Resources for Teaching About Living Things in English
Are you a teacher in search of resources for teaching about living things in English? In this post, I’ve compiled the games, songs, videos, and other activities I found helpful for teaching young primary school students about plants and animals. You’ll also find a complete lesson plan that includes many of the English teaching resources below in a powerpoint presentation.
Complete English Lesson Plan
This natural sciences lesson plan teaches students about living things in English. Use this lesson plan to teach about plants and animals. I originally created this lesson plan for first grade elementary school students, but it can definitely be used for older grades, too, especially for second and third graders.
First, it teaches students to tell the difference between invertebrates and vertebrates. Then, it helps students differentiate between oviparous and viviparous animals. Finally, it groups animals by diet into three categories: carnivorous, omnivorous, and herbivorous. In other words, this English presentation teaches students about basic animal classification.
After discussing animals, the lesson plan moves on to plants. It doesn’t cover plants in nearly as much detail, because my students’ were not required to know quite as much about plants as they were required to know about animals. However, the English lesson plan discusses the basic parts of a plant, including roots, stem, leaves, flower, and fruit.
The lesson plan also includes several songs, games, and videos. There’s even a bit of extra content at the end in case the first part of the presentation doesn’t quite suffice for you and your class.
I spend a lot of time creating my lesson plans, and it makes me happy to think that they could help decrease work for other teachers. So please feel free to download and use this presentation however works best for you and your class.
To download the Google Slides presentation above, click here.
English Songs:
Animal Classification: The Vertebrates Song
Here’s a nice English song about vertebrate animals. It lists different types of vertebrate animals while engaging students through music.
Carnivores, Herbivores, Omnivores
The song below is excellent for teaching students about carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. Use this song to help students remember how to classify animals in English based on what they eat.
Roots, Stem, Leaves, Flower: Parts of a Plant Song
This is one of my favorite English language natural sciences songs I’ve found so far. It has a catchy tune and all of the vocabulary I need to teach about the basic parts of a plant. Plus, the singer does engaging hand movements that make the song even more memorable and fun for the kids.
Other Videos:
Classification of Animals
This video describes basic animal classification.
The Animal Kingdom: Vertebrates and Invertebrates
This video is great for teaching students the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates in English. Very helpful for bilingual natural sciences classes.
Vertebrate and Invertebrate Animals
Here’s one more cartoon-style video that describes the difference between vertebrate and invertebrate animals.
Games:
Which Group Does This Animal Belong In?
Display photos of various animals and ask students to tell you whether the animal is a vertebrate or invertebrate; or whether the animal is viviparous or oviparous; whether the animal is a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore. For an extra challenge, require your students to use full sentences!
I Have a __________.
This game requires a bit more preparation. Print out photos of common animals (enough for each student in the class to have their own), and write the name of the animal in English on the back of each photo.
Hand these animal photos out to the students, and then call them up to the front of the class and ask them the following questions about their animal:
What animal do you have?
Is it a vertebrate or an invertebrate?
Is it oviparous or viviparous?
Is it a carnivore, an herbivore, or an omnivore?
For an added challenge, require your students to respond in complete sentences.
I hope you and your class enjoy these resources for teaching about living things in English!
If you’re looking for more resources on animal classification, check out the post below:
