Animal Growth - Teacher Explanation

Welcome to Lesson 2.1, titled 'Animal Growth', which is part of the Year 2 curriculum focused on animals, including humans. In this lesson, students will explore the concept that all animals, humans included, begin life as offspring and grow into adults. This is a key learning objective as outlined by the National Curriculum. A note on health and safety: scissors will be used during the lesson, so it's important to exercise caution. Additionally, sensitivity may be required when discussing human life cycles. This lesson also offers opportunities for cross-curricular activities, such as creating life cycle posters, which ties in with art, and incorporating bar charts and measurements, linking to maths.

The first activity involves arranging human life stages cards in chronological order, helping pupils to visualize the human life cycle and discuss the capabilities at each stage. Following this, students will compare and contrast the life cycles of different animals using additional life cycle cards, identifying similarities and differences across various species. Another creative task encourages pupils to design a poster depicting the life cycle of an insect, with a preference for choices beyond the butterfly, which is already included on the life cycle cards. The lesson also includes a research task where students investigate the gestation periods of ten different animals and represent their findings using bar charts. Lastly, an experimental activity has the students examine the relationship between age, expressed in months for scientific accuracy, and physical measurements such as height and limb lengths. The lesson promises to be engaging and educational, and we hope both you and your pupils enjoy the activities planned. Looking forward to the next lesson!