Lesson video

Hi, everyone, my name is Miss Hummel, and in this lesson, we will investigate the question, how do lifecycles compare across the animal kingdom? In this lesson, we will be recapping the lifecycle of insects, amphibians, mammals, and birds.

We will also be completing an independent project where we can research the lifecycle of an animal of our choice.

The structure of our lesson will be as follows, we will first recap the concept of lifecycles, then we will recap the lifecycle of an insect and an amphibian, then we will recap the lifecycle of mammals, and after, we will recap the lifecycle of birds.

Finally, we will explore an independent project of our own.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil or a pen, a coloured pencil or a pen, and a ruler.

If you haven't got those things, pause the video now and go get them.

Here are our star words, which are the most important words of our lesson.

I'm going to say them and ask you to repeat them after me.

When I point at myself, it will be my turn, and when I point at you, it will be your turn.

Lifecycle.

Bird.

Mammal.

Amphibian.

Insect.

Species.

First, we're going to recap the lifecycles of insects and amphibians.

How are these the same and how are they different? I would now like you to pause the video to complete the think task.

Can you remember the lifecycle of an insect and an amphibian? What were the different stages called? You can resume the video once you've tried to remember.

To recap, we're going to look at the lifecycle of a mosquito, an insect with a complete metamorphosis.

All insects begin as eggs.

Most insects lay their eggs near the food that they like to eat.

Moths and butterflies, for example, lay eggs underneath the leafs.

Most eggs hatch into a worm-like stage called a larva.

Caterpillars, grubs, and maggots are all examples of larva.

They have long bodies and many legs.

Almost all larva are eating machines.

A larva can eat more than its own body weight in one day.

Once the larva has grown, it must totally change its shape and it must protect itself while it does so.

Many larva spin cocoons out of silk and grow hard shells.

The pupa does not eat and does not move much, but inside the insect is very busy changing shape.

This change, as we know, is called metamorphosis.

After the metamorphosis is complete, the pupa hatches as an adult insect, and then it may reproduce.

Can we come up with actions to help us remember the stages of a mosquito's lifecycle? We could maybe pretend that the eggs are our fist, our larva can be a wiggly hand, a pupa could be us shutting our hands like this, because there's some changes going on inside, and finally, you can come up with your own action to remember an adult mosquito.

Now, we're going to recap the lifecycle of a frog.

First, the female amphibian will lay many, many eggs who are all fertilised outside of her body by the sperm of a male amphibian.

When these eggs are developing, we call them embryos.

After the eggs of an amphibian hatch, they're called tadpoles.

Tadpoles breathe through gills like fish.

As the tadpoles mature, the yolk will disappear.

Next, tadpoles will begin to grow teeth and skin over its gills, then it will grow longer and develop its head and two legs.

It will eventually develop four legs altogether, and it will be a tadpole with four legs.

And metamorphosis is the final process that changes the amphibian from tadpole to adult.

The amphibian now looks like a tiny froglet with a tail.

By the end of metamorphosis, the frog will lose its tail, grow a long tongue, and look like what we know of as a typical frog.

Remember that the whole lifecycle can take about 16 weeks.

In the end, the organism that started out as an egg will find its way back into the water and begin the cycle again with its own offspring.

Can you think of your own actions to help you remember the different stages of a frog's lifecycle? Next, we're going to recap the lifecycles of mammals.

Remember that each mammal goes through various stages of life.

All mammals are born, grow, reproduce, and die.

Those are our stages.

I would like you to pause the video now to complete this thinking task.

Can you remember the different groups of mammals? What were they called and how were they different? Resume the video once you've answered the question.

Remember that there were three types of mammals that we had to know.

Placental mammals are born, prepared to continue to grow outside of their mother's wombs and elephants, humans, cats, and dogs are all examples of placental mammals.

Name one other placental mammal that you can think of.

Monotremes were a rare type of mammal.

They hatch from eggs.

The babies have to hatch out of an egg before they're prepared to continue growing outside of their mothers.

There's only two of them, echidna and platypus.

Like other mammals, monotremes are warmblooded.

They have hair on their bodies and produce milk to feed their young.

Our final type of mammal are marsupials.

They continue to grow inside their mother's pouches after they are born.

They include kangaroos, wallabies, possums, wombats, Tasmanian devils, and koalas.

Which is your favourite marsupial? Mine is a koala.

Finally, we're going to recap the lifecycle of birds.

I would now like you to pause the video to complete this thinking task.

Can you remember the lifecycle of a chicken? What were the names of the birds after hatching for other species of birds? Resume the video once you have answered those questions.

Remember that all birds begin their lives carefully enclosed in eggs.

The size and colour of the eggs and the amount of time that a bird remains inside varies by the species, but eventually, all birds emerge from the egg.

Remember that we also said that not every egg is fertilised, so not every egg would have grown into a fully grown chicken.

When a chicken is developing inside of an egg, we call that an embryo.

Remember that some birds have something called an egg tooth, which help them crack open the shell and hatch.

During the time immediately following most young birds' exit from the egg, it's known as a hatchling.

That's not the case for a chicken, because it emerges as a chick.

A chick is covered in soft down instead of feathers, and it cannot fly.

Birds that are fully feathered and can fly from the nest are now adult birds.

These birds are ready to find mates and build nests of their own so that they can lay eggs and become parents themselves, thus starting the bird lifecycle all over again.

Can you remember any actions for the lifecycle of a chicken? Hatchling, nestling, and fledgling, remember that these three words are often used for many types of birds and their lifecycles, which are not chickens, so it is important that we know them.

We mentioned earlier that for most birds, during the time immediately following a young bird's exit from the egg, it's known as a hatchling.

Young birds are covered in soft down instead of feathers, and they cannot fly.

This makes them vulnerable to predators and incapable of feeding themselves.

At this stage, baby birds are called nestlings, because they spend all their time snug in the nest, relying on their parents for protection and food.

Eventually nestlings lose their down and sprout feathers, which they need for flight.

Young birds who are growing flight feathers and learning to fly are called fledglings.

These young birds work hard to practise the skills required for flying and strengthening their muscles.

Once their flight feathers have grown in, fledglings take their first flight, which is called a fledge.

It is now time for the most exciting part of our lesson, our independent project.

For the rest of this lesson, you will be designing a fact file, or a poster for one animal in the animal kingdom.

You will need to include the following key information in your fact file or poster, an illustration of the lifecycle of your chosen animal.

The illustration must be labelled with the key stages in the animal's lifecycle, a short description about each stage in the animal's lifecycle, any additional interesting facts, and any additional and relevant illustrations or drawings, for example, the anatomy of a chicken egg.

These are some suggested animals and plants that you could research.

For mammals, you could research dolphins, polar bears, or kangaroos.

You could research echidna birds like a penguin.

You could research kiwi amphibians like a salamander, or you could research caecilian insects like a mosquito or a dung beetle.

Additionally, these are some examples of lifecycles that you might want to research in more detail.

A honeybee starts as an egg, develops onto a larva, a pupa, and then an adult honeybee.

A dragonfly does not undergo a complete metamorphosis that starts as an egg, develops as a nymph, and eventually becomes an adult dragonfly.

A dog starts off as a puppy, then as an adolescent, and then as an adult dog, and a darkling beetle starts as an egg, develops to a mealworm, which is a type of larva, then develops to a pupa, and then develops to a darkling beetle.

I would love to show you my poster.

Now, I have not finished yet, but I would like to show you some things that I did for my independent project.

This is what my poster looks like.

I have a picture, my lifecycle, and some facts.

I included a title and I said what type animal it was.

I said it was a mammal.

I included a little picture that I already had at home.

I then drew the lifecycle, where I really struggled with my art skills, and I labelled it with some key information.

And then I wrote some fun facts that I found really interesting.

There are some things I'm missing, for example, I could be adding a short description of each part in the lifecycle.

I would now like you to pause the video and complete this task.

You can resume the video once you have finished.

If you've got to this part of the lesson and you would like a challenge, use all of the knowledge that you have acquired in this topic to answer the following question comparing two different animals, compare the lifecycle of two different animals in the animal kingdom by describing and explaining the key differences between them.

Pause the video now to complete this task.

You can resume once you have finished.

We have now finished this lesson and it's time for your final exit quiz.

Please exit the video and complete the quiz to test your knowledge and understanding of this unit.

I have really enjoyed learning about lifecycles with you in this lesson.

Bye.