English Teaching Resources: Nature, Habitats, & Environments
As an auxiliar de conversación, I teach English to primary school students through main academic and extracurricular classes, such as natural sciences, social sciences, physical education, and music. In other words, since the school where I teach in Spain is a bilingual school, the students learn English not just in English language classes but also through all of the other subjects.
“Nature and Environments” was one of the topics my first grade classes covered in their natural sciences course. So, to teach English vocabulary related to nature, habitats, and environments, I put together a lesson plan full of songs, games, videos, and other interactive activities to engage the students with this material. This topic also included a section on differentiating between wild and domesticated animals.
Here, I’m sharing the resources I’ve compiled for teaching about nature, habitats, and environments in English. I put together this English lesson with the goal of using these materials with first grade primary school students in Spain, but much of this content could probably be used to teach English to students of similar ages and/or in other places. Please feel free to use these resources in your classroom however works best for you and your students.
Complete English Lesson Plan:
Here’s the complete English lesson plan I made to teach about nature, habitats, and environments to first grade primary school students. The lesson plan also includes vocabulary, songs, and activities to help students learn to differentiate between wild and domesticated animals.
To download the above English lesson plan as a Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, click here.
English Songs:
Habitats - STEAM Song - A simple song with helpful graphics for teaching students about different habitats and environments in English.
Habitats Song (Hopscotch) - This song is a bit more complicated than the one above, but it’s great for teaching students about different environments and their characteristics. If you’re teaching these concepts in English to older primary school students, you might find this song to be useful.
I Have a Pet - An easy song that incorporates names of pets and common English sentences.
We Care for the Earth - An English song to teach students about how to take care of the Earth and its environments.
Other English Videos:
How to Take Care of the Environment - A video that describes in detail the steps we should take to care for the environment.
Wild Animals for Kids - Here’s a great video for teaching and practicing the names of wild animals. I recommend pausing the video each time it shows the silhouette of a new animal. When the video is paused, you can ask your students if they know the name of the animal in English. In this way, this video can be turned into a guessing game. You can even put students into teams and/or have them play for points!
I hope you found these resources helpful for teaching about nature, habitats, and environments in English. For more English teaching resources for primary school natural sciences classes, click the button below.
