Animal life cycles
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can make observations and describe how an animal grows and changes in its life cycle.
Key learning points
- All animals grow and change from birth to being an adult
- The journey of an animal from beginning until it is fully grown is called its life cycle
- Scientists can use observation skills to describe the stage an animal has reached in its life cycle
Keywords
Animal - An animal is a living thing which moves, and eats other animals or plants.
Offspring - You can refer to a person's child or to an animal's young as their offspring.
Adult - The adult is a mature form of a plant or animal.
Life cycle - A life cycle shows the way in which a living thing changes as it grows.
Observe - To observe is to look very closely and use other senses too.
Common misconception
Children may think that there are only two stages in an animal's life; child and adult.
Refer to other stages in animal's lives. For example, in humans we have children, teenagers, adults and the elderly.
Teacher tip
Alternative lesson ideas are to look at time lapse videos to demonstrate life cycles, look at photos of life cycles, and use playdough to create and compare animals at different stages in their life cycles.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match the offspring to their parent.
horse
owl
swan
Q2.True or false? Offspring always look like their parents.
Q3.Which of these statements is true?
Q4.Which of these groups only has animals that are offspring?
Q5.Which of these groups only has animals that are adults?
Q6.Izzy has some animal photos. She puts them into by looking at what is the same and what is different about them.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.From when they are born to when they become an adult, all animals...
Q2.The journey of an animal from beginning to when it is fully grown is called its...
Q3.Which of these help us to observe more closely?
Q4.Place these in order, youngest to oldest.
Q5.When we observe this seal and its pup we notice that...
Q6.Put these different stages of a butterfly's life cycle in order starting with the youngest.
To help you plan your 2 science lesson on: Animal life cycles, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 science lesson on: Animal life cycles, 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 1 science lessons from the New life unit, dive into the full primary science curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.