This Year 2 living things and their habitats unit helps pupils explore how animals and plants survive in different environments through practical enquiry and real-world investigation. Across six lessons, pupils compare living, dead and never alive things, investigate habitats and microhabitats, and begin understanding how living things depend on each other for food and survival.
Aligned with the National Curriculum, the unit encourages pupils to investigate local environments, identify plants and animals and build simple food chains using scientific vocabulary confidently. Through outdoor learning, classification activities and habitat investigations, pupils develop deeper understanding of how habitats provide for the basic needs of living things.
Part of our comprehensive Scintillating Science scheme, this unit includes lesson plans, interactive teaching slides, differentiated worksheets, practical investigations and assessment materials to support engaging Year 2 science teaching.
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Living things and their habitats
Working scientifically
This Year 2 science unit helps pupils develop understanding of habitats, food chains and how living things survive in different environments. Through practical investigations and outdoor exploration, pupils learn how animals and plants depend on habitats to meet their basic needs while developing confidence with classification and scientific observation.
Lessons encourage pupils to investigate habitats in the local environment, identify living things found in microhabitats and explain how food chains show relationships between plants and animals. Pupils also develop scientific vocabulary linked to habitats, survival and sources of food while building understanding through first-hand enquiry.
The unit strengthens working scientifically skills by encouraging pupils to sort and classify, gather evidence, observe closely and use findings to answer scientific questions about living things and environments.
This unit forms part of our wider Scintillating Science scheme, supporting progression from EYFS science through to KS1 science.
