Download KS1 + KS2 Pre Visit work

 During your tour of the farm the students will have first‐hand insight to gather the knowledge and understand the following national curriculum targets. We have also listed (in blue) some ideas for pre‐visit work. If you wish to focus on any of these targets on the day of your visit please let us know on the booking request form. KEY STAGE 1 SCIENCE Biology – Structure and Function • Describe the basic needs of animals for survival Discuss with children their ideas about why we eat, what we eat and drink, and the needs of our pets. Ask children for their ideas about the food and drink consumed by different familiar animals e.g. cats, dogs, birds, fish and humans and help them to record these in drawings or simple charts. • Describe the main changes as young animal offspring grow into adults (at least: between egg and adult bird) • Name and locate parts of flowering plants and trees (at least: flower, leaf, root, stem, trunk, seed, branch, and petal). • Describe the basic needs of plants for survival and describe how changing these affects the plant. Growing Seeds: What is needed for the seed to begin to grow? Plant seeds e.g.: broad bean, sunflower in soil/potting compost/sand or paper. Ensure children consider whether the growing medium is wet or dry by having one set of “wet” and one set of “dry” containers. Discuss what they are to look for e.g.: shoots/roots when they observe their seeds and help children to make a daily record of their observations. If you do not have the appropriate materials pre‐visit you will have the opportunity to plant seeds using the students recycled lunch containers on the day of your visit these can be taken back to school and containers can be provided to create ‘greenhouse’ conditions and therefore experiment with different growing conditions in the classroom post visit. • Describe the main changes as seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants. Flowering Plants: review children’s understanding of where new plants come from. Show children plants in flower and with fruits e.g. apple trees, dandelions, horse chestnut trees and explain that the fruits which contain the seeds are produced from the flower. Introduce the term “reproduce”. Present children with a collection of seeds and fruits of different shapes and colours and invite them to add to the collection. Challenge children to find seeds in some plants e.g.: old wallflower plants, sunflower, pea pod. Biology – Interdependence • identify o whether things are alive, dead or have never lived Use pictures or collections of small invertebrates and inanimate objects to discuss with children the differences between the animals and the inanimate objects or take children on a short walk to collect items e.g. twigs, cans, stones, snails, woodlice. Ask children to sort the collection into groups and explain the criteria they used. o a variety of common plants and animals in their habitats • Group animals according to what they eat, describe how animals get their food from other animals or from plants, and use simple food chains to describe these relationships. • Describe seasonal changes (at least: living things, weather, day length, temperature). • Describe how different plants and animals are suited to different habitats and microhabitats. Choose two contrasting areas and ask the children to predict and then find out what animals and plants they can find in each. Help them to describe the differences between these two areas, using drawing and writing. Ask them to speculate on reasons for the differences and whether they found the animals and plants they expected. KEY STAGE 2 Biology ‐ Structure and function • describe the reproductive process in some animals and differences in their life cycles (at least: mammals, amphibians, insects, birds). • name, locate and describe the functions of the main parts of plants, including those in the reproductive system and how water and nutrients are transported. Pupils should go outside and try to pull up dandelions or other flowering weeds. By tugging gently at the base, the roots can be extracted from the soil. Bring them into the classroom and ask the pupils to identify the flower, the leaves, the roots and the stem. Explain that every part of a plant has a job to do. If a tree or flowering plant did not have roots, what would happen to it in the wind? Pupils may suggest that the plant would not stay in the ground; roots help ‘anchor’ a plant. As humans need to drink and eat, plants need water and food to stay alive. Water and nutrients are extracted from the soil and taken into the plant by the roots. Pupils may observe for themselves how water travels up the stem by placing white flowers in a food dye solution. After 24 hours, the stem of the flower can be sliced open and the coloured dye will be visible inside. • describe how plants are affected by their environment and changes to growing conditions. Biology ‐ Interdependence • Use keys to group, classify and identify living things in different ways based on first hand observation or secondary information sources Split the class into two. One half should go outside to look for different types of plants while the other half should look for bugs. Help the pupils to name species if necessary. The majority of the lesson should be spent on this activity. Pupils should record what they find with basic sketches and notes (How many legs? Does it have flowers? Does it have a shell?) Pupils should aim to find at least five different species of plants and bugs. With assistance and suggestions, pupils should work together to create their own classification keys. They do not need to use proper species names or other taxonomic terms. • Describe the main characteristics used to group plants, animals and micro‐organisms according to the main groups in the classification system. • Construct and interpret food chains. Explain that the relationship between producer, prey and predator can be drawn in a food chain. A food chain starts with the producer. Suggest grass as a producer. Draw a picture of grass and label it as the producer. Ask for a suggestion of a grass‐eating animal. Draw this animal next to the grass and label it as the prey. Draw an arrow pointing from the producer to the prey. This arrow shows that the grass is ingested by the prey. Next, ask for an animal which eats the prey. Draw this animal next to the prey and label it as the predator. Draw an arrow pointing from the prey to the predator. Put pupils in groups and give each group a set of three living things within a food chain .i.e. Cow, human, grass. They should draw a simple food chain and prepare a short performance to illustrate it. • Explain how wider environmental changes may have an impact on living things.