Animal Food - Teacher Explanation

Welcome to Lesson 2.13, "Animal Food", which is part of the Year 2 unit on Living things and their habitats. This lesson is designed to meet the national curriculum's requirement for pupils to understand how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals by introducing them to the concept of a simple food chain. Additionally, pupils will learn to identify different food sources while considering health and safety aspects. As this lesson involves the use of scissors, it's important to supervise the children to ensure their safety. The lesson also offers cross-curricular opportunities, with activities related to maths through bar chart production, art through drawing various living organisms, and geography through exploring the habitats of different species.

The lesson starts with a recap activity where pupils classify animals into carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores using food chain cards and animal cards. This sets the foundation for creating their own food chains later in the lesson. Pupils will explore the dynamic relationship between predators and prey through a worksheet featuring statistics from Yellowstone Park, helping them understand the delicate balance in nature. Later, they will cut out and arrange food chain cards to visualise the flow of energy from plants to apex predators. Finally, pupils will create their own food chain mobiles, creatively representing the food chain with drawings of living things connected by strings. The lesson aims to be both educational and enjoyable, and we look forward to continuing this learning journey in the next session.