Design a space for urban wildlife
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can design a space that supports urban wildlife and explain my ideas using annotated drawings.
Key learning points
- Urban environments can be designed to support wildlife.
- Artists and designers play an important role in solving environmental challenges through visual thinking.
- Drawing is a tool to plan, explore and communicate design ideas.
- Wildlife-friendly features in cities benefit both nature and people.
Keywords
Habitat - a natural environment where a plant or animal lives and grows
Biodiversity - the variety of life in a particular habitat or ecosystem
Sustainability - designing or living in a way that protects natural resources for future generations
Green space - areas of grass, trees, or plants within urban environments, like parks or gardens
Common misconception
Wild animals don’t belong in cities and can’t survive there.
While some wild animals struggle in cities, others adapt well if we design spaces with them in mind. Urban environments can become important habitats with thoughtful planning.
Teacher tip
Encourage pupils to think like designers - ask them why each feature helps wildlife and where it belongs. Prompts like “What would this creature need to feel safe?” can help to guide thoughtful designs.
Equipment
Pencils, rulers, erasers. Colouring pencils or pens. Wildlife reference sheets (images of birds, insects, small mammals). Examples of urban wildlife designs (rooftop gardens, bee hotels, etc.)
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Antoni Gaudí is known for designing playful, colourful buildings, like ...
Q2.Which of the following skills would help you represent a play space in a city accurately?
Q3.Which of these is known for designing imaginative play spaces?
Q4.A great play space should be ...
Q5.Put these steps for designing an urban play space in the correct order.
Q6.Match the type of urban play space with its specific function:.
to provide a fun area for children to play
to relax and enjoy nature
to allow people to play games like football or basketball
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.We should not consider wild animals in urban design.
Q2.What is the purpose of a habitat?
Q3.What does "biodiversity" mean?
Q4.Which of these is a wildlife-friendly feature for an urban space?
Q5.What is sustainability in urban design?
Q6.Match each keyword to its correct definition.
a natural area where animals or plants live
variety of different living organisms in an environment
designing to protect resources for the future
areas of plants and trees within a city
notes or labels added to a drawing
To help you plan your 6 art and design lesson on: Design a space for urban wildlife, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 6 art and design lesson on: Design a space for urban wildlife, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 art and design lessons from the Urban Life: Drawing and design unit, dive into the full primary art and design curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.