大象传媒 Teach > Primary > KS1 Science > Animals
Child VO:How do animals grow?
Maddie Moate:This is Fluffy. She's five weeks old.
Child VO:Aw she's cute. She's so small.
Maddie Moate:Fluffy is growing up fast. Like all animals, she will go throughmany changes as she develops and grows.
Child VO:What kind of changes?
Maddie Moate:Great question! Let's have a closer look. Puppies like this one aremammals. Like most mammals, puppies grow inside theirmummies before they are born. And when they're born, they arevery small and rely on their mummies' milk for food. As they getbigger, they learn to do new things like go exploring - and theystart to eat solid food. They keep on developing until they are arefully-grown dogs. And then they can have puppies of their own.We call this process of birth, growing up and then new birth a lifecycle.
Enya:Do all animals have the same life cycle?
Maddie Moate:Hmm, I wonder? Let's ask our expert!
Yussef:Hi, I'm Yussef, I'm an animal expert, and this is Cookie. He's acrested gecko, and he's going to help us to understand howanimals grow. Lizards have a bit of a different life cycle to usmammals. Instead of the babies growing inside their mothers,most lizards lay eggs. Cookie's mum laid two eggs, which sheburied in soil to keep them nice and warm, and after about twomonths it was time for those eggs to hatch. They have a little eggtooth that they use to break out of the eggs, and eventually whenthe babies grow up, they have eggs of their own and the cyclecontinues.
Maddie Moate:All chickens start their life as one of these. It's a chicken egg.The egg provides everything the chick needs to grow inside it,and the mother, called a hen, will sit on the egg to keep it warmfor about twenty-one days. When the chick is ready it will peckand kick its way out of the egg. It has small, soft, fluffy babyfeathers. The chick is fed by its mother until it grows big enoughto find its own food. Then it's able to lay its own eggs and the lifecycle starts again. Depending on the type of animal, a baby maylook like their parent鈥 Or look very different. This is acaterpillar. Caterpillars are baby butterflies.
Child VO:So how does this鈥
Child VO:鈥urn into this?
Maddie Moate:Well, butterflies have a different kind of life cycle. Somebutterflies lay lots of eggs at once, but many others like this one,called a Speckled Wood butterfly, lay one egg at a time. Normally,somewhere that her baby can eat as soon as it hatches, like on aleaf. The egg hatches as a caterpillar. And now it has to eat鈥 andeat鈥 and eat! Eventually it stops eating and becomes still and itforms a protective layer like a shell around it. At this stage thecaterpillar has become something called a pupa. It might looklike not much is happening from the outside, but inside there areall sorts of changes taking place. And when it finally comes outagain it's completely different. The caterpillar has become abutterfly! Now it's ready to lay its own eggs and the life cyclestarts again.
Maddie Moate:These are tadpoles. They have to go through a big change tobecome frogs. Let's have a closer look at the life cycle of a frog.
Maddie Moate:A mother frog lays her eggs in water. When they're ready thetadpoles break their way out of the eggs and hatch into thewater, where they swim, breathe with gills and eat plants. As itgrows, the tadpole develops a strong tail. Then back legs growand lungs. The tadpole grows front legs and then it can leap outof the water. Now it eats insects and its tail disappears. It takestwo to four years for it to become a fully grown adult, and thenthe life cycle can begin again. What are you lot up to?
Lennox:We're drawing pictures
Omolara:of what we're going to look like
Enya:whenever we're older.
Maddie Moate:Those look great. Good job! All animals are different but onething we have in common is that we all go through changes as wegrow and develop.
Video summary
In this video, we explore the life cycles of mammals, amphibians, birds, reptiles and inverterbrates, including how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly and a tadpole into a frog.
These animals have an exciting journey as they grow from infant to adult and change unrecognisably as they grow.
With narration from presenter Maddie Moate and expert advice from zoologist Yussef Rafik, this video helps children to understand the phases of the lives of these animals in more detail and shows visually how their appearance changes.
Teacher notes
Discussion Points:
1. Life cycles:
- Discuss what a life cycle is and how all living things have one.
- Do all life cycles look the same? Do some living things change more than others as part of their life cycle?
- Discuss what the human life cycle looks like, how is ours different to that on the video?
2. Butterflies:
- Discuss where the life cycle of a butterfly starts?
- How does a butterfly change, grow and develop as it moves through the life cycle.
- What do pupils think is the biggest visible change as part of the life cycle of a butterfly?
3. Frogs:
- Discuss where the life cycle of a frog starts?
- How does a frog change, grow and develop as it moves through the life cycle.
- What do pupils think is the biggest visible change as part of the life cycle of a frog?
Suggested Activities:
1. Life cycles - visual:
- Provide a selection of pictures of different animals for children to view and discuss.
- Can children sort these into the animal families and give reasons for their choices?
2. Frog life cycle:
- Create a simple hanging decoration to show the phases of the life cycle of a frog.
- With the pupils, consider each phase and create a small picture, title and text to go with this, creating a cyclical display to showcase the life cycle.
3. Butterfly life cycle:
- Using a paper plate and piece of card, create a life cycle diagram of a butterfly.
- Cut a slit into the card and split pin this over the top fo the plate to create a spinning dial to show the varying stages of a butterfly life cycle.
4. Younger to older or older to younger:
- Provide photographs to show either a younger or older animal, can pupils draw what they think the opposite would look like.
- For example, if a photograph of a butterfly, pupils would draw a picture of a caterpillar to show the younger stage of the animal.
Curriculum notes:
- This video aligns with Science in the National Curriculum in England, Northern Ireland, and 1st Level in Scotland. It also supports the Science and Technology Area of Learning and Experience within the Curriculum for Wales.
What is an animal? video
A group of children learn about the different animal groups and what makes each one special.
What do animals need to survive? video
Explore the needs of all living things and learn about the names for different animals based on what they eat 鈥 herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
