Curriculum Science and Geography syllabus. The key National Curriculum and QCA links are outlined below.

Key Stage 1

KS1 Science

Scientific Enquiry Sc1

1. Ideas and evidence in science

Pupils should be taught that it is important to collect evidence by making observations and measurements when trying to answer a question

Life processes and living things Sc2

(Life processes)

1c. To relate life processes to animals and plants found in the local environment

(Green plants)

3a. To recognise that plants need light and water to grow

(Living things in their environment)

5a. Find out about different kinds of plants and animals in the local environment

5b. Identify similarities and differences between local environments and ways in which these effect animals and plants that are found there

5c. Care for the environment

QCA Science Schemes of Work Unit 2B Plants and animals in the local environment

Section

Learning objectives

Learning outcomes

Section 1: Introduction

Introduce the unit by asking children what they understand by the word 'animal' and 'plant' and extend to asking them where they expect to find animals and plants locally

Section2: looking for plants and animals

Learn that there are different kinds of plants and animals in the immediate environment.

To treat animals and the environment with care and sensitivity

Identify a number of plants e.g. bluebell, violet, oak tree and animals e.g. butterfly, owl, stag beetle, bat, dormouse etc.

State where some of these were found e.g. the violets were in the grass, the owl was in the tree

Section 3: Describing local habitats

Learn that there are differences between local habitats.

To make predictions about the animals and plants found in different local habitats and to investigate these

Identify differences between two habitats and living things found there e.g. by drawing and interpreting a picture saying whether they found what they expected

Suggest reasons for differences, e.g. too warm, too dark etc.

KS1 Geography

Knowledge and understanding of places

3a. Identify and describe what places are like

3c. Recognise how places have become the way they are and how they are changing

 

Key Stage 2

KS2 Science

Scientific Enquiry Sc1

1.That science is about thinking creatively to try and explain how living things and non living things work and to establish links between causes and effects

Life processes and living things Sc2

(Life processes)

1a. That the life processes common to humans and other animals include nutrition, movement, growth and reproduction

1b. That the life processes common to plants include growth, nutrition and reproduction

1c. To make links between life processes in familiar animals and plants and the environments in which they are found

(Green plants)

3a. The effect of light, air, water and temperature on plant growth

3b.The role of the leaf in producing new material for growth

3c. That the root anchors the plant and that water and minerals are taken in through the root and transported through the stem to other parts of the plant

(Living things in their environment)

5a. Learn about ways in which living things and the environment need protection

5b. About the different plants and animals found in different habitats (adaptation)

5c. How animals and plants in two different habitats are suited to their environment (adaptation)

QCA Science Schemes of Work Unit 4B Habitats

Section

Learning objectives

Learning outcomes

Section 1: Introduction

Elicit children's understanding of 'plant' and 'animal'. Introduce the term 'organism' as a general term for all living things.

Use images of vertebrates, invertebrates, small flowering plants and trees and challenge children to sort them according to their own criteria and then into plants and animals

Section 2: Finding different habitats

To identify different types of habitat

To identify different local habitats

Recognise that animals and plants are found in many places

Section 3: Different animals in different habitats

To learn that different animals are found in different habitats

To observe the conditions in a habitat and make a record of the animals found

Learn that animals are suited to the environment in which they are found

To make predictions and justify where an animal likes to live

Describe a habitat in terms of conditions: light, dark, warm, cold, dry, wet etc.

Explain why animals are found in some places and not others

Section 6: Investigating plants and animals

To pose questions about organisms and the habitat in which they live and make predictions and test them

Suggest a question which relates to an organism in its natural habitat and say what they think will happen.

Recognise what evidence is needed and draw conclusions

Section 7: Finding out about food sources

To identify the food sources of different animals in different habitats

Describe what a particular animal eats and explain that it can only live where its food source is available and where conditions (e.g. warmth, moisture) are suitable

Section 9: Protecting habitats

To recognise ways in which living things and the environment need protection

Identify the effect of changes to the habitat on some organisms

QCA Science Schemes of Work Unit 6A Interdependence and adaptation

Section

Learning objectives

Learning outcomes

Section 1: Introduction

Review what children remember about what plants need in order to grow well.

Prompt them to identify light, water and warmth and healthy stems, roots and leaves as necessary for plants to grow well

Section 2: Plants and light

Learn that green plants need light in order to grow well

To recognise that a plant will grow healthily when it has light

Section 5: Interdependence of plants and animals

Learn that animals and plants in a habitat are interdependent.

Learn how animals and plants in a habitat are suited to their environment

Identify ways in which the animals depend on plants e.g. for food, shelter, shade etc.

 

KS2 Geography

Knowledge and understanding of places

3a. Identify and describe what places are like

3e. To identify how and why places change

Knowledge and understanding of patterns and places

4b. To recognise some physical and human processes and explain how these can cause changes in places and environments

Knowledge and understanding of environmental change and sustainable development

5a. To recognise how people can improve the environment or damage it and how decisions about places and environments affect the future quality of people’s lives

5b. To recognise how and why people may seek to manage environments sustainably and to identify opportunities for their own involvement